The Book of Psalms — Liber Psalmorum
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Psalm 77
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Vulgate><Douay-Rheims><Knox Bible
1
Intellectus Asaph.
Attendite, popule meus, legem meam; inclinate aurem vestram in verba oris mei.
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Understanding for Asaph.
Attend, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
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(A maskil. Of Asaph.)
Listen, my people, to this testament of mine, do not turn a deaf ear to the words I utter;
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Aperiam in parabolis os meum; loquar propositiones ab initio.
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I will open my mouth in parables: I will utter propositions from the beginning.
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I speak to you with mysteries for my theme, read the riddles of long ago.
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Quanta audivimus, et cognovimus ea, et patres nostri narraverunt nobis.
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How great things have we heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
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It is a story often heard, well known among us; have not our fathers told it to us?
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Non sunt occultata a filiis eorum in generatione altera, narrantes laudes Domini et virtutes ejus, et mirabilia ejus quæ fecit.
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They have not been hidden from their children, in another generation. Declaring the praises of the Lord, and his powers, and his wonders which he hath done.
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And shall we keep it back from their children, from the generation which follows? Speak we of God’s praise, of his great power, of the wonderful deeds he did.
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Et suscitavit testimonium in Jacob, et legem posuit in Israël, quanta mandavit patribus nostris nota facere ea filiis suis:
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And he set up a testimony in Jacob: and made a law in Israel. How great things he commanded our fathers, that they should make the same known to their children:
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He gave Jacob a rule to live by, framed for Israel a law, commanding our fathers to hand on the message,
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ut cognoscat generatio altera: filii qui nascentur et exsurgent, et narrabunt filiis suis,
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that another generation might know them. The children that should be born and should rise up, and declare them to their children.
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so that a new generation might learn it; sons would be born to take their place, and teach it to their own sons after them.
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ut ponant in Deo spem suam, et non obliviscantur operum Dei, et mandata ejus exquirant:
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That they may put their hope in God and may not forget the works of God: and may seek his commandments.
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They were to put their trust in God, ever remembering his divine dealings with them, ever loyal to his commands;
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ne fiant, sicut patres eorum, generatio prava et exasperans; generatio quæ non direxit cor suum, et non est creditus cum Deo spiritus ejus.
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That they may not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation. A generation that set not their heart aright: and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
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they were not to be like their fathers, a stubborn and defiant breed, a generation of false aims, of a spirit that broke faith with God.
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Filii Ephrem, intendentes et mittentes arcum, conversi sunt in die belli.
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The sons of Ephraim who bend and shoot with the bow: they have turned back in the day of battle.
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So it was that the sons of Ephraim, bow in hand, were routed in the day of battle.
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Non custodierunt testamentum Dei, et in lege ejus noluerunt ambulare.
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They kept not the covenant of God: and in his law they would not walk.
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They were false to God’s covenant, refused to follow his law,
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Et obliti sunt benefactorum ejus, et mirabilium ejus quæ ostendit eis.
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And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders that he had shewn them.
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as if they had forgotten all his mercies, all those wonderful deeds of his they had witnessed.
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Coram patribus eorum fecit mirabilia in terra Ægypti, in campo Taneos.
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Wonderful things did he do in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Tanis.
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Had not their fathers seen wonders enough in Egypt, on the plains of Tanis,
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Interrupit mare, et perduxit eos, et statuit aquas quasi in utre:
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He divided the sea and brought them through: and he made the waters to stand as in a vessel.
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when he parted the sea to let them pass through it, making its waters stand firm as a mound of earth;
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et deduxit eos in nube diei, et tota nocte in illuminatione ignis.
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And he conducted them with a cloud by day: and all the night with a light of fire.
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when he led them with a cloud by day, with glowing fire all through the night?
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Interrupit petram in eremo, et adaquavit eos velut in abysso multa.
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He struck the rock in the wilderness: and gave them to drink, as out of the great deep.
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He pierced the rock, too, in the desert, and slaked their thirst as if from some deep pool,
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Et eduxit aquam de petra, et deduxit tamquam flumina aquas.
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He brought forth water out of the rock: and made streams run down as rivers.
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bidding the very stones yield water, till fountains gushed from them, abundant as rivers.
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Et apposuerunt adhuc peccare ei; in iram excitaverunt Excelsum in inaquoso.
