Discovery BoxPsalms 78:42-50 
Context78:42 They did not remember what he had done, 1
how he delivered them from the enemy, 2
78:43 when he performed his awesome deeds 3 in Egypt,
and his acts of judgment 4 in the region of Zoan.
78:44 He turned their rivers into blood,
and they could not drink from their streams.
78:45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them, 5
as well as frogs that overran their land. 6
78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
the fruit of their labor to the locust.
78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.
78:48 He rained hail down on their cattle, 7
and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. 8
78:49 His raging anger lashed out against them, 9
He sent fury, rage, and trouble
as messengers who bring disaster. 10
78:50 He sent his anger in full force; 11
he did not spare them from death;
he handed their lives over to destruction. 12
1 tn Heb “his hand,” symbolizing his saving activity and strength, as the next line makes clear.
2 tn Heb “[the] day [in] which he ransomed them from [the] enemy.”
3 tn Or “signs” (see Ps 65:8).
4 tn Or “portents, omens” (see Ps 71:7). The Egyptian plagues are referred to here (see vv. 44-51).
5 tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”
6 tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”
7 tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”
8 tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.
9 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.
10 tn Heb “fury and indignation and trouble, a sending of messengers of disaster.”
11 tn Heb “he leveled a path for his anger.” There were no obstacles to impede its progress; it moved swiftly and destructively.
12 tn Or perhaps “[the] plague.”
