| 1 | Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
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| 2 | I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
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| 3 | Which we have heard and known, Our fathers have told us.
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| 4 | We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, His strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.
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| 5 | For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;
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| 6 | That the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,
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| 7 | That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,
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| 8 | And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, Whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
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| 9 | The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.
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| 10 | They didn't keep the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law.
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| 11 | They forgot his doings, His wondrous works that he had showed them.
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| 12 | Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
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| 13 | He split the sea, and caused them to pass through; He made the waters stand as a heap.
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| 14 | In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, All the night with a light of fire.
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| 15 | He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
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| 16 | He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.
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| 17 | Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.
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| 18 | They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.
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| 19 | Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
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| 20 | Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"
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| 21 | Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel,
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| 22 | Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.
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| 23 | Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven.
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| 24 | He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky.
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| 25 | Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.
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| 26 | He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.
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| 27 | He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas.
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| 28 | He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations.
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| 29 | So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.
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| 30 | They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,
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| 31 | When the anger of God went up against them, And killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel.
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| 32 | For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works.
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| 33 | Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.
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| 34 | When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.
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| 35 | They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer.
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| 36 | But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.
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| 37 | For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
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| 38 | But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath.
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| 39 | He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.
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| 40 | How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!
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| 41 | They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.
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| 42 | They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
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| 43 | How he set his signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of Zoan,
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| 44 | Turned their rivers into blood, Their streams, so that they could not drink.
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| 45 | He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; Frogs, which destroyed them.
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| 46 | He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, Their labor to the locust.
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| 47 | He destroyed their vines with hail, Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.
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| 48 | He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
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| 49 | He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, And a band of angels of evil.
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| 50 | He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,
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| 51 | And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
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| 52 | But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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| 53 | He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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| 54 | He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
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| 55 | He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
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| 56 | Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And didn't keep his testimonies;
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| 57 | But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
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| 58 | For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
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| 59 | When God heard this, he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;
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| 60 | So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;
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| 61 | And delivered his strength into captivity, His glory into the adversary's hand.
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| 62 | He also gave his people over to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance.
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| 63 | Fire devoured their young men; Their virgins had no wedding song.
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| 64 | Their priests fell by the sword; Their widows made no lamentation.
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| 65 | Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
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| 66 | He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
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| 67 | Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, And didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,
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| 68 | But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.
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| 69 | He built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever.
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| 70 | He also chose David his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;
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| 71 | From following the ewes that have their young he brought him To be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.
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| 72 | So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Psalm 79 A Psalm by Asaph.
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