# verses

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There lived men of Tyre also therein, who brought in fish, and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.


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Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day?


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Didn’t your fathers do thus, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us, and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”


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It came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day.


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Then I testified against them, and said to them, “Why do you stay around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they didn’t come on the Sabbath.


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I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember to me, my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your loving kindness.


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and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.


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I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.


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Didn’t Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless foreign women caused even him to sin.


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Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?”


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One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.


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Remember them, my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.


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Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners, and appointed duties for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work;


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and for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the first fruits. Remember me, my God, for good.


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Now in the days of Ahasuerus (this is Ahasuerus who reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over one hundred twenty-seven provinces),


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in those days, when the King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the palace,


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in the third year of his reign, he made a feast for all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him.


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He displayed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even one hundred eighty days.


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When these days were fulfilled, the king made a seven day feast for all the people who were present in Shushan the palace, both great and small, in the court of the garden of the king’s palace.


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There were hangings of white, green, and blue material, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and marble pillars. The couches were of gold and silver, on a pavement of red, white, yellow, and black marble.


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They gave them drinks in golden vessels of various kinds, including royal wine in abundance, according to the bounty of the king.


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In accordance with the law, the drinking was not compulsory; for so the king had instructed all the officials of his house, that they should do according to every man’s pleasure.


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Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus.


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On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcass, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king,


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to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown, to show the people and the princes her beauty; for she was beautiful.


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But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king’s commandment by the eunuchs. Therefore the king was very angry, and his anger burned in him.


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Then the king said to the wise men, who knew the times, (for it was the king’s custom to consult those who knew law and judgement;


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and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king’s face, and sat first in the kingdom),


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“What shall we do to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not done the bidding of the King Ahasuerus by the eunuchs?”


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Memucan answered before the king and the princes, “Vashti the queen has not done wrong to just the king, but also to all the princes, and to all the people who are in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus.


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For this deed of the queen will become known to all women, causing them to show contempt for their husbands, when it is reported, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she didn’t come.’


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Today, the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s deed will tell all the king’s princes. This will cause much contempt and wrath.


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“If it please the king, let a royal commandment go from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be altered, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another who is better than she.


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When the king’s decree which he shall make is published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give their husbands honour, both great and small.”


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for he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, that every man should rule his own house, speaking in the language of his own people.


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After these things, when the wrath of King Ahasuerus was pacified, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.


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Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the women’s house, to the custody of Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women. Let cosmetics be given them;


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and let the maiden who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” The thing pleased the king, and he did so.


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There was a certain Jew in the citadel of Susa, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite,


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who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.


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He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.


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So, when the king’s commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together to the citadel of Susa, to the custody of Hegai, Esther was taken into the king’s house, to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women.


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The maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness from him. He quickly gave her cosmetics and her portions of food, and the seven choice maidens who were to be given her out of the king’s house. He moved her and her maidens to the best place in the women’s house.


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Esther had not made known her people nor her relatives, because Mordecai had instructed her that she should not make it known.


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Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the women’s house, to find out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her.


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Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women).


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The young woman then came to the king like this: whatever she desired was given her to go with her out of the women’s house to the king’s house.


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In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.


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Now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, came to go in to the king, she required nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch, the keeper of the women, advised. Esther obtained favour in the sight of all those who looked at her.


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So Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.


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The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she obtained favour and kindness in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.


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Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and his servants, even Esther’s feast; and he proclaimed a holiday in the provinces, and gave gifts according to the king’s bounty.


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Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him.


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In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus.


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This thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name.


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When this matter was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king’s presence.


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After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.


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All the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn’t bow down or pay him homage.


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Then the king’s servants, who were in the king’s gate, said to Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s commandment?”


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Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn’t listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s reason would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.


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But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai’s people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai’s people.


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In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.


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Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people’s. They don’t keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not for the king’s profit to allow them to remain.


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If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king’s business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.”


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The king took his ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.


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The king said to Haman, “The silver is given to you, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to you.”


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Then the king’s scribes were called in on the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month; and all that Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language. It was written in the name of King Ahasuerus, and it was sealed with the king’s ring.


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Letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions.


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A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day.


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The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.


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Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.


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He came even before the king’s gate, for no one is allowed inside the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.


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In every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.


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Esther’s maidens and her eunuchs came and told her this, and the queen was exceedingly grieved. She sent clothing to Mordecai, to replace his sackcloth; but he didn’t receive it.


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Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, whom he had appointed to attend her, and commanded him to go to Mordecai, to find out what this was, and why it was.


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Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.


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He also gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it to Esther, and to declare it to her, and to urge her to go in to the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.


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“All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, know, that whoever, whether man or woman, comes to the king into the inner court without being called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king might hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live. I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.”


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Then Mordecai asked them return answer to Esther, “Don’t think to yourself that you will escape in the king’s house any more than all the Jews.


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For if you remain silent now, then relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”


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“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”


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Now on the third day, Esther put on her royal clothing, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, next to the king’s house. The king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, next to the entrance of the house.


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When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favour in his sight; and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther came near, and touched the top of the sceptre.


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Then the king asked her, “What would you like, queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you even to the half of the kingdom.”


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Esther said, “If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”


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Then the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that it may be done as Esther has said.” So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.


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The king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”


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If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.”


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Then Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, that he didn’t stand up nor move for him, he was filled with wrath against Mordecai.


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Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home. There, he sent and called for his friends and Zeresh his wife.


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Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.


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Haman also said, “Yes, Esther the queen let no man come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and tomorrow I am also invited by her together with the king.


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Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.


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On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.


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It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus.


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The king said, “What honour and dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?” Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”


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The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.


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The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman stands in the court.” The king said, “Let him come in.”


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So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honour?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honour more than myself?”


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let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set.


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Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honour with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour!’”


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Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.”


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Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honour!”


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Mordecai came back to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.


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Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.”


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While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came, and hurried to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.


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The king said again to Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, queen Esther? It shall be granted you. What is your request? Even to the half of the kingdom it shall be performed.”


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Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favour in your sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.


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For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for male and female slaves, I would have held my peace, although the adversary could not have compensated for the king’s loss.”


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Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he who dared presume in his heart to do so?”


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Esther said, “An adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.


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The king arose in his wrath from the banquet of wine and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.


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Then the king returned out of the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine; and Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in front of me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.


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Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Hang him on it!”


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So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.


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On that day, King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the Jews’ enemy, to Esther the queen. Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her.


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The king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.


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Esther spoke yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and begged him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.


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She said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing seem right to the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces.


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For how can I endure to see the evil that would come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my relatives?”


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Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, “See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews.


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Write also to the Jews, as it pleases you, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring; for the writing which is written in the king’s name, and sealed with the king’s ring, may not be reversed by any man.”


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Then the king’s scribes were called at that time, in the third month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of the month; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded to the Jews, and to the satraps, and the governors and princes of the provinces which are from India to Ethiopia, one hundred twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to its writing, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing, and in their language.


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He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king’s ring, and sent letters by courier on horseback, riding on royal horses that were bred from swift steeds.


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In those letters, the king granted the Jews who were in every city to gather themselves together, and to defend their life, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, their little ones and women, and to plunder their possessions,


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on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.


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A copy of the letter, that the decree should be given out in every province, was published to all the peoples, that the Jews should be ready for that day to avenge themselves on their enemies.


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So the couriers who rode on royal horses went out, hastened and pressed on by the king’s commandment. The decree was given out in the citadel of Susa.


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Mordecai went out of the presence of the king in royal clothing of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple; and the city of Susa shouted and was glad.


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In every province, and in every city, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness, joy, a feast, and a good day. Many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen on them.


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Now in the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the king’s commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered those who hated them),


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the Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who wanted to harm them. No one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.


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All the princes of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and those who did the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.


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For Mordecai was great in the king’s house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces; for the man Mordecai grew greater and greater.


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The Jews struck all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter and destruction, and did what they wanted to those who hated them.


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the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Jew’s enemy, but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.


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The king said to Esther the queen, “The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in the citadel of Susa, including the ten sons of Haman; what then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. What is your further request? It shall be done.”


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Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree, and let Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”


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The king commanded this to be done. A decree was given out in Shushan; and they hanged Haman’s ten sons.


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The Jews who were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and killed three hundred men in Shushan; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.


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The other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered themselves together, defended their lives, had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they didn’t lay their hand on the plunder.


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This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of that month they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.


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But the Jews who were in Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth days of the month; and on the fifteenth day of that month, they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.


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Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, and a day of sending presents of food to one another.


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Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both near and far,


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as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy.


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because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast “Pur”, that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;


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but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.


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Therefore they called these days “Purim”, from the word “Pur.” Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and that which had come to them,


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the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year;


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and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor their memory perish from their seed.


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Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim.


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He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,


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to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry.


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All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?


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For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his descendants.


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There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.


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His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.


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His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.


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It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.


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Now on the day when God’s sons came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them.


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The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”


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The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”


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Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.


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The LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.


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It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house,


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that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were ploughing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,


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and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”


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While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”


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While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”


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While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house,


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and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”


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Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshipped.


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He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name.”


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Again, on the day when the God’s sons came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.


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The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”


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The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”


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Satan answered the LORD, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.


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But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”


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So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.


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But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.


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Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathise with him and to comfort him.


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When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn’t recognise him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.


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So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.


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Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.


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As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.


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Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,


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For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,


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“If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?


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The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.


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It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,


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How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!


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His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,


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whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance.


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“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.


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You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.


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For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.


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For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.


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Be it still my consolation, yes, let me exult in pain that doesn’t spare, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.


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“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.


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When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.


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“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.


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If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?


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Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”


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If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.


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If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.


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God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?


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If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who,’ says he, ‘will summon me?’


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Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.


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The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?


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“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.


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Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?


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If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.


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You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.


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“‘Why, then, have you brought me out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.


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the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”


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that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.


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Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:


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You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.


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But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit.”


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But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?


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I am like one who is a joke to his neighbour, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.


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In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.


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Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.


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Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.


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He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.


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Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;


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“For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.


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so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.


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“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!


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If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.


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The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.


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His sons come to honour, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.


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What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?


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the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.


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He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.


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Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;


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He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.


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He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.


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He shall not depart out of darkness. The flame shall dry up his branches. By the breath of God’s mouth shall he go away.


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I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you,


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You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face.


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He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.


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They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.


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I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.


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His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.


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You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?


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There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.


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Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. “My heart is consumed within me.


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be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.”


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He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.


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He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.


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That for which he laboured he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.


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For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.


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In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.


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When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.


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He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.


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All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.


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“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?


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You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.


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The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.


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Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?


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If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.


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He will even deliver him who is not innocent. Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”


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I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.


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Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.


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Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.


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From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.


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The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye shall see me.’ He disguises his face.


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In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.


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For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.


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“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.


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The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.


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They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.


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He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness.


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Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”


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I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.


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“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.


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If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.


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Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.


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He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.


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To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”


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the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.


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I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.


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“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.


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They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.


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On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.


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if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,


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“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me;


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this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God who is above.


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“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him;


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because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—


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oh that I had one to hear me! (behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); let the accuser write my indictment!


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Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God.


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Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.


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Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion.


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“Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say.


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Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, among you.


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My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart. That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.


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“If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him;


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then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’


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He prays to God, and he is favourable to him, so that he sees his face with joy. He restores to man his righteousness.


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He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.


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Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’


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“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.


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Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.


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In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.


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Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.


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When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man,


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Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know.


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For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”


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That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’


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If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?


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“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.


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He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.


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If they listen and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.


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Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a broad place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.


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After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty. He doesn’t hold back anything when his voice is heard.


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For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth;’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain.


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It is turned around by his guidance, that they may do whatever he commands them on the surface of the habitable world,


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We can’t reach the Almighty. He is exalted in power. In justice and great righteousness, he will not oppress.


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Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.


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Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor?


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She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labour is in vain, she is without fear,


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He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.


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As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.


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Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.


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If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.


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You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.


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It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.


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Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”


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So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what the LORD commanded them, and the LORD accepted Job.


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The LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.


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Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.


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So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.


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He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch.


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In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.


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After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations.


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Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;


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He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.


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Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.


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The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his Anointed, saying,


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Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.


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Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.


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I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side.


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Arise, LORD! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.


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Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.


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You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonour? Will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.


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But know that the LORD has set apart for himself him who is godly: The LORD will hear when I call to him.


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LORD, in the morning you shall hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly.


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But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.


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For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.


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Hold them guilty, God. Let them fall by their own counsels; Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you.


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But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice, Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them. Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.


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if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),


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let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.


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Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgement.


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The LORD administers judgement to the peoples. Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.


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Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.


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The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.


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I will give thanks to the LORD according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.


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LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!


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From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.


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When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;


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You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.


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The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.


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He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgement to the peoples in uprightness.


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Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.


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Have mercy on me, LORD. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;


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that I may show all of your praise. In the gates of the daughter of Zion, I will rejoice in your salvation.


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The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.


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The LORD has made himself known. He has executed judgement. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.


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His ways are prosperous at all times. He is haughty, and your laws are far from his sight. As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them.


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He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.


