Psalms 81

Douai-Rheims	New Jerusalem Bible
¹ Unto the end, for the winepresses, a psalm for Asaph himself.	¹ [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of Asaph] Sing for joy to God our strength, shout in triumph tothe God of Jacob.
² Rejoice to God our helper: sing aloud to the God of Jacob.	² Strike up the music, beat the tambourine, play the melodious harp and the lyre;
³ Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel: the pleasant psaltery with the harp.	³ blow the trumpet for the new month, for the ful moon, for our feast day!
⁴ Blow up the trumpet on the new moon, on the noted day of your solemnity.	⁴ For Israel has this statute, a decision of the God of Jacob,
⁵ For it is a commandment in Israel, and a judgment to the God of Jacob.	⁵ a decree he imposed on Joseph, when he went to war against Egypt. I heard a voice unknown to me,
⁶ He ordained it for a testimony in Joseph, when he came out of the land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not.	⁶ 'I freed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were able to lay aside the labourer's basket.
⁷ He removed his back from the burdens: his hands had served in baskets.	⁷ You cried out in your distress, so I rescued you. 'Hidden in the storm, I answered you, I tested you atthe waters of Meribah.Pause
⁸ Thou calledst upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee: I heard thee in the secret place of tempest: I proved thee at the waters of contradiction.	⁸ Listen, my people, while I give you warning; Israel, if only you would listen to me!
⁹ Hear, O my people, and I will testify to thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken to me,	⁹ 'You shal have no strange gods, shall worship no alien god.
¹⁰ there shall be no new god in thee: neither shalt thou adore a strange god.	¹⁰ I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you here from Egypt, you have only to open your mouth forme to fil it.
¹¹ For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.	¹¹ 'My people would not listen to me, Israel would have none of me.
¹² But my people heard not my voice: and Israel hearkened not to me.	¹² So I left them to their stubborn selves, to fol ow their own devices.
¹³ So I let them go according to the desires of their heart: they shall walk in their own inventions.	¹³ 'If only my people would listen to me, if only Israel would walk in my ways,
¹⁴ If my people had heard me: if Israel had walked in my ways:	¹⁴ at one stroke I would subdue their enemies, turn my hand against their opponents.
¹⁵ I should soon have humbled their enemies, and laid my hand on them that troubled them.	¹⁵ 'Those who hate Yahweh would woo his favour, though their doom was sealed for ever,
¹⁶ The enemies of the Lord have lied to him: and their time shall be for ever.	¹⁶ while I would feed him on pure wheat, would give you your fil of honey from the rock.'
¹⁷ And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock.