Psalms · Chapter 78

Psalms 78:23

¹Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.²I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:³Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.⁴We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.⁵For 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:⁶That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:⁷That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:⁸And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.¹⁰They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;¹¹And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.¹²Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.¹³He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.¹⁴In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.¹⁵He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.¹⁷And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.¹⁸And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.¹⁹Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?²⁰Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?²¹Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel;²²Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:²³Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,²⁴And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.²⁵Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.²⁶He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.²⁷He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:²⁸And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.²⁹So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;³⁰They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,³¹The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.³²For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.³⁴When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.³⁶Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.³⁸But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.³⁹For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.⁴⁰How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!⁴¹Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.⁴²They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.⁴³How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:⁴⁴And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.⁴⁵He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.⁴⁶He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost.⁴⁸He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.⁴⁹He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.⁵⁰He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;⁵¹And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:⁵²But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.⁵³And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.⁵⁴And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.⁵⁵He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.⁵⁶Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.⁵⁹When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:⁶⁰So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.⁶²He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.⁶³The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.⁶⁵Then the LORD awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.⁶⁶And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.⁶⁷Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.⁶⁹And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.⁷⁰He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:⁷¹From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.⁷²So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

King James Version (1769)

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Verse	KJV	BSB	ASV
23	Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,	Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.	Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven;

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Original Hebrew words

English	Hebrew	Say it	Strong's	Meaning
and he commanded	וַיְצַ֣ו	vay-TZAV	H6680	to command צָוָה (tsa.vah) 1) to command, charge, give orders, lay charge, give charge to, order 1a)(Piel) 1a1) to lay charge upon 1a2) to give charge to, give command to 1a3) to give charge unto 1a4) to give charge over, appoint 1a5) to give charge, command 1a6) to charge, command 1a7) to charge, commission 1a8) to command, appoint, ordain (of divine act) 1b) (Pual) to be commanded
clouds	שְׁחָקִ֣ים	she-cha-KIM	H7834	cloud שַׁ֫חַק (sha.chaq) 1) dust, cloud 1a) fine dust 1b) (thin) cloud
from above	מִמָּ֑עַל	mi-MA-'al	H4605	above מַ֫עַל (ma.al) subst 1) higher part, upper part adv 1a) above prep 1b) on the top of, above, on higher ground than with locative 1c) upwards, higher, above
and [the] doors of	וְדַלְתֵ֖י	ve-dal-TEI	H1817C	door דֶּ֫לֶת (de.let) 1) door, gate 1a) a door 1b) a gate 1c) (fig.) 1c1) of chest lid 1c2) of crocodile jaws 1c3) of doors of the heavens 1c4) of an easily-accessible woman
heaven	שָׁמַ֣יִם	sha-MA-yim	H8064	heaven שָׁמַיִם (sha.ma.yim) 1) heaven, heavens, sky 1a) visible heavens, sky 1a1) as abode of the stars 1a2) as the visible universe, the sky, atmosphere, etc 1b) Heaven (as the abode of God) Aramaic equivalent: sha.ma.yin (שָׁמַ֫יִן "heaven" H8065)
he opened	פָּתָֽח׃	pa-TACH	H6605A	to open פָּתַח (pa.tach) 1) to open 1a) (Qal) to open 1b) (Niphal) to be opened, be let loose, be thrown open 1c) (Piel) 1c1) to free 1c2) to loosen 1c3) to open, open oneself 1d) (Hithpael) to loose oneself Aramaic equivalent: pe.tach (פְּתַח "to open" H6606)

Words and meanings from STEPBible data (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). The capitalized syllable is the stressed one.