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He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless, when he draws him in his net.


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But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.


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LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,


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For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.


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The LORD is in his holy temple. The LORD is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.


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On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.


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“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”


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How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?


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The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is no one who does good.


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The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God.


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They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.


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Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on the LORD?


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Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.


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He who doesn’t slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man;


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In whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honours those who fear the LORD; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;


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he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.


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Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take their names on my lips.


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You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.


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You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.


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Show your marvellous loving kindness, you who save those who take refuge by your right hand from their enemies.


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from men by your hand, LORD, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.


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As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.


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The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.


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In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.


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Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.


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He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion around him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.


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Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.


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The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.


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Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.


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With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.


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As for God, his way is perfect. the LORD’s word is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.


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You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand sustains me. Your gentleness has made me great.


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For you have armed me with strength to the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.


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You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.


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He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.


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He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forever more.


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Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,


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His going out is from the end of the heavens, his circuit to its ends; There is nothing hidden from its heat.


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The LORD’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. The LORD’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple.


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The LORD’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. The LORD’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.


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The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever. The LORD’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether.


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More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.


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Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.


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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, LORD, my rock, and my redeemer.


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We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May the LORD grant all your requests.


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Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand.


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For the king trusts in the LORD. Through the loving kindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.


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You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. The LORD will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.


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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?


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I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.


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My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.


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For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.


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You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!


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For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.


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The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the LORD who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.


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All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.


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All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive.


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They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.


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Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.


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You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.


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Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the LORD’s house forever.


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He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.


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Lift up your heads, you gates! Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in.


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Lift up your heads, you gates; yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come in.


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Yes, no one who waits for you shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.


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Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long.


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Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, LORD.


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All the paths of the LORD are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.


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The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?


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When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.


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Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.


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One thing I have asked of the LORD, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life, to see the LORD’s beauty, and to inquire in his temple.


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For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the covert of his tabernacle he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.


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Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.


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Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.


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Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.


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To you, LORD, I call. My rock, don’t be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.


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Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.


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Don’t draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts.


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Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.


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Because they don’t respect the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up.


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The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.


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The LORD’s voice makes the deer calve, and strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, “Glory!”


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LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.


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For his anger is but for a moment. His favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.


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You, LORD, when you favoured me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled.


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“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?


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You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,


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To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!


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Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defence to save me.


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I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.


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For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.


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Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbours, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.


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For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.


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Let me not be disappointed, LORD, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be disappointed. Let them be silent in Sheol.


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Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!


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In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.


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As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.


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Oh love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.


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I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.


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For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.


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You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.


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I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.


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Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.


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The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.


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There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.


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The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.


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Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonour. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.


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For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.


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Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.


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All my bones shall say, “LORD, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”


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But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.


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I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.


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But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.


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Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.


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Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.


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For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.


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Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”


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Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour who magnify themselves against me.


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Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favour my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, “The LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”


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An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”


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Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgements are like a great deep. LORD, you preserve man and animal.


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How precious is your loving kindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.


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They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.


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Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.


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For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn’t there.


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The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright on the path.


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But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of the LORD shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.


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For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off.


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I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.


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For the LORD loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.


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Wait for the LORD, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.


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The LORD helps them, and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, Because they have taken refuge in him.


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There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.


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They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.


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I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”


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Behold, you have made my days hand breadths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.


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“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.


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When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.


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“Hear my prayer, LORD, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.


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He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.


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He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.


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Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.


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Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.


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Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.


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I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know.


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I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.


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Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.


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For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.


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Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonour who delight in my hurt.


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Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let the LORD be exalted!”


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But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.


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The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive. He shall be blessed on the earth, and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.


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If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.


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Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.


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These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.


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Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.


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My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.


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Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.


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the LORD will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.


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I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”


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As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”


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Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.


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Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.


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For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?


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Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents.


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Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.


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Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Saviour, my helper, and my God.


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We have heard with our ears, God; our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the days of old.


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You drove out the nations with your hand, but you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, but you spread them abroad.


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For they didn’t get the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because you were favourable to them.


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Through you, will we push down our adversaries. Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us.


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All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant.


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My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skilful writer.


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You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever.


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In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds.


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You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.


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All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.


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Kings’ daughters are among your honourable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.


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Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.


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She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.


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I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever.


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Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;


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There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.


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He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.


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“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”


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The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!


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Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the north sides, the city of the great King.


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As we have heard, so we have seen, in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.


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As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.


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For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.


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Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.


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They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.


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But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,


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You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.


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“Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.


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Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”


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Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.


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Against you, and you only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.


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Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.


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For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.


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The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.


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Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.


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God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.


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“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”


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But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.


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I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, in the presence of your saints.


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The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good.


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God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God.


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Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.


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Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?


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There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.


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Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.


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For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.


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With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, LORD, for it is good.


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Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.


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For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him.


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Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is in their dwelling, in their midst.


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He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, although there are many who oppose me.


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God, who is enthroned forever, will hear, and answer them. Selah. They never change, who don’t fear God.


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His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.


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Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.


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But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.


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For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.


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Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed.


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He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.


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My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.


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They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dig a pit before me. They fall into its midst themselves. Selah.


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Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.


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Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike.


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The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;


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so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”


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For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, LORD.


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You, LORD God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.


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Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.


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For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.


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Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah.


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But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.


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You have given a banner to those who fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.


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God has spoken from his sanctuary: “I will triumph. I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth.


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From the end of the earth, I will call to you, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.


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He shall be enthroned in God’s presence forever. Appoint your loving kindness and truth, that they may preserve him.


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How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?


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They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.


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Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.


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Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.


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Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.


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God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.


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But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.


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They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?”


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They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning.


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All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what he has done.


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The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall take refuge in him. All the upright in heart shall praise him!


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Blessed is one whom you choose, and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.


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By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea;


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They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy.


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You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.


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The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.


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Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.


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He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.


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You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance.


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I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat animals, with the offering of rams, I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.


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Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.


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As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.


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Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: to the LORD, his name! Rejoice before him!


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God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.


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The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai— at the presence of God, the God of Israel.


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while you sleep among the camp fires, the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold.


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Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, the LORD will dwell there forever.


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The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.


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You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among men, yes, among the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell there.


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But God will strike through the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness.


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The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea;


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That you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.”


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The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, in the midst of the ladies playing with tambourines,


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There is little Benjamin, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.


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Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.


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To him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old; behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice.


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You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries. The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God!


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I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.


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Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.


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Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me, God of Israel.


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But as for me, my prayer is to you, LORD, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.


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Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.


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Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.


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Answer me, LORD, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.


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Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.


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Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.


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Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation continually say, “Let God be exalted!”


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But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer. LORD, don’t delay.


