Chapter 81

To the leader: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph. ¹

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. ² Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. ³ Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day. ⁴ For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. ⁵ He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over ^a Heb adds from verse 17 and upon the one whom you made strong for yourself the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:⁶

“I relieved your ^b Cn: Heb it is cut down shoulder of the burden; your ^b Cn: Heb it is cut down hands were freed from the basket. ⁷ In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah ⁸ Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me! ⁹ There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. ¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

¹¹

“But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. ¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. ¹³ O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! ¹⁴ Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes. ¹⁵ Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever. ¹⁶ I would feed you ^a Or against with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”