Psalms 78:9-33

⁹The soldiers of the tribe of Ephraim had bows and arrows but they ran away from their enemies on the day that they fought a battle with their enemies.

¹⁰They did not do what they had agreed with God that they would do; they refused to obey his laws.

¹¹They forgot what he had done; they forgot about the miracles that they had seen him perform.

¹²While our ancestors were watching, God performed miracles in the area around Zoan city in Egypt.

¹³Then he caused the Red Sea to divide, causing the water on each side to pile up like a wall, with the result that our ancestors walked through it on dry ground.

¹⁴He led them by a bright cloud during the day and by a fiery light during the night.

¹⁵He split rocks open in the desert, giving to our ancestors plenty of water from deep inside the earth.

¹⁶He caused a stream of water to flow from the rock; the water flowed like a river DOU.

¹⁷But our ancestors continued to sin against God; in the desert they rebelled against the one who is greater than any other god.

¹⁸By demanding that God give them the food that they desired, they tried to find out if he would always do what they requested him to do.

¹⁹They insulted God by saying, “We don't think he can supply food for us here in this desert!

²⁰It is true that he struck the rock, with the result that water gushed/flowed out, but ◄can he also provide bread and meat for us, his people?/we doubt that he can also provide bread and meat for us, his people.►” RHQ

²¹So, when Yahweh heard that, he became very angry, and he sent a fire to burn up some of his Israeli people. MTY, DOU

²²He did that because they did not trust in him, and they did not believe that he would rescue them.

²³But God spoke to the sky above them; he commanded it to open like a door,

²⁴and then food fell down like rain, food which they named ❛manna❜; God gave them grain from ◄heaven/the sky►.

²⁵So the people ate the food that angels eat, and God gave to them all the manna that they wanted.

²⁶Later, he caused the wind to blow from the east, and by his power he also sent wind from the south,

²⁷and the wind brought birds which were as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.

²⁸God caused those birds to fall dead in the middle of ◄their camp►/the area where the people had put up their tents. There were dead birds all around their tents.

²⁹So the people cooked the birds and ate the meat and their stomachs were full, because God had given them what they wanted.

³⁰But before they had eaten all that they wanted, and while they were still eating it,

³¹God was still very angry with them, and he caused their strongest men to die; he got rid of many of the finest young Israeli men.

³²In spite of all that, the people continued to sin; in spite of all the miracles that God had performed, they still did not trust that he would take care of them.

³³So, he caused their lives to end as quickly as a puff of wind ends; they died when disasters suddenly struck them.