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Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.


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I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.


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Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.


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My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.


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I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord GOD. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.


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Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.


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Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?


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You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.


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I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.


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My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.


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He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.


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The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.


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They shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Men shall pray for him continually. They shall bless him all day long.


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Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.


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His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.


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For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.


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But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord the LORD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.


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God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smoulder against the sheep of your pasture?


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Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.


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Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.


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They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshipped.


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We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.


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Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.


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We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works.


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For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.


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There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.


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Valiant men lie plundered, they have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.


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Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfil them! Let all of his neighbours bring presents to him who is to be feared.


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In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.


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The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.


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We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.


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For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;


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that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,


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and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.


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Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?”


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Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,


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when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their fattest, and struck down the young men of Israel.


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But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.


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He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.


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He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,


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He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.


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but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.


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For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.


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from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.


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So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.


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God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.


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They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.


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Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you; on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;


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Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.


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Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.


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Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.


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Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.


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Pay back to our neighbours seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.


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So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.


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Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.


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Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.


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He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know.


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You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah.


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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.


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So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.


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But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”


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They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.


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“Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”


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My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.


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Yes, the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, near your altars, LORD of Armies, my King, and my God.


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Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.


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For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.


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For the LORD God is a sun and a shield. The LORD will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.


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I will hear what God, the LORD, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.


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For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.


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God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.


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But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.


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Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your handmaid.


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Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, LORD, have helped me, and comforted me.


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I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: “This one was born there.”


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Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her”; the Most High himself will establish her.


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set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.


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You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.


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I will sing of the loving kindness of the LORD forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.


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I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”


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The heavens will praise your wonders, LORD; your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.


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For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like the LORD,


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a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?


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You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.


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Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.


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Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.


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What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.


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Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,


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With which your enemies have mocked, LORD, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.


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Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.


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For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.


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The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labour and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.


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Let the favour of the Lord our God be on us; establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands.


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He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.


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A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you.


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“Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name.


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He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honour him.


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though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.


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For, behold, your enemies, LORD, for, behold, your enemies shall perish. All the evildoers will be scattered.


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The LORD reigns! He is clothed with majesty! The LORD is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved.


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The floods have lifted up, LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.


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He has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. The LORD, our God, will cut them off.


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for he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep in his care. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!


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Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”


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Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is also established. It can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.


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before the LORD; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.


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The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.


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Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!


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You who love the LORD, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.


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Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things! His right hand, and his holy arm, have worked salvation for him.


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The LORD has made known his salvation. He has openly shown his righteousness in the sight of the nations.


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He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


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Let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.


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The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned among the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.


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The King’s strength also loves justice. You do establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.


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Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who call on his name; they called on the LORD, and he answered them.


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You answered them, LORD our God. You are a God who forgave them, although you took vengeance for their doings.


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Know that the LORD, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.


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Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, and bless his name.


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I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a blameless heart.


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I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.


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I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbour. I won’t tolerate one who is haughty and conceited.


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My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, he will serve me.


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He who practices deceit won’t dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood won’t be established before my eyes.


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Morning by morning, I will destroy all the wicked of the land; to cut off all the workers of iniquity from the LORD’s city.


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Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.


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You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.


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This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise the LORD.


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I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the midst of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.


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They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.


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For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.


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But the LORD’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children;


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Praise the LORD, you angels of his, who are mighty in strength, who fulfil his word, obeying the voice of his word.


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Bless the LORD, my soul. The LORD, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honour and majesty.


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He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.


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He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:


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wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.


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The LORD, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.


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There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals.


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You hide your face: they are troubled; you take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.


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Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD!


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that I may see the prosperity of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.


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Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.


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He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert.


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Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.


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They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.


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Many times he delivered them, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity.


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He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.


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Save us, LORD, our God, gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise!


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Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the LORD!


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They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.


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He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.


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Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of the LORD.


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God has spoken from his sanctuary: “In triumph, I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth.


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for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.


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Let there be no one to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children.


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Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by the LORD. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out.


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because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them.


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He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.


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Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, for the belt that is always around him.


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But deal with me, the LORD the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me;


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They may curse, but you bless. When they arise, they will be shamed, but your servant shall rejoice.


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Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonour. Let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.


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The LORD says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


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Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.


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The LORD has sworn, and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”


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He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.


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Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation.


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He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. His name is holy and awesome!


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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!


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He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honour.


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The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.


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Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake.


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They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat.


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The LORD remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.


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LORD, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains.


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For his loving kindness is great toward us. The LORD’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the LORD!


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The LORD is on my side among those who help me. Therefore I will look in triumph at those who hate me.


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They surrounded me like bees. They are quenched like the burning thorns. In the LORD’s name I cut them off.


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The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.


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The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.


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Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully. I will meditate on your precepts.


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where the tribes go up, even the LORD’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the LORD’s name.


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Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the LORD, our God, until he has mercy on us.


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Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.


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Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped.


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As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people from this time forward and forever more.


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For the sceptre of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous; so that the righteous won’t use their hands to do evil.


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But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, The LORD will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.


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Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”


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He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.


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Unless the LORD builds the house, they labour in vain who build it. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.


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It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones.


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Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.


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Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of your house; your children like olive plants, around your table.


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May the LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.


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Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of the LORD be on you. We bless you in the LORD’s name.”


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My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning; more than watchmen for the morning.


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Israel, hope in the LORD, for with the LORD there is loving kindness. With him is abundant redemption.


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LORD, my heart isn’t haughty, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.


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Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.


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The LORD has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.


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If your children will keep my covenant, my testimony that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne forever more.”


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It is like the precious oil on the head, that ran down on the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that came down on the edge of his robes;


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like the dew of Hermon, that comes down on the hills of Zion: for there the LORD gives the blessing, even life forever more.


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who causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth; who makes lightnings with the rain; who brings the wind out of his treasuries;


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For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”


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Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I don’t remember you; if I don’t prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.


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Remember, LORD, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, “Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!”


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Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who rewards you, as you have served us.


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I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted your Name and your Word above all.


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Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me.


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The LORD will fulfil that which concerns me; your loving kindness, LORD, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.


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even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.


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I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.


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My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.


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Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.


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LORD, keep me from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent men who have determined to trip my feet.


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The proud have hidden a snare for me, they have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me. Selah.


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LORD, don’t grant the desires of the wicked. Don’t let their evil plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah.


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Let burning coals fall on them. Let them be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, from where they never rise.


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Let my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.


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Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.


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Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; don’t let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.


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Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock. They will hear my words, for they are well spoken.


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When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my route. On the path in which I walk, they have hidden a snare for me.


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Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.


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Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need. deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than me.


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Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will be good to me.


