Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
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.
12 Peleh (marvellous things) did He in the sight of their avot, in Eretz Mitzrayim, in the sadeh (area) of Tzoan.
13 He divided the yam, and caused them to pass through; and He made the mayim to stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with an anan, and all the lailah with an ohr of eish.
15 He split the rocks in the midbar, and gave them drink as out of the great tehomot.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused mayim to run down like rivers.
17 Thus saith Hashem, thy Go’el, the Kadosh Yisroel; I am Hashem Eloheicha thy Melamed (Teacher) of doing that which profiteth, thy Madrikh (Guide, Instructor) in the Derech that thou shouldest go.
18 O if only thou hadst paid heed to My mitzvot! Then had thy shalom been like a nahar, and thy tzedakah as the waves of the yam;
19 Thy zera also had been like the chol (sand), and those that come out of thy loins like me’otav (sands of the sea thereof); his shem should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me.
20 Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Kasdim (Chaldeans), with a voice of joyful singing declare ye, preach this, send it forth even to the ketzeh ha’aretz; say ye, Hashem hath redeemed His Eved Ya’akov.
21 And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts; He caused the mayim to flow out of the Tzur for them; He split the Tzur also, and the mayim gushed out.
11 Do not speak lashon hora against an Ach b’Moshiach. The one speaking against an Ach b’Moshiach or setting himself up as a shofet (judge) of his Ach b’Moshiach speaks against the Torah and sets himself up as shofet of the Torah. Now if the Torah you judge, you are not Shomrei HaTorah but a shofet.
12 One is the Mekhokek (Law-Giver) and HaShofet (The Judge), the One who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you, the one who has set yourself up as the shofet of your re’a (neighbor)?
13 Come now, you who say, "Hayom (today) or makhar (tomorrow) we will go into this or that city and we will do business there a year and will sell and make a revach (profit)."
14 Yet you do not even have da’as of what tomorrow’s "yom" may bring. Look at your life! Are you not an ed (mist), appearing a short time, then indeed disappearing? [IYOV 7:7; TEHILLIM 39:5; 102:3; 144:4; YESHAYAH 2:22]
15 Instead of this, you ought to say "Im yirtzeh Hashem" ("if the L-rd wills") "we will live, also we will do this or that."
16 But now you boast in your pretensions. All such ravrevanut (boastfulness) is ra’ah (evil, wickedness).
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International