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And they added yet more sin against him: they provoked the most High to wrath in the place without water.
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And still they went on offending him, there in the wilderness, rebelling against the most High,
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Et tentaverunt Deum in cordibus suis, ut peterent escas animabus suis.
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And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their desires.
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challenging God in their thoughts to give them the food they craved for.
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Et male locuti sunt de Deo; dixerunt: Numquid poterit Deus parare mensam in deserto?
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And they spoke ill of God: they said: Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
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Defiantly they asked, Can God spread a table for us in the wilderness?
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quoniam percussit petram, et fluxerunt aquæ, et torrentes inundaverunt. Numquid et panem poterit dare, aut parare mensam populo suo?
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Because he struck the rock, and the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide a table for his people?
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True, he smote the rock, and made water flow from it, till the stream ran in flood, but can he give bread too, and provide meat for his people?
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Ideo audivit Dominus et distulit; et ignis accensus est in Jacob, et ira ascendit in Israël:
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Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry: and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel.
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All this the Lord heard, and his indignation blazed out; its mounting fires Jacob had fed, its fury must break on Israel.
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quia non crediderunt in Deo, nec speraverunt in salutari ejus.
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Because they believed not in God: and trusted not in his salvation.
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What, had they no faith in God, no trust in his power to save?
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Et mandavit nubibus desuper, et januas cæli aperuit.
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And he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven.
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He laid his command upon the clouds above them, threw open the doors of heaven,
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Et pluit illis manna ad manducandum, et panem cæli dedit eis.
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And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the bread of heaven.
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and rained down manna for them to eat. The bread of heaven was his gift to them;
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Panem angelorum manducavit homo; cibaria misit eis in abundantia.
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Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.
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man should eat the food of angels, and so their want should be supplied abundantly.
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Transtulit austrum de cælo, et induxit in virtute sua africum.
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He removed the south wind from heaven: and by his power brought in the southwest wind.
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Next, he summoned his east wind from the sky: it was his power brought the southern gale,
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Et pluit super eos sicut pulverem carnes, et sicut arenam maris volatilia pennata.
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And he rained upon them flesh as dust: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea.
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raining down meat on them thick as dust, birds on the wing, plentiful as the sea-sand.
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Et ceciderunt in medio castrorum eorum, circa tabernacula eorum.
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And they fell in the midst of their camp, round about their pavilions.
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Into their very camp it fell, close about their tents;
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Et manducaverunt, et saturati sunt nimis, et desiderium eorum attulit eis:
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So they did eat, and were filled exceedingly, and he gave them their desire:
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and they ate, and took their fill. All they asked, he granted them;
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non sunt fraudati a desiderio suo. Adhuc escæ eorum erant in ore ipsorum,
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they were not defrauded of that which they craved. As yet their meat was in their mouth:
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and now, their craving still unsatisfied, while the food was yet in their mouths,
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et ira Dei ascendit super eos: et occidit pingues eorum, et electos Israël impedivit.
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and the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones amongst them, and brought down the chosen men of Israel.
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God’s anger against them reached its height, and slew their lordliest, brought them low, all the flower of Israel.
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In omnibus his peccaverunt adhuc, et non crediderunt in mirabilibus ejus.
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In all these things they sinned still: and they believed not for his wondrous works.
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Yet, with all this, they continued to offend him; all his wonderful deeds left them faithless still.
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Et defecerunt in vanitate dies eorum, et anni eorum cum festinatione.
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And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.
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And ever he took away their lives untimely, hurried their days to an end.
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Cum occideret eos, quærebant eum et revertebantur, et diluculo veniebant ad eum.
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When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned, and came to him early in the morning.
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When he threatened them with death, they would search after him, feel their need of God once more;
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Et rememorati sunt quia Deus adjutor est eorum, et Deus excelsus redemptor eorum est.
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And they remembered that God was their helper: and the most high God their redeemer.
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they would remind themselves that it was God who had protected them, his almighty power that had delivered them.
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Et dilexerunt eum in ore suo, et lingua sua mentiti sunt ei;
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And they loved him with their mouth: and with their tongue they lied unto him:
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But still they were lying lips, they were false tongues that spoke to him;
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cor autem eorum non erat rectum cum eo, nec fideles habiti sunt in testamento ejus.
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But their heart was not right with him: nor were they counted faithful in his covenant.
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their hearts were not true to him, no loyalty bound them to his covenant.