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For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.


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Hurry to answer me, LORD. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.


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Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.


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Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.


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In your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant.


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my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge; who subdues my people under me.


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Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners;


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Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.


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Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.


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Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.


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Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, and no outcry in our streets.


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Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations. the LORD is faithful in all his words, and loving in all his deeds.


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The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down. The LORD loves the righteous.


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The LORD preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.


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Praise the LORD, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him.


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who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.


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let them praise the LORD’s name, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.


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He has lifted up the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise the LORD!


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that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel:


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If they say, “Come with us, Let’s lay in wait for blood; let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;


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“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?


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Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;


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when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come on you.


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Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;


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Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.


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Don’t say to your neighbour, “Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give it to you,” when you have it by you.


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For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.


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But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, that shines more and more until the perfect day.


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A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.


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My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbour, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;


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Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbour. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbour.


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Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.


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When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.


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He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.


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Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.


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The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.


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when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth;


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“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,


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Instruct a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.


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“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,


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But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.


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The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.


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The LORD will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.


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He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.


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Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.


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In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.


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The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.


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The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them.


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The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.


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The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires.


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With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbour, but the righteous will be delivered through knowledge.


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By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.


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One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, but one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.


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Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, but in the multitude of counsellors there is victory.


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He who is collateral for a stranger will suffer for it, but he who refuses pledges of collateral is secure.


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Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to the LORD, but those whose ways are blameless are his delight.


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Most certainly, the evil man will not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous will be delivered.


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There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.


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He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.


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The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.


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Better is he who is lightly esteemed, and has a servant, than he who honours himself, and lacks bread.


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He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he who chases fantasies is void of understanding.


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A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. The work of a man’s hands shall be rewarded to him.


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The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, but the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied.


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There are some who pretend to be rich, yet have nothing. There are some who pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.


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Poverty and shame come to him who refuses discipline, but he who heeds correction shall be honoured.


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A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.


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In the multitude of people is the king’s glory, but in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.


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He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honours him.


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Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, and is even made known in the inward part of fools.


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The king’s favour is toward a servant who deals wisely, but his wrath is toward one who causes shame.


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The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.


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The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but he loves him who follows after righteousness.


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All the days of the afflicted are wretched, but one who has a cheerful heart enjoys a continual feast.


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Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: they shall certainly not be unpunished.


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How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.


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One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; one who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.


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A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.


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The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarrelling breaks out.


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He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.


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One who has a perverse heart doesn’t find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.


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Wisdom is before the face of one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.


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Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.


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A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city; and disputes are like the bars of a castle.


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A man’s stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth. With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.


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All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.


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Flog a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke one who has understanding, and he will gain knowledge.


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The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.


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The sluggard will not plough by reason of the winter; therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.


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Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; and hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.


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He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; therefore don’t keep company with him who opens wide his lips.


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The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.


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It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.


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When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom. When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.


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The man who wanders out of the way of understanding shall rest in the assembly of the departed spirits.


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Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.


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Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.


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for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.


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Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?


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Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:


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“They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”


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Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!


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If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this”; doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?


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so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul; if you have found it, then there will be a reward, your hope will not be cut off.


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Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place:


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for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.


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He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous”; peoples shall curse him, and nations shall abhor him—


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Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.


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for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.


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Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbour shames you?


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As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters.


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As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.


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Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster: better is a neighbour who is near than a distant brother.


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He who blesses his neighbour with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.


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Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.


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There will be plenty of goats’ milk for your food, for your family’s food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.


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In rebellion, a land has many rulers, but order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.


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Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he will fall into his own trap; but the blameless will inherit good.


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One who works his land will have an abundance of food; but one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.


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Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, “It’s not wrong.” He is a partner with a destroyer.


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Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.


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Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if you know?


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Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me;


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lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.


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There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and their jaws like knives, to devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.


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“The leach has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ “There are three things that are never satisfied; four that don’t say, ‘Enough:’


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Sheol, the barren womb; the earth that is not satisfied with water; and the fire that doesn’t say, ‘Enough.’


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“The eye that mocks at his father, and scorns obedience to his mother: the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, the young eagles shall eat it.


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The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent on a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maiden.


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“So is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’


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“If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, or if you have thought evil, put your hand over your mouth.


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For as the churning of milk produces butter, and the wringing of the nose produces blood; so the forcing of wrath produces strife.”


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It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’


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She rises also while it is yet night, gives food to her household, and portions for her servant girls.


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The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses.


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All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.


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All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.


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That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.


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Is there a thing of which it may be said, “Behold, this is new?” It has been long ago, in the ages which were before us.


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There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.


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I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.


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I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.


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I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”


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I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.


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I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure”; and behold, this also was vanity.


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I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.


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I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem;


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I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—musical instruments, and that of all sorts.


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So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.


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Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labour, and this was my portion from all my labour.


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Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labour that I had laboured to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.


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I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.


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The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.


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Then I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.


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For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!


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So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.


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I hated all my labour in which I laboured under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.


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Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labour in which I have laboured, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.


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Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labour in which I had laboured under the sun.


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For there is a man whose labour is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skilfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not laboured for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.


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For what has a man of all his labour, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labours under the sun?


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For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.


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There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.


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For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.


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a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;


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a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;


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He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.


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I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; and God has done it, that men should fear before him.


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That which is has been long ago, and that which is to be has been long ago: and God seeks again that which is passed away.


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Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.


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I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”


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I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.


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For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity.


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Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”


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Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?


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Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.


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Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.


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Then I saw all the labour and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbour. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.


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There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labour, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labour, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.


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For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up.


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If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.


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Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who doesn’t know how to receive admonition any more.


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I saw all the living who walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the other, who succeeded him.


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There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.


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Guard your steps when you go to God’s house; for to draw near to listen is better than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they don’t know that they do evil.


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Don’t be rash with your mouth, and don’t let your heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few.


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When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.


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Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?


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If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter: for one official is eyed by a higher one; and there are officials over them.


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He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.


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When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes?


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The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.


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As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.


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This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labours for the wind?


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Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour, in which he labours under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.


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Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour—this is the gift of God.


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For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life; because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.


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a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honour, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.


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If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:


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Yes, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet fails to enjoy good, don’t all go to one place?


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For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?


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Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.


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Whatever has been, its name was given long ago; and it is known what man is; neither can he contend with him who is mightier than he.


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For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?


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It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.


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Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.


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For wisdom is a defence, even as money is a defence; but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.


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In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider; yes, God has made the one side by side with the other, to the end that man should not find out anything after him.


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All this have I seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.


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It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.


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I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.


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I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.


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which my soul still seeks; but I have not found. One man among a thousand have I found; but I have not found a woman among all those.


