Logos Bible Study

Psalm 78:42–55

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78:42They did not remember what he had done,51

how he delivered them from the enemy,52

78:43when he performed his awesome deeds53 in Egypt,

and his acts of judgment54 in the region of Zoan.

78:44He turned their rivers into blood,

and they could not drink from their streams.

78:45He sent swarms of biting insects against them,55

as well as frogs that overran their land.56

78:46He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

the fruit of their labor to the locust.

78:47He destroyed their vines with hail,

and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.

78:48He rained hail down on their cattle,57

and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock.58

78:49His raging anger lashed out against them,59

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster.60

78:50He sent his anger in full force;61

he did not spare them from death;

he handed their lives over to destruction.62

78:51He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,

the firstfruits of their reproductive power63 in the tents of Ham.

78:52Yet he brought out his people like sheep;

he led them through the wilderness like a flock.

78:53He guided them safely along,

while the sea covered their enemies.

78:54He brought them to the border of his holy land,

to this mountainous land64 which his right hand65 acquired.

78:55He drove the nations out from before them;

he assigned them their tribal allotments66

and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down.67

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Footnotes

  1. 51 Heb “his hand,” symbolizing his saving activity and strength, as the next line makes clear.
  2. 52 Heb “[the] day [in] which he ransomed them from [the] enemy.”
  3. 53 Or “signs” (see Ps 65:8).
  4. 54 Or “portents, omens” (see Ps 71:7). The Egyptian plagues are referred to here (see vv. 44–51).
  5. 55 Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”
  6. 56 Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”
  7. 57 Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”
  8. 58 Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.
  9. 59 Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17–81.
  10. 60 Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”
  11. 61 Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.
  12. 62 Or perhaps “[the] plague.”
  13. 63 Heb “the beginning of strength.” If retained, the plural form אוֹנִים (’onim, “strength”) probably indicates degree (“great strength”), but many ancient witnesses read “their strength,” which presupposes an emendation to אֹנָם (’onam; singular form of the noun with third masculine plural pronominal suffix).
  14. 64 Heb “this mountain.” The whole land of Canaan seems to be referred to here. In Exod 15:17 the promised land is called the “mountain of your [i.e., God’s] inheritance.”
  15. 65 The “right hand” here symbolizes God’s military strength (see v. 55).
  16. 66 Heb “he caused to fall [to] them with a measuring line an inheritance.”
  17. 67 Heb “and caused the tribes of Israel to settle down in their tents.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press