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¹ (77-1) <Understanding for Asaph.> Attend, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.² (77-2) I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter propositions from the beginning.³ (77-3) How great things have we heard and known, and our fathers have told us.⁴ (77-4) They have not been hidden from their children, in another generation. Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers, and his wonders which he hath done.⁵ (77-5) And he set up a testimony in Jacob: and made a law in Israel. How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children:⁶ (77-6) That another generation might know them. The children that should be born and should rise up, and declare them to their children.⁷ (77-7) That they may put their hope in God and may not forget the works of God: and may seek his commandments.⁸ (77-8) That they may not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation. A generation that set not their heart aright: and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹ (77-9) The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: they have turned back in the day of battle.¹⁰ (77-10) They kept not the covenant of God: and in his law they would not walk.¹¹ (77-11) And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders that he had shewn them.¹² (77-12) Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis.¹³ (77-13) He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.¹⁴ (77-14) And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire.¹⁵ (77-15) He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.¹⁶ (77-16) He brought forth water out of the rock: and made streams run down as rivers.¹⁷ (77-17) And they added yet more sin against him: they provoked the most High to wrath in the place without water.¹⁸ (77-18) And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their desires.¹⁹ (77-19) And they spoke ill of God: they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?²⁰ (77-20) Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide a table for his people?²¹ (77-21) Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.²² (77-22) Because they believed not in God: and trusted not in his salvation.²³ (77-23) And he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven.²⁴ (77-24) And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven.²⁵ (77-25) Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.²⁶ (77-26) He removed the south wind from heaven: and by his power brought in the southwest wind.²⁷ (77-27) And he rained upon them flesh as dust: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.²⁸ (77-28) And they fell in the midst of their camp, round about their pavilions.²⁹ (77-29) So they did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and he gave them their desire:³⁰ (77-30) they were not defrauded of that which they craved. As yet their meat was in their mouth:³¹ (77-31) And the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones amongst them, and brought down the chosen men of Israel.³² (77-32) In all these things they sinned still: and they behaved not for his wondrous works.³³ (77-33) And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.³⁴ (77-34) When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned, and came to him early in the morning.³⁵ (77-35) And they remembered that God was their helper: and the most high God their redeemer.³⁶ (77-36) And they loved him with their mouth: and with their tongue they lied unto him:³⁷ (77-37) But their heart was not right with him: nor were they counted faithful in his covenant.³⁸ (77-38) But he is merciful, and will forgive their sins: and will not destroy them. And many a time did he turn away his anger: and did not kindle all his wrath.³⁹ (77-39) And he remembered that they are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not.

⁴⁰ (77-40) How often did they provoke him in the desert: and move him to wrath in the place without water?⁴¹ (77-41) And they turned back and tempted God: and grieved the holy one of Israel.⁴² (77-42) They remembered not his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of him that afflicted them:⁴³ (77-43) How he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Tanis.⁴⁴ (77-44) And he turned their rivers into blood, and their showers that they might not drink.⁴⁵ (77-45) He sent amongst them divers sorts of flies, which devoured them: and frogs which destroyed them.⁴⁶ (77-46) And he gave up their fruits to the blast, and their labours to the locust.⁴⁷ (77-47) And he destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.⁴⁸ (77-48) And he gave up their cattle to the hail, and their stock to the fire.⁴⁹ (77-49) And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.⁵⁰ (77-50) He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.⁵¹ (77-51) And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.⁵² (77-52) And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.⁵³ (77-53) And he brought them out in hope and they feared not: and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.⁵⁴ (77-54) And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: the mountain which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the Gentiles before them: and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.⁵⁵ (77-55) And he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.⁵⁶ (77-56) Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: and they kept not his testimonies.⁵⁷ (77-57) And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.⁵⁸ (77-58) They provoked him to anger on their hills: and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.⁵⁹ (77-59) God heard, and despised them, and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.⁶⁰ (77-60) And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.⁶¹ (77-61) And he delivered their strength into captivity: and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.⁶² (77-62) And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.⁶³ (77-63) Fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not lamented.⁶⁴ (77-64) Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.⁶⁵ (77-65) And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.⁶⁶ (77-66) And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: he put them to an everlasting reproach.⁶⁷ (77-67) And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:⁶⁸ (77-68) But he chose the tribe of Juda, mount Sion which he loved.⁶⁹ (77-69) And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever.⁷⁰ (77-70) And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,⁷¹ (77-71) To feed Jacob his servant and Israel his inheritance.⁷² (77-72) And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.