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Who is like the wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.


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Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,


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Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.


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There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.


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All this have I seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.


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So I saw the wicked buried. Indeed they came also from holiness. They went and were forgotten in the city where they did this. This also is vanity.


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Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.


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Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.


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But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow; because he doesn’t fear God.


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There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.


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Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labour all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.


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When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),


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then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labours to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.


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For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.


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All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good, to the clean, to the unclean, to him who sacrifices, and to him who doesn’t sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath, as he who fears an oath.


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This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.


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For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion.


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For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.


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Also their love, their hatred, and their envy has perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.


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Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.


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Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labour in which you labour under the sun.


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Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.


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I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.


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For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.


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There was a little city, and few men within it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it.


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Now a poor wise man was found in it, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.


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Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.


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Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to produce an evil odour; so does a little folly outweigh wisdom and honour.


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Yes also, when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.


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If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, don’t leave your place; for gentleness lays great offences to rest.


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If the axe is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but skill brings success.


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The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.


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A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?


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Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!


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Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom: for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.


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If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there shall it be.


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As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.


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In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good.


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Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.


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Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.


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Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.


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Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;


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Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;


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in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,


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and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;


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yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:


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before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern,


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Further, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered, sought out, and set in order many proverbs.


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The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.


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The words of the wise are like goads; and like nails well fastened are words from the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.


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Furthermore, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.


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This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.


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For God will bring every work into judgement, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.


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Take me away with you. Let us hurry. The king has brought me into his rooms. Friends We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will praise your love more than wine! Beloved They are right to love you.


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Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.


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Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you graze your flock, where you rest them at noon; For why should I be as one who is veiled beside the flocks of your companions? Lover


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If you don’t know, most beautiful among women, follow the tracks of the sheep. Graze your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents.


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As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, his fruit was sweet to my taste.


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I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.


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My beloved is like a roe or a young deer. Behold, he stands behind our wall! He looks in at the windows. He glances through the lattice.


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The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.


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The fig tree ripens her green figs. The vines are in blossom. They give out their fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” Lover


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My dove in the clefts of the rock, In the hiding places of the mountainside, Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.


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Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that plunder the vineyards; for our vineyards are in blossom. Beloved


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Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young deer on the mountains of Bether.


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I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.


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I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.


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Who is this who comes up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all spices of the merchant?


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They all handle the sword, and are expert in war. Every man has his sword on his thigh, because of fear in the night.


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He made its pillars of silver, its bottom of gold, its seat of purple, its midst being paved with love, from the daughters of Jerusalem.


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Go out, you daughters of Zion, and see king Solomon, with the crown with which his mother has crowned him, in the day of his weddings, in the day of the gladness of his heart.


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Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead.


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Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them.


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Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.


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Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armoury, whereon a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men.


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Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.


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Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.


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You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.


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How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!


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Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.


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spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,


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Awake, north wind; and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.


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I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved. Beloved


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I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night.”


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I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?


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I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.


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I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn’t find him. I called him, but he didn’t answer.


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The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.


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I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love. Friends


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How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us? Beloved


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His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.


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His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.


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His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.


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His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.


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Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you? Beloved


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My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.


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Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats, that lie along the side of Gilead.


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Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, which have come up from the washing; of which every one has twins; no one is bereaved among them.


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My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favourite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed; the queens and the concubines, and they praised her.


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Who is she who looks out as the morning, beautiful as the moon, clear as the sun, and awesome as an army with banners?


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I went down into the nut tree grove, to see the green plants of the valley, to see whether the vine budded, and the pomegranates were in flower.


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Return, return, Shulammite! Return, return, that we may gaze at you. Lover Why do you desire to gaze at the Shulammite, as at the dance of Mahanaim?


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How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter! Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skilful workman.


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Your body is like a round goblet, no mixed wine is wanting. Your waist is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies.


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Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.


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Your head on you is like Carmel. The hair of your head like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.


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I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree. I will take hold of its fruit.” Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the smell of your breath like apples, Beloved


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Your mouth like the best wine, that goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding through the lips of those who are asleep.


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Let’s go early up to the vineyards. Let’s see whether the vine has budded, its blossom is open, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.


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The mandrakes produce fragrance. At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.


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Oh that you were like my brother, who nursed from the breasts of my mother! If I found you outside, I would kiss you; yes, and no one would despise me.


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I would lead you, bringing you into my mother’s house, who would instruct me. I would have you drink spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate.


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I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires. Friends


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Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labour and bore you.


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Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of the LORD.


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Many waters can’t quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. Friends


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We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?


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If she is a wall, we will build on her a turret of silver. if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Beloved


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Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.


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My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit. Lover


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The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.


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Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for the LORD has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.


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The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”


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Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.


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Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.


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From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.


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Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.


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The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.


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Unless the LORD of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.


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“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says the LORD. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.


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Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t bear with evil assemblies.


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My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.


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When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.


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Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.


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“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.


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but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”


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How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.


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Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don’t judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.


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Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies;


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I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’


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But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.


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For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.


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The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”


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It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.


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Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and the LORD’s word from Jerusalem.


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He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.


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For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled from the east, with those who practice divination like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.


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Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures. Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.


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Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.


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Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty.


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The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the haughtiness of men will be bowed down, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.


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For there will be a day of the LORD of Armies for all that is proud and haughty, and for all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low:


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The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.


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Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.


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In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats;


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To go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.


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For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water;


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the captain of fifty, the honourable man, the counsellor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.


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The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbour. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honourable.


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Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, “You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand.”


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In that day he will cry out, saying, “I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.”


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For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.


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The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves.


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As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.


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The LORD will enter into judgement with the elders of his people, and their leaders: “It is you who have eaten up the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses.


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What do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor?” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.


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Moreover the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and flirting eyes, walking to trip as they go, jingling ornaments on their feet;


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therefore the Lord brings sores on the crown of the head of the women of Zion, and the LORD will make their scalps bald.”


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In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces,


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It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well set hair, baldness; instead of a robe, a wearing of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.


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Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, “We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name. Take away our reproach.”


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In that day, the LORD’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel.


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It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;


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when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning.


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The LORD will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.


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There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain.


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Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.


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He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.


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What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?


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Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.


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I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”


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For the vineyard of the LORD of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.


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Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!


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In my ears, the LORD of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.


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Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!


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The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of the LORD, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.


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Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honourable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.


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Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, their multitude, their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend into it.


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Who say, “Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”


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Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!


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Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of the LORD of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.


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Therefore the LORD’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is still stretched out.


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He will lift up a banner to the nations from far, and he will whistle for them from the end of the earth. Behold, they will come speedily and swiftly.