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Ipse autem est misericors, et propitius fiet peccatis eorum, et non disperdet eos. Et abundavit ut averteret iram suam, et non accendit omnem iram suam.
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But he is merciful, and will forgive their sins: and will not destroy them. And many a time did he turn away his anger: and did not kindle all his wrath.
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Yet, such is his mercy, he would still pardon their faults, and spare them from destruction; again and again he curbed his indignation, to his vengeance would not give place.
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Et recordatus est quia caro sunt, spiritus vadens et non rediens.
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And he remembered that they are flesh: a wind that goeth and returneth not.
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He would not forget that they were flesh and blood, no better than a breath of wind, that passes by and never returns.
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Quoties exacerbaverunt eum in deserto; in iram concitaverunt eum in inaquoso?
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How often did they provoke him in the desert: and move him to wrath in the place without water?
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How often the desert saw them in revolt against him, how often, in those solitudes, they defied his anger!
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Et conversi sunt, et tentaverunt Deum, et sanctum Israël exacerbaverunt.
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And they turned back and tempted God: and grieved the holy one of Israel.
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Always new challenges to God’s power, new rebellions against the Holy One of Israel.
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Non sunt recordati manus ejus, die qua redemit eos de manu tribulantis:
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They remembered not his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of him that afflicted them:
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Had they forgotten all he did for them, that day when he set them free from the power of their oppressor,
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sicut posuit in Ægypto signa sua, et prodigia sua in campo Taneos;
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How he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Tanis.
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all those miracles among the men of Egypt, those portents in the plain of Tanis,
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et convertit in sanguinem flumina eorum, et imbres eorum, ne biberent.
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And he turned their rivers into blood, and their showers that they might not drink.
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when he turned all their streams, all their channels into blood, so that they could not drink?
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Misit in eos cœnomyiam, et comedit eos, et ranam, et disperdidit eos;
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He sent amongst them divers sorts of flies, which devoured them: and frogs which destroyed them.
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He sent out flies, to their ruin, frogs to bring devastation on them,
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et dedit ærugini fructus eorum, et labores eorum locustæ;
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And he gave up their fruits to the blast, and their labours to the locust.
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gave all their harvest over to the caterpillar, their tillage to the locust,
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et occidit in grandine vineas eorum, et moros eorum in pruina;
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And he destroyed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with hoarfrost.
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sent hail on their vineyards, frost on their mulberry-trees,
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et tradidit grandini jumenta eorum, et possessionem eorum igni;
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And he gave up their cattle to the hail, and their stock to the fire.
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let the hail have its way with their cattle, the lightning with their flocks.
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misit in eos iram indignationis suæ, indignationem, et iram, et tribulationem, immissiones per angelos malos.
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And he sent upon them the wrath of his indignation: indignation and wrath and trouble, which he sent by evil angels.
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He let his anger loose on them in all its vehemence; what rage, what fury, what havoc, as the angels of destruction thronged about them!
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Viam fecit semitæ iræ suæ: non pepercit a morte animabus eorum, et jumenta eorum in morte conclusit:
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He made a way for a path to his anger: he spared not their souls from death, and their cattle he shut up in death.
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So, the way made ready for his vengeance, he took toll of their lives, doomed even their cattle to the pestilence;
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et percussit omne primogenitum in terra Ægypti; primitias omnis laboris eorum in tabernaculis Cham:
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And he killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt: the firstfruits of all their labour in the tabernacles of Cham.
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on every first-born creature in Egypt, on the first-fruits of increase in all the dwellings of Cham, his stroke fell.
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et abstulit sicut oves populum suum, et perduxit eos tamquam gregem in deserto:
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And he took away his own people as sheep: and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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Then, like a shepherd, he set his own people on their way, led them, his own flock, through the wilderness;
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et deduxit eos in spe, et non timuerunt, et inimicos eorum operuit mare.
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And he brought them out in hope, and they feared not: and the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
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guided them in safety, free from all alarm, while the sea closed over their enemy.
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Et induxit eos in montem sanctificationis suæ, montem quem acquisivit dextera ejus; et ejecit a facie eorum gentes, et sorte divisit eis terram in funiculo distributionis;
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And he brought them into the mountain of his sanctuary: the mountain which his right hand had purchased. And he cast out the Gentiles before them: and by lot divided to them their land by a line of distribution.
