Psalms 78:43-50

78:43 when he performed his awesome deeds ¹  in Egypt,

and his acts of judgment ²  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, ³ 

as well as frogs that overran their land. ⁴ 

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, ⁵ 

and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. ⁶ 

78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, ⁷ 

He sent fury, rage, and trouble

as messengers who bring disaster. ⁸ 

78:50 He sent his anger in full force; ⁹ 

he did not spare them from death;

he handed their lives over to destruction. ¹⁰ 

[78:43]  ¹ tn Or “signs” (see Ps 65:8).

[78:43]  ² tn Or “portents, omens” (see Ps 71:7). The Egyptian plagues are referred to here (see vv. 44-51).

[78:45]  ³ tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”

[78:45]  ⁴ tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”

[78:48]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”

[78:48]  ⁶ tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.

[78:49]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”

[78:50]  ⁹ tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.

[78:50]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”