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No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken:


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whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent. Their horses’ hoofs will be like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.


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Their roaring will be like a lioness. They will roar like young lions. Yes, they shall roar, and seize their prey and carry it off, and there will be no one to deliver.


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They will roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea. If one looks to the land behold, darkness and distress. The light is darkened in its clouds.


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In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.


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Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.


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One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”


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The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.


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Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies!”


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Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.


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He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”


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I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”


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He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’


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Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”


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Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,


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If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stock.”


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In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.


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It was told the house of David, saying, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.


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Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field.


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Tell him, ‘Be careful, and keep calm. Don’t be afraid, neither let your heart be faint because of these two tails of smoking torches, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.


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“Let’s go up against Judah, and tear it apart, and let’s divide it among ourselves, and set up a king in its midst, even the son of Tabeel.”


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For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people;


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and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”


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He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?


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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.


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For before the child knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.


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The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.


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It will happen in that day that the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.


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They shall come, and shall all rest in the desolate valleys, in the clefts of the rocks, on all thorn hedges, and on all pastures.


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In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.


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and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left in the midst of the land.


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It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.


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All the hills that were cultivated with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.”


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The LORD said to me, “Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz’;


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and I will take for myself faithful witnesses to testify: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”


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I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name ‘Maher Shalal Hash Baz.’


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For before the child knows how to say, ‘My father,’ and, ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria.”


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“Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;


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now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks.


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It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through; it will reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.


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Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!


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Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand: for God is with us.”


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For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,


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“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorised.


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The LORD of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.


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He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.


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When they tell you, “Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:” shouldn’t a people consult with their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?


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Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.


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They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry; and it will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward,


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and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.


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But there shall be no more gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time he has made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.


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The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.


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You have multiplied the nation. You have increased their joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the plunder.


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For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.


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For all the armour of the armed man in the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.


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For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.


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Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will perform this.


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All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart,


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“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stone. The sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”


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Therefore the LORD will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies,


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The Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind; and they will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.


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Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.


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For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.


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Through the wrath of the LORD of Armies, the land is burnt up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.


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One will devour on the right hand, and be hungry; and he will eat on the left hand, and they will not be satisfied. Everyone will eat the flesh of his own arm:


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Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.


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to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!


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What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?


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They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.


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I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.


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However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.


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As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;


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Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the wilful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks.


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For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.


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My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”


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Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.


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Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.


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The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.


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He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.


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It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.


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For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.


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For the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, in the midst of all the earth.


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Therefore the Lord, the LORD of Armies, says “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.


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For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”


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The LORD of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.


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It will happen in that day, that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.


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They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.


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This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.


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Behold, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.


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The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.


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His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;


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but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.


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The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.


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The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.


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The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.


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They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.


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It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.


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It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.


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He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


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The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim.


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They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them.


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The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.


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There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.


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In that day you will say, “I will give thanks to you, the LORD; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me.


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Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD, the LORD, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.”


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In that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted!


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Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.


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I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.


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The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! the LORD of Armies is mustering the army for the battle.


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They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.


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They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labour. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.


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Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy its sinners out of it.


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For the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going out, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.


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I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will humble the haughtiness of the terrible.


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Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place in the wrath of the LORD of Armies, and in the day of his fierce anger.


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It will happen that like a hunted gazelle, and like sheep that no one gathers, they will each turn to their own people, and will each flee to their own land.


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Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.


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Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.


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Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.


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Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.


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It will never be inhabited, neither will it be lived in from generation to generation. The Arabian will not pitch a tent there, neither will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.


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But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic there.


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Wolves will cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.


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For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.


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The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.


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It will happen in the day that the LORD will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,


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that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”


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who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.


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Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”


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Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.


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They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”


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Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.


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How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!


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You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!


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Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;


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who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”


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But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.


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You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of evildoers will not be named forever.


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Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.


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“I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says the LORD.


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“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of Armies.


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The LORD of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:


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that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.


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This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.


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For the LORD of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”


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Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.


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The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.


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Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.


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What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.


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The burden of Moab: for in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing.


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They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.


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In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.


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Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.


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My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for on the way to Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction.


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For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.


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Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.


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For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab; its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim.


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For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.


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Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.


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For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.


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Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!


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Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.


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A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.


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We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.


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Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.


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For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.


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Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.


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Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.


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It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.


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But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”


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The burden of Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap.


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The cities of Aroer are forsaken. They will be for flocks, which shall lie down, and no one shall make them afraid.


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The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria. They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” says the LORD of Armies.


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“It will happen in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean.


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It will be like when the harvester gathers the wheat, and his arm reaps the grain. Yes, it will be like when one gleans grain in the valley of Rephaim.


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Yet gleanings will be left there, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outermost branches of a fruitful tree,” says the LORD, the God of Israel.


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In that day, people will look to their Maker, and their eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.


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They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they respect that which their fingers have made, either the Asherah poles, or the incense altars.


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In that day, their strong cities will be like the forsaken places in the woods and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it will be a desolation.


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For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings.


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In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.


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Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!


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The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters: but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far off, and will be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.


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At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.


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that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”


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All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!


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For the LORD said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”


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For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.


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They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.


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In that time, a present will be brought to the LORD of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, Mount Zion.


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The burden of Egypt: “Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.


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I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.


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The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.


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I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.


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The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.


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The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.


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The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.


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The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?”


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Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.


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The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes.


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The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.


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In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of Armies, which he shakes over them.


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The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of the LORD of Armies, which he determines against it.


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In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Armies. One will be called “The city of destruction.”


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In that day, there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.


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It will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and he will send them a saviour and a defender, and he will deliver them.


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The LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to the LORD, and will perform it.


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The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.


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In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.


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In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;


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because the LORD of Armies has blessed them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”


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In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;


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at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.


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The LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,


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so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.


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They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.


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The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”


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The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.


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A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.


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Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labour. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see.


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My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.


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They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!


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When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.”


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He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.


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Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.


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You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.


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The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”


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The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”


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They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.


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For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.


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For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,


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and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”


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You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.


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All your rulers fled away together. They were bound by the archers. All who were found by you were bound together. They fled far away.


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Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labour to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.


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For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, the LORD of Armies, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.”


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He took away the covering of Judah; and you looked in that day to the armour in the house of the forest.


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You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.


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You also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn’t look to him who had done this, neither did you have respect for him who purposed it long ago.


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In that day, the Lord, the LORD of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:


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and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”


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The LORD of Armies revealed himself in my ears, “Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.


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Thus says the Lord, the LORD of Armies, “Go, get yourself to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, and say,


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‘What are you doing here? Who has you here, that you have dug out a tomb here?’ Cutting himself out a tomb on high, chiselling a habitation for himself in the rock!”


