Bible Strands
Psalms 78:3
that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to the gathered community of Israel, positioning himself as a link between ancestral memory and the present assembly. This statement bridges his announcement of speaking in parables and his command to preserve sacred history for descendants.
The words — שָ֭מַעְנוּ (Sha.ma'.nu) translates literally as "we have heard," and סִפְּרוּ (si.pe.ru) means "they have recounted." These verbs mark the verse as a claim of verified oral transmission rather than personal discovery.
The thread — The text mirrors the transmission pattern in Psalms 44:1, Exodus 12:26, and Exodus 13:8, where communal identity depends on hearing ancestral accounts and explaining rituals to children. Each reference ties present faith to a documented chain of witnesses.
Why it lands — The verse states that the community's knowledge rests on what ancestors relayed and what the current generation has personally verified. It requires the reader to accept inherited testimony as the necessary foundation for teaching the next generation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
Cross-references
- Psalms 44:1 For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.
- Exodus 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
- Exodus 13:8 And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
- Exodus 13:14 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Psalms 48:8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of Hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish her forever. Selah