Maschil of Asaph.
Give ear, O my people, to my {Or, teaching}law:
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah,
And his strength, and his wondrous works that he hath done.
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;
That the generation to come might know them, even the children that should be born;
Who should arise and tell them to their children,
That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep his commandments,
And might not be as their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation {Or, that prepared not their hearts}that set not their heart aright,
And whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
Turned back in the day of battle.
They kept not the covenant of God,
And refused to walk in his law;
And they forgat his doings,
And his wondrous works that he had showed them.
Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers,
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through;
And he made the waters to stand as a heap.
In the day-time also he led them with a cloud,
And all the night with a light of fire.
He clave rocks in the wilderness,
And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock,
And caused waters to run down like rivers.
Yet went they on still to sin against him,
To rebel against the Most High in {Or, a dry land}the desert.
And they tempted God in their heart
By asking food {Or, for themselves}according to their desire.
Yea, they spake against God;
They said, Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, he smote the rock, so that waters gushed out,
And streams overflowed;
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide flesh for his people?
Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob,
And anger also went up against Israel;
Because they believed not in God,
And trusted not in his salvation.
Yet he commanded the skies above,
And opened the doors of heaven;
And he rained down manna upon them to eat,
And gave them {Hebrew: grain.}food from heaven.
{Or, Every one}Man did eat the bread of the mighty:
He sent them food to the full.
He {Hebrew: led forth the east wind.}caused the east wind to blow in the heavens;
And by his power he guided the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as the dust,
And winged birds as the sand of the seas:
And he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
Round about their habitations.
So they did eat, and were well filled;
And he gave them their own desire.
They were not estranged from that which they desired,
Their food was yet in their mouths,
When the anger of God went up against them,
And slew of the fattest of them,
And smote down the young men of Israel.
For all this they sinned still,
And believed not in his wondrous works.
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,
And their years in terror.
When he slew them, then they inquired after him;
And they returned and sought God earnestly.
And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their redeemer.
But they flattered him with their mouth,
And lied unto him with their tongue.
For their heart was not {Or, stedfast}right with him,
Neither were they faithful in his covenant.
But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not:
Yea, many a time turned he his anger away,
And did not stir up all his wrath.
And he remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
How oft did they rebel against him in the wilderness,
And grieve him in the desert!
And they turned again and tempted God,
And {Or, limited}provoked the Holy One of Israel.
They remembered not his hand,
Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
How he set his signs in Egypt,
And his wonders in the field of Zoan,
And turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
And frogs, which destroyed them.
He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar,
And their labor unto the locust.
He {Hebrew: killed.}destroyed their vines with hail,
And their sycomore-trees with {Or, great hailstones}frost.
He gave over their cattle also to the hail,
And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger,
Wrath, and indignation, and trouble,
{Hebrew: A sending.}A band of angels of evil.
He {Hebrew: levelled.}made a path for his anger;
He spared not their soul from death,
But gave {Or, their beasts to the murrain}their life over to the pestilence,
And smote all the first-born in Egypt,
The {Hebrew: beginning. See Deuteronomy 21:17.}chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
But he led forth his own people like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
And he led them safely, so that they feared not;
But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
And he brought them to {Or, his holy border}the border of his sanctuary,
To this {Or, mountain land}mountain, which his right hand had gotten.
He drove out the nations also before them,
And allotted them for an inheritance by line,
And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
And kept not his testimonies;
But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers:
They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
And moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
When God heard this, he was wroth,
And greatly abhorred Israel;
So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
The tent which he placed among men;
And delivered his strength into captivity,
And his glory into the adversary's hand.
He gave his people over also unto the sword,
And was wroth with his inheritance.
Fire devoured their young men;
And their virgins had no marriage-song.
Their priests fell by the sword;
And their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep,
Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
And he smote his adversaries backward:
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph,
And chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
But chose the tribe of Judah,
The mount Zion which he loved.
And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which he hath established for ever.
He chose David also his servant,
And took him from the sheepfolds:
From following the ewes that have their young he brought him,
To be the shepherd of Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Querverweise zu Psalm 78,32 Ps 78,32
And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
And wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the land, rent their clothes:
and they spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their {Hebrew: shadow.}defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.
But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.
And Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them?
I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.
And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;
and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou Jehovah art in the midst of this people; for thou Jehovah art seen {Hebrew: eye to eye.}face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.
Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.
And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,
Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.
Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.
And Jehovah said, I have pardoned according to thy word:
but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah;
because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;
surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it:
but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.
Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.
Say unto them, As I live, saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me,
surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I {Hebrew: lifted up my hand.}sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected.
But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
And your children shall be {Hebrew: shepherds.}wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your whoredoms, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know {Or, the revoking of my promise}my alienation.
I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.
And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,
even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah.
But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land.
And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned.
And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper?
Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies.
For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you.
But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.
Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.
Because they believed not in God,And trusted not in his salvation.
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:
and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown;
and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, {Hebrew: It is enough for you.}Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and Jehovah is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of Jehovah?
And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:
and he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, In the morning Jehovah will show who are his, and who is holy, and {Or, whom he will cause to come near}will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near unto him.
This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
and put fire in them, and put incense upon them before Jehovah to-morrow: and it shall be that the man whom Jehovah doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.
And Moses said unto Korah, Hear now, ye sons of Levi:
seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of Jehovah, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them;
and that he hath brought thee near, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee? and seek ye the priesthood also?
Therefore thou and all thy company are gathered together against Jehovah: and Aaron, what is he that ye murmur against him?
And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, We will not come up:
is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but thou must needs make thyself also a prince over us?
Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou {Hebrew: bore out.}put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.
And Moses was very wroth, and said unto Jehovah, Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.
And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before Jehovah, thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow:
and take ye every man his censer, and put incense upon them, and bring ye before Jehovah every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each his censer.
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead.
And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way {Or, of the spies}of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
And Israel vowed a vow unto Jehovah, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will {Hebrew: devote.}utterly destroy their cities.
And Jehovah hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they {Hebrew: devoted.}utterly destroyed them and their cities: and the name of the place was called {From the same root as herem, a devoted thing.}Hormah.
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people {Or, was impatient Hebrew: was shortened.}was much discouraged {Or, in}because of the way.
And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this {Or, vile}light bread.
And Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him:
And Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab:
for they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
And Israel {Or, yoked}joined himself unto {Or, the Baal of Peor See chapter 23:28.}Baal-peor: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel.
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up unto Jehovah before the sun, that the fierce anger of Jehovah may turn away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that have joined themselves unto Baal-peor.
And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;
and he went after the man of Israel into the {Or, alcove}pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand.
And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.
Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeonites.
And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers' house in Midian.
And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,
Vex the Midianites, and smite them;
for they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live {Or, by}in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.