78 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴ We 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.

⁵² But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³ And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴ And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

⁵⁵ He 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.

⁵⁶ Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

⁵⁹ When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:

⁶⁰ So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹ And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.

⁶² He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance.

⁶³ The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.

⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷ Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:

⁶⁸ But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹ And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

⁷⁰ He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:

⁷¹ From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

⁷² So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.

¹³ And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

¹⁴ And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

¹⁵ And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

¹⁶ This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

¹⁷ And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

¹⁸ And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

¹⁹ And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

²⁰ Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

²¹ And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.

²² And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

²³ And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

²⁴ And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

²⁵ And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field.

²⁶ Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

¹⁹ Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

²⁰ Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

²¹ Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

²² What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

²³ And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

²⁴ Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

²⁵ As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

²⁷ Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

²⁸ For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

²⁹ And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.