Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

78 (Maskil of Asaph.) Give ear, O my people, to my torah; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

² I will open my mouth in a mashal; I will utter dark sayings from of old,

³ Which we have heard and known, and Avoteinu have told us.

⁴ We will not hide them from their banim, recounting to the dor acharon the tehillot Hashem, and His power, and His nifla’ot (wonderful works) that He hath done.

⁵² But made His own people to go forth like tzon, and guided them in the midbar like an eder (flock).

⁵³ And He led them in safety, so that they had no terror; but the yam overwhelmed their oyevim.

⁵⁴ And He brought them to His gevul kadosh (His holy border), even to this Har, which His Yamin had purchased.

⁵⁵ He cast out the Goyim also before them, and divided by measure a nachalah for them, and made the Shivtei Yisroel to dwell in their ohalim.

⁵⁶ Yet they tested and provoked Elohim Elyon, and were not shomer over His edot;

⁵⁷ But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their avot; they turned like a treacherous keshet.

⁵⁸ For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their pesilim.

⁵⁹ When Elohim heard this, He was in wrath, and greatly abhorred Yisroel;

⁶⁰ So that He forsook the Mishkan of Shiloh, the Ohel which He placed among adam (men);

⁶¹ And delivered His oz (strength) into captivity, and His tiferet into the hand of the enemy.

⁶² He gave His people over also unto the cherev; and was in wrath with His nachalah.

⁶³ The eish consumed their bochurim; and their betulot had no wedding celebration.

⁶⁴ Their kohanim fell by the cherev; and their almanot made no lamentation.

⁶⁵ Then Adonoi awaked as one from sleep, and like a gibbor that shouteth from yayin.

⁶⁶ And He struck down His enemies behind; He put them to cherpat olam (perpetual reproach).

⁶⁷ Moreover He rejected the Ohel Yosef, and chose not the Shevet Ephrayim;

⁶⁸ But chose the Shevet Yehudah, Har Tziyon which He loved.

⁶⁹ And He built His Mikdash like heavenly heights, like Eretz which He hath established l’olam.

⁷⁰ He chose Dovid also His Eved, and took him from the mikhle’ot tzon (sheepfolds);

⁷¹ From following the nursing ewes He brought him to shepherd Ya’akov His people, and Yisroel His nachalah.

⁷² So he shepherded them according to the tohm (integrity, guilelessness) of his lev; and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.

¹³ And it came to pass, that at erev the quails came up, and covered the machaneh; and in the boker there was a layer of tal (dew) about the machaneh.

¹⁴ And when the layer of tal evaporated, hinei, upon the surface of the midbar there lay thin flakes, as thin as a layer of kfor (frost) upon ha’aretz.

¹⁵ And when the Bnei Yisroel saw it, they said one to another, Mahn hu (What is it?) For they knew not mah hu (what [is] this). And Moshe said unto them, This is the lechem which Hashem hath given you to eat.

¹⁶ This is the thing which Hashem hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating [need], an omer per person, according to the number of your nefashot; take ye every man for them which are in his ohel.

¹⁷ And the Bnei Yisroel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.

¹⁸ And when they did measure it by the omer, he that gathered much had nothing extra, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating [need].

¹⁹ And Moshe said, Let no ish leave of it until boker.

²⁰ Notwithstanding, they paid heed not unto Moshe; but some left part of it until boker, and [the leftovers] bred tola’im (worms), and stank; and Moshe was angry with them.

²¹ And they gathered it every boker, every man according to his eating [need]; and when the shemesh grew hot, it melted.

²² And it came to pass, that on yom hashishi they gathered twice as much lechem, two omers for one man; and all the nesi’im of the Edah came and told Moshe.

²³ And he said unto them, This is that which Hashem hath said, Tomorrow is a Shabbaton (day of rest), Shabbos Kodesh unto Hashem; bake that which ye will bake today, and boil that ye will boil; and that which remaineth over lay up for you for mishmeret (for keeping) until boker.

²⁴ And they laid it up, saving it until boker, as Moshe commanded; and it did not stink, neither was there any infestation therein.

²⁵ And Moshe said, Eat that today; for today is a Shabbos unto Hashem; today ye shall not find it in the sadeh.

²⁶ Sheshet yamim ye shall gather it; but on the yom hashevi’i, which is Shabbos, in it there shall be none.

¹⁹ You will say to me, “Then why does Hashem still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"

²⁰ On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to answer back to G-d? VEYETZER AMAR LEYOTZRO ("Can the pot say to the potter" YESHAYAH 29:16), "Why have you made me thus?"

²¹ Or does the potter not have the right over the clay [YIRMEYAH 18:6] to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

²² But what if naniach (supposing) Hashem, willing to demonstrate His Charon Af Hashem (burning anger of G-d) and to make known His ko’ach (power)[1:18,16], put up with and endured with zitzfleisch (patience) vessels which are objects of G-d’s Charon Af (burning anger), objects made ready for Churban [9:3],

²³ And in order that He might make known the wealth of His kavod (glory) on vessels which are objects of Hashem’s chaninah (mercy, free grace) which He prepared beforehand for kavod? [8:29-30]

²⁴ By which I mean us, whom also He called, not only from the Yehudim but also from the non-Jews,

²⁵ As it says in Hoshea, V’AMARTI L’LO AMMI AMI ATAH ("And I will call the ‘not my people’ my people" HOSHEA 2:25 [23]) and the ‘not loved’ loved;

²⁶ "And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called B’NEI EL CHAI ("sons of the living G-d—HOSHEA 2:1)"

²⁷ Yeshayah proclaims concerning Yisroel, "Even if the number of the Bnei Yisroel are as the sand of the sea, only the She’erit (Remnant) will return (be saved),

²⁸ For Hashem will complete and cut short and will perform His Word on the earth YESHAYAH 10:22-23.

²⁹ And as Yeshayah said beforehand, "Except Adonoi Tzvaot had left us SARID KIM’AT ("some survivors" (Ro 9:7), we would have become like S’dom and we would have been the same as Amora" [YESHAYAH 1:9].