Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

An instruction. Of Asaph.

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 riddles from of old,

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

⁴ We will not hide [them] from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done.

⁵ 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;

⁶ That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children,

⁷ And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments;

⁸ And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

¹⁷ Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;

¹⁹ And they spoke against God: they said, Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰ Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?

²¹ Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:

²² Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;

²³ Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,

²⁴ And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.

²⁵ Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.

²⁶ He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;

²⁷ And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,

²⁸ And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:

²⁹ And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.

² And the whole assembly of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness.

³ And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate bread to the full; for ye have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger!

⁴ Then said Jehovah to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather the daily need on its day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

⁵ And it shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare what they have brought in; and it shall be twice as much as they shall gather daily.

⁶ And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, In the evening, then shall ye know that Jehovah has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

⁷ and in the morning, then shall ye see the glory of Jehovah; for he has heard your murmurings against Jehovah;—and what are we, that ye murmur against us?

⁸ And Moses said, When Jehovah gives you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for Jehovah hears your murmurings which ye murmur against him … and what [are] we? your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah.

⁹ And Moses spoke to Aaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near into the presence of Jehovah; for he has heard your murmurings.

¹⁰ And it came to pass, when Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud.

¹¹ And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

¹² I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak to them, saying, Between the two evenings ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God.

¹³ And it came to pass in the evening, that quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round the camp.

¹⁴ And when the dew that lay [round it] was gone up, behold, on the face of the wilderness there was [something] fine, granular, fine as hoar-frost, on the ground.

¹⁵ And the children of Israel saw [it], and said one to another, What is it? for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, This is the bread which Jehovah has given you to eat.

³¹ And the house of Israel called its name Manna; and it was like coriander-seed, white; and the taste of it was like cake with honey.

³² And Moses said, This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded: Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread that I gave you to eat in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³³ And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot, and put in it an omer full of manna, and deposit it before Jehovah, to be kept for your generations.

³⁴ As Jehovah had commanded Moses, so Aaron deposited it before the Testimony, to be kept.

³⁵ And the children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came into an inhabited land: they ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

³² But Jesus, having called his disciples to [him], said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me already three days and they have not anything they can eat, and I would not send them away fasting lest they should faint on the way.

³³ And his disciples say to him, Whence should we have so many loaves in [the] wilderness as to satisfy so great a crowd?

³⁴ And Jesus says to them, How many loaves have ye? But they said, Seven, and a few small fishes.

³⁵ And he commanded the crowds to lie down on the ground;

³⁶ and having taken the seven loaves and the fishes, having given thanks, he broke [them] and gave [them] to his disciples, and the disciples to the crowd.

³⁷ And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was over and above of the fragments seven baskets full;

³⁸ but they that ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

³⁹ And, having dismissed the crowds, he went on board ship and came to the borders of Magadan.