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So he brought them to that holy land of his, the mountain slopes he took, with his own right hand for title; so he drove out the heathen at their onset, parcelled out the land to them by lot, to each his own inheritance,
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et habitare fecit in tabernaculis eorum tribus Israël.
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And he made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tabernacles.
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bidding the tribes of Israel dwell where the heathen had dwelt before them.
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Et tentaverunt, et exacerbaverunt Deum excelsum, et testimonia ejus non custodierunt.
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Yet they tempted, and provoked the most high God: and they kept not his testimonies.
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These were the men who defied the most high God, and rebelled against him; would not observe his decrees,
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Et averterunt se, et non servaverunt pactum: quemadmodum patres eorum, conversi sunt in arcum pravum.
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And they turned away, and kept not the covenant: even like their fathers they were turned aside as a crooked bow.
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but turned away and broke faith with him as their fathers had done, like a bow that plays the archer false;
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In iram concitaverunt eum in collibus suis, et in sculptilibus suis ad æmulationem eum provocaverunt.
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They provoked him to anger on their hills: and moved him to jealousy with their graven things.
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made mountain shrines, to court his anger, carved images, to awake his jealousy!
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Audivit Deus, et sprevit, et ad nihilum redegit valde Israël.
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God heard, and despised them, and he reduced Israel exceedingly as it were to nothing.
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The Lord heard the bruit of it, and burned with anger, cast Israel away in bitter scorn;
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Et repulit tabernaculum Silo, tabernaculum suum, ubi habitavit in hominibus.
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And he put away the tabernacle of Silo, his tabernacle where he dwelt among men.
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he forsook his tabernacle in Silo, that tabernacle where once he dwelt among men.
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Et tradidit in captivitatem virtutem eorum, et pulchritudinem eorum in manus inimici.
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And he delivered their strength into captivity: and their beauty into the hands of the enemy.
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Plunder, now, in the enemy’s hands, the ark that is shrine of his strength and majesty;
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Et conclusit in gladio populum suum, et hæreditatem suam sprevit.
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And he shut up his people under the sword: and he despised his inheritance.
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he would leave his people at the mercy of the sword, disdain his own inheritance.
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Juvenes eorum comedit ignis, et virgines eorum non sunt lamentatæ.
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Fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not lamented.
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Their young men fed the flames, and the maidens must go unwed;
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Sacerdotes eorum in gladio ceciderunt, et viduæ eorum non plorabantur.
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Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.
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their priests fell by the sword, and never a widow left to mourn for them.
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Et excitatus est tamquam dormiens Dominus, tamquam potens crapulatus a vino.
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And the Lord was awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine.
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Then suddenly, like a man that wakes up from sleep, like some warrior that lay, till now, bemused with wine, the Lord roused himself;
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Et percussit inimicos suos in posteriora; opprobrium sempiternum dedit illis.
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And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts: he put them to an everlasting reproach.
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he smote his enemies as they turned to flee, branded them for ever with shame.
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Et repulit tabernaculum Joseph, et tribum Ephraim non elegit:
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And he rejected the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim:
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But he refused, now, to make his dwelling with Joseph, it was not the tribe of Ephraim he would choose;
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sed elegit tribum Juda, montem Sion, quem dilexit.
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But he chose the tribe of Juda, mount Sion which he loved.
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he chose the tribe of Juda, and the hill of Sion, there to bestow his love.
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Et ædificavit sicut unicornium sanctificium suum, in terra quam fundavit in sæcula.
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And he built his sanctuary as of unicorns, in the land which he founded for ever.
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And there he built his sanctuary, immovable as heaven or earth, his own unchanging handiwork.
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Et elegit David, servum suum, et sustulit eum de gregibus ovium; de post fœtantes accepit eum:
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And he chose his servant David, and took him from the flocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,
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He chose David, too, for his servant; took him away from herding the sheep; bade him leave off following the ewes that were in milk,
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pascere Jacob servum suum, et Israël hæreditatem suam.
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To feed Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance.
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and be the shepherd of Jacob’s sons, his own people, of Israel, his own domain.
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Et pavit eos in innocentia cordis sui, et in intellectibus manuum suarum deduxit eos.
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And he fed them in the innocence of his heart: and conducted them by the skilfulness of his hands.
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His was the loyal heart that should tend them, his the skilful hand that should be their guide.