Psalm 78:44-51
New English Translation
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them,[a]
as well as frogs that overran their land.[b]
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.
48 He rained hail down on their cattle,[c]
and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock.[d]
49 His raging anger lashed out against them.[e]
He sent fury, rage, and trouble
as messengers who bring disaster.[f]
50 He sent his anger in full force.[g]
He did not spare them from death;
he handed their lives over to destruction.[h]
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their reproductive power[i] in the tents of Ham.
Footnotes
- Psalm 78:45 tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”
- Psalm 78:45 tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”
- Psalm 78:48 tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”
- Psalm 78:48 tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.
- Psalm 78:49 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.
- Psalm 78:49 tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”
- Psalm 78:50 tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.
- Psalm 78:50 tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”
- Psalm 78:51 tn Heb “the beginning of strength.” If retained, the plural form אוֹנִים (ʾonim, “strength”) probably indicates degree (“great strength”), but many ancient witnesses read “their strength,” which presupposes an emendation to אֹנָם (ʾonam; singular form of the noun with third masculine plural pronominal suffix).
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