Tahalym (Psalm) — 78

1 O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying,

2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past

3 stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.

4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the awesome deeds of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, we will also tell our children about the power of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and His mighty wonders.

5 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH issued His laws to Ya'aqub; and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave his instructions to Yashar'AL, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children,

6 so the next generation might know them, even the children not yet born, and they in turn will teach their own children.

7 So each generation should set its hope anew on 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, not forgetting his awesome miracles and obeying his commandments.

8 Then they will not be like their ancestors, stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.

9 The warriors of Aphraim, though armed with bows, turned their backs and fled on the day of battle.

10 They did not keep the covenant  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and refused to live by His  instructions.

11 They forgot what 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH had done the great wonders He had shown them,

12 the miracles 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH did for their ancestors on the plain of Zuan in the land of Mitzraym.

13 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH divided the sea and led them through, making the water stand up like walls!

14 In the daytime 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH led them by a cloud, and in the night by a pillar of fire.

15 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them water, as from a gushing spring.

16 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH made streams pour from the rock, making the waters flow down like a river!

17 Yet they sinned even more against  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, they kept rebelling against the Most High 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in the desert.

18 They stubbornly tested 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in their hearts, demanding the foods they craved.

19 They even spoke against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  himself, saying, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH cannot give us food in the wilderness.

20 Yes, He can strike a rock so water gushes out, but he cannot give his people bread and meat.”

21 When 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH heard them, he was furious. The fire of his wrath burned against Ya'aqub. Yes, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH anger rose against Yashar'AL,

22 for they did not believe 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH or trust Him to care for them.

23 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH commanded the skies to open; 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH opened the doors of Shamaym.

24 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH rained down manna for them to eat; 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave them bread from Shamaym.

25 They ate the food of Malakym!  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave them all they could hold.

26 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH released the east wind in the Shamaym and guided the south wind by His mighty power.

27 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH rained down meat as thick as dust, birds as plentiful as the sand on the seashore!

28 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH caused the birds to fall within their camp and all around their tents.

29 The people ate their fill. 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave them what they craved.

30 But before they satisfied their craving,    while the meat was yet in their mouths,

31 the anger of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH rose against them, and he killed their strongest men.  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH struck down the finest of Yashar'AL’s young men.

32 But in spite of this, the people kept living in sinn, Despite His wonders, they refused to trust Him.

33 So 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.

34 When 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH began killing them,    they finally sought him. They repented and took their 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH seriously.

35 Then they remembered that  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH was their rock, that the Most High was their redeemer.

36 But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to Him with their tongues.

37 Their hearts were not loyal to Him. They did not keep 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH's covenant.

38 Yet 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times He held back his anger and did not unleash his fury!

39 For He remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

40 Oh, how often they rebelled against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in the wilderness and grieved His heart in that dry wasteland.

41 Again and again they tested the patience of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and provoked the Qadash One of Yashar'AL.

42 They did not remember the power of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and how 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  rescued them from their enemies.

43 They did not remember the miraculous signs of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH in Mitzraym, and His wonders on the plain of Zuan.

44 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH turned their rivers into blood, so no one could drink from the streams.

45 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH sent vast swarms of flies to consume them and hordes of frogs to ruin them.

46 He gave their crops to caterpillars; their harvest was consumed by locusts.

47 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH destroyed their grapevines with hail and shattered their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH abandoned their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH loosed on them His fierce anger, all his fury, rage, and hostility.  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH dispatched against them a band of destroying Malakym.

50 He turned his anger against them;  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH did not spare the lives of the Mitzraym but ravaged them with the plague.

51 He killed the oldest sons of each family in Mitzraym, the flower of youth throughout the land of Mitzraym.

52 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH led His own people like a flock of sheep, guiding them safely through the wilderness.

53 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH kept them safe so they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

54 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH brought them to the border of his Qadash land, to this land of hills he had won for them.

55 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH drove out the nations before them; and 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Yashar'AL into their homes.

56 But they kept testing and rebelling against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Tsaba'ut. They did not obey the Turah (laws).

57 They turned back and were as faithless as their parents. They were as undependable as a crooked bow.

58 They angered 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH by building shrines to other nations idols; they made  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH jealous with their idols.

59 When 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH heard them, he was very angry, and he completely rejected Yashar'AL.

60 Then he abandoned his dwelling at Shiluh, the Tabernacle where he had lived among the people.

61 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH allowed the Ark of His might to be captured; 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH  surrendered His Kabad into the enemies hands.

62 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH gave his people over to be butchered by the sword, because He was so angry with His own people, His special possession.

63 Their young men were killed by fire; their young women died before singing their wedding songs.

64 Their Kuhanym were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.

65 Then 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH rose up as though waking from sleep, like a warrior aroused from a drunken stupor.

66 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH routed His enemies    and sent them to eternal shame.

67 But 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH rejected Ya'asaf’s descendants; He did not choose the tribe of Aphraim.

68 He chose instead the tribe of Yahudah,    and Mount Ziun, which he loved.

69 There 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH built his sanctuary as high as the Shamaym, as solid and enduring as the Arath.

70 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH chose his servant Daud, calling him from the sheep pens.

71 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH took Daud from tending the ewes and lambs and made him the shepherd of Ya'aqub’s descendants,  His own people, Yashar'AL.

72 And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH cared for them with a true heart and led them with skillful hands.