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Psalm 78

1  Hear my teaching, O my people; ♦︎
   incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2  I will open my mouth in a parable; ♦︎
   I will pour forth mysteries from of old,
3  Such as we have heard and known, ♦︎
   which our forebears have told us.
4  We will not hide from their children,
      but will recount to generations to come, ♦︎
   the praises of the Lord and his power
      and the wonderful works he has done.
5  He laid a solemn charge on Jacob
      and made it a law in Israel, ♦︎
   which he commanded them to teach their children,
6  That the generations to come might know,
      and the children yet unborn, ♦︎
   that they in turn might tell it to their children;
7  So that they might put their trust in God ♦︎
   and not forget the deeds of God,
      but keep his commandments,
8  And not be like their forebears,
      a stubborn and rebellious generation, ♦︎
   a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
      and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9  The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, ♦︎
   turned back in the day of battle;
10  They did not keep the covenant of God ♦︎
   and refused to walk in his law;
11  They forgot what he had done ♦︎
   and the wonders he had shown them.
12  For he did marvellous things in the sight of their forebears, ♦︎
   in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13  He divided the sea and let them pass through; ♦︎
   he made the waters stand still in a heap.
14  He led them with a cloud by day ♦︎
   and all the night through with a blaze of fire.
15  He split the hard rocks in the wilderness ♦︎
   and gave them drink as from the great deep.
16  He brought streams out of the rock ♦︎
   and made water gush out like rivers.
17  Yet for all this they sinned more against him ♦︎
   and defied the Most High in the wilderness.
18  They tested God in their hearts ♦︎
   and demanded food for their craving.
19  They spoke against God and said, ♦︎
   ‘Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20  ‘He struck the rock indeed, so that the waters gushed out
      and the streams overflowed, ♦︎
   but can he give bread or provide meat for his people?’
21  When the Lord heard this, he was full of wrath; ♦︎
   a fire was kindled against Jacob
      and his anger went out against Israel,
22  For they had no faith in God ♦︎
   and put no trust in his saving help.
23  So he commanded the clouds above ♦︎
   and opened the doors of heaven.
24  He rained down upon them manna to eat ♦︎
   and gave them the grain of heaven.
25  So mortals ate the bread of angels; ♦︎
   he sent them food in plenty.
26  He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens ♦︎
   and led out the south wind by his might.
27  He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust ♦︎
   and winged fowl like the sand of the sea.
28  He let it fall in the midst of their camp ♦︎
   and round about their tents.
29  So they ate and were well filled, ♦︎
   for he gave them what they desired.
30  But they did not stop their craving; ♦︎
   their food was still in their mouths,
31  When the anger of God rose against them, ♦︎
   and slew their strongest men
      and felled the flower of Israel.
32  But for all this, they sinned yet more ♦︎
   and put no faith in his wonderful works.
33  So he brought their days to an end like a breath ♦︎
   and their years in sudden terror.
34  Whenever he slew them, they would seek him; ♦︎
   they would repent and earnestly search for God.
35  They remembered that God was their rock ♦︎
   and the Most High God their redeemer.
36  Yet they did but flatter him with their mouth ♦︎
   and dissembled with their tongue.
37  Their heart was not steadfast towards him, ♦︎
   neither were they faithful to his covenant.
38  But he was so merciful that he forgave their misdeeds
      and did not destroy them; ♦︎
   many a time he turned back his wrath
      and did not suffer his whole displeasure to be roused.
39  For he remembered that they were but flesh, ♦︎
   a wind that passes by and does not return.

Job Replies: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

19Then Job answered:
² ‘How long will you torment me,
   and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
   are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it is true that I have erred,
   my error remains with me.
⁵ If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,
   and make my humiliation an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has put me in the wrong,
   and closed his net around me.
⁷ Even when I cry out, “Violence!” I am not answered;
   I call aloud, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
   and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has stripped my glory from me,
   and taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
   he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me,
   and counts me as his adversary.
¹² His troops come on together;
   they have thrown up siege-works^* against me,
   and encamp around my tent.

¹³ ‘He has put my family far from me,
   and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
¹⁵   the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my serving-girls count me as a stranger;
   I have become an alien in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
   I must myself plead with him.
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife;
   I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
   when I rise, they talk against me.
¹⁹ All my intimate friends abhor me,
   and those whom I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
   and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
   for the hand of God has touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, pursue me,
   never satisfied with my flesh?

²³ ‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer^* lives,
   and that at the last he^* will stand upon the earth;^*
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in^* my flesh I shall see God,^*
27 whom I shall see on my side,^*
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!
²⁸ If you say, “How we will persecute him!”
   and, “The root of the matter is found in him”;
²⁹ be afraid of the sword,
   for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
   so that you may know there is a judgement.’

26 ‘My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us^* the message of this salvation has been sent. ²⁷Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him. ²⁸Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed. ²⁹When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. ³⁰But God raised him from the dead; ³¹and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people. ³²And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors ³³he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm,
“You are my Son;
   today I have begotten you.”
³⁴As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,
“I will give you the holy promises made to David.”
³⁵Therefore he has also said in another psalm,
“You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.”
³⁶For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,^* was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption; ³⁷but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption. ³⁸Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; ³⁹by this Jesus^* everyone who believes is set free from all those sins^* from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. ⁴⁰Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:
⁴¹ “Look, you scoffers!
   Be amazed and perish,
for in your days I am doing a work,
   a work that you will never believe, even if someone tells you.” ’

42 As Paul and Barnabas^* were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next sabbath. ⁴³When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.