Psalms 78:42-50

78:42 They did not remember what he had done, ¹ 

how he delivered them from the enemy, ² 

78:43 when he performed his awesome deeds ³  in Egypt,

and his acts of judgment ⁴  in the region of Zoan.

78:44 He turned their rivers into blood,

and they could not drink from their streams.

78:45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them, ⁵ 

as well as frogs that overran their land. ⁶ 

78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

the fruit of their labor to the locust.

78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail,

and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.

78:48 He rained hail down on their cattle, ⁷ 

and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. ⁸ 

78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, ⁹ 

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster. ¹⁰ 

78:50 He sent his anger in full force; ¹¹ 

he did not spare them from death;

he handed their lives over to destruction. ¹² 

[78:42]  ¹ tn Heb “his hand,” symbolizing his saving activity and strength, as the next line makes clear.

[78:42]  ² tn Heb “[the] day [in] which he ransomed them from [the] enemy.”

[78:43]  ³ tn Or “signs” (see Ps 65:8).

[78:43]  ⁴ tn Or “portents, omens” (see Ps 71:7). The Egyptian plagues are referred to here (see vv. 44-51).

[78:45]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”

[78:45]  ⁶ tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”

[78:48]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”

[78:48]  ⁸ tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.

[78:49]  ⁹ tn Heb “he sent against them the rage of his anger.” The phrase “rage of his anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[78:49]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

[78:50]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.

[78:50]  ¹² tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”