Psalm 78:43-51
New Catholic Bible
43 when he manifested his wonders in Egypt
and his portents in the Plain of Zoan.
44 [a]He turned their rivers into blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He assigned their harvest to the caterpillars
and their produce to the locusts.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He exposed their cattle to hailstones
and their flocks to bolts of lightning.
49 He sent upon them his blazing anger,
wrath, fury, and hostility,
a band of destroying angels.[b]
50 He gave his anger free rein;
he did not spare them from death
but delivered their lives to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham.[c]
Footnotes
- Psalm 78:44 The psalmist is not concerned about a complete, chronological, and exact narrative of the plagues. He gives them in a different order and enumeration, while also omitting the third, fifth, sixth, and ninth (see Ex 7–12).
- Psalm 78:49 Destroying angels: the psalmist here generalizes the theme of the “destroyer” of the firstborn (see Ex 12:23), personifying the Lord’s wrath, fury, and hostility as agents of his anger (see Ex 9:14; Deut 32:24; Job 20:23).
- Psalm 78:51 Tents of Ham: usually linked with Egypt (see Pss 105:23, 27; 106:21f; Gen 10:6).