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He will surely wind you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a large country. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be, you shame of your lord’s house.


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and I will clothe him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your government into his hand; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.


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I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.


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I will fasten him like a nail in a sure place. He will be for a throne of glory to his father’s house.


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They will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.


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“In that day,” says the LORD of Armies, “the nail that was fastened in a sure place will give way. It will be cut down, and fall. The burden that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.”


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The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.


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Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.


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On great waters, the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue. She was the market of nations.


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Be ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, “I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.”


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Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel?


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Who has planned this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?


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The LORD of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.


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He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. The LORD has ordered the destruction of Canaan’s strongholds.


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He said, “You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Kittim. Even there you will have no rest.”


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Behold, the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not. The Assyrians founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a ruin.


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It will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to Tyre like in the song of the prostitute.


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Take a harp; go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered.


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It will happen after the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her wages, and will play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.


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Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to the LORD. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.


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Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.


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It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.


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The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish.


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The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.


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Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.


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There is a crying in the streets because of the wine. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone.


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For it will be so in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.


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These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of the LORD. They cry aloud from the sea.


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Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, even the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea!


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From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.


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It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.


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The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again.


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It shall happen in that day that the LORD will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.


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They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited.


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Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of Armies will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders will be glory.


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The LORD, you are my God. I will exalt you! I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago, in complete faithfulness and truth.


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For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city. It will never be built.


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For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.


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As the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the dreaded ones will be brought low.


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In this mountain, the LORD of Armies will make all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of choice wines, of fat things full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.


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He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.


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He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the LORD has spoken it.


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It shall be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God! We have waited for him, and he will save us! This is the LORD! We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”


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For in this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.


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He will spread out his hands in its midst, like one who swims spreads out hands to swim, but his pride will be humbled together with the craft of his hands.


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He has brought the high fortress of your walls down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.


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In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.


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For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust.


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Yes, in the way of your judgements, the LORD, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.


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With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.


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Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see the LORD’s majesty.


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The LORD, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.


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The LORD our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.


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The dead shall not live. The departed spirits shall not rise. Therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.


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You have increased the nation, O LORD. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.


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Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, LORD.


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We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.


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Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.


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Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.


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For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.


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In that day, the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.


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I, the LORD, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.


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Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.


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Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”


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In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.


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Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?


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In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.


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Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more.


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For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.


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When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favour.


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It will happen in that day, that the LORD will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.


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It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.


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Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!


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Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.


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The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.


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In that day, the LORD of Armies will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;


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and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgement, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.


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They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgement.


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Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?


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For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.


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to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary”; and “This is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear.


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Therefore the LORD’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.


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“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’”


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.


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I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.


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Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.


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As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”


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For the LORD will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.


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Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, the LORD of Armies, on the whole earth.


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Does he who ploughs to sow plough continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?


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When he has levelled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?


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For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.


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Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it.


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then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.


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I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you.


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You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.


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But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly.


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She will be visited by the LORD of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire.


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The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.


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It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.


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Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.


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For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.


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All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed:”


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and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I can’t read.”


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The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honour me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;


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therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”


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Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from the LORD, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”


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You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”


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Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?


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In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.


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The humble also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.


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For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off—


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who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony.


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Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale.


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But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.


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They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”


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“Woe to the rebellious children”, says the LORD, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,


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who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!


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Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.


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They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.”


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The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people.


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Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.


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who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.


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Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”


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Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it;


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therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.


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He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”


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For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused,


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but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift.


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One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.


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Therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.


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For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.


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Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers;


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and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”


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You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”


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He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.


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The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savoury provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.


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There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.


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Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.


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Behold, the LORD’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.


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His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.


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You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to the LORD’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock.


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The LORD will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones.


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Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which the LORD will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons.


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For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. The LORD’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.


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Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek the LORD!


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Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.


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Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.


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For thus says the LORD to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so the LORD of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights.


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As birds hovering, so the LORD of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.”


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For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you.


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“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labour.


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His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.


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A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.


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The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.


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For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the LORD, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.


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The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.


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For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won’t come.


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Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.


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Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.


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For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;


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Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.


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The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.


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Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.


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LORD, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.


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At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.


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There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is your treasure.


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The highways are desolate. The travelling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man.


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The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.


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You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.


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The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?


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He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—


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he will dwell on high. His place of defence will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.


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Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?


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You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand.


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Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.


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But there the LORD will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there.


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Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey.


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The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.


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Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it.


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For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.


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Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood.


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All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.


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For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgement.


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The LORD’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.


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The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.


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Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.


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It won’t be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.


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But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.


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They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.


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Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.


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The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.


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The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.


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Search in the book of the LORD, and read: not one of these will be missing. none will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.


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He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.


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It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the LORD’s glory, the excellence of our God.


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Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.


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Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.


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The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.


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A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.


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No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.


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The the LORD’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”


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Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them.


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The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway.


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Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.


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Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust?


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I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?


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Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.


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But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’”


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Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.


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Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? the LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”


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Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”


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But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”


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Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!


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Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’


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Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;


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until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.


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Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?


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Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?


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Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”


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But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”


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Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.


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When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house.


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He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.


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They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth.


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It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”


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Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.


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Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”


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So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.


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He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,


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“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”


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Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered?


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Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?


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Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”


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Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD’s house, and spread it before the LORD.


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“LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.


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Turn your ear, LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, LORD, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.


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and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.


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Now therefore, LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, even you only.”


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Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,


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this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.


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By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice fir trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field.


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Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.


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Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown.


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Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.


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This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.


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The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.


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For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will perform this.’


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Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.


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By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,’ says the LORD.


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the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.


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As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.


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In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”


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and said, “Remember now, the LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.


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“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.


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I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city.


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Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.”’”


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I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”


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I said, “I won’t see the LORD, The LORD in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.


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My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.


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I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.


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I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”


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What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.


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Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live.


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Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.


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For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.


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The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children.


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The LORD will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the LORD’s house.


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Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.”


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At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.


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Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.


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Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.”


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Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”


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‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says the LORD.


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‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’”


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Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”


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“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”


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The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.


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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.


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the LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”


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The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.


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The grass withers, the flower fades, because the LORD’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.


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You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Don’t be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”


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Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.


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He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.


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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?


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Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?


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Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.


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All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.


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A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.


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He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skilful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.


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Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard, yet? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?


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It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;


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They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.


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Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.


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Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”


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Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.


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But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.


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“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgement.


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Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.


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Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he.”


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So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.


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You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;’


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Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.


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Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.


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You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.


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For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’


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Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.


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Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.


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You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the LORD. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.


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The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.


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I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.


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I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;


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that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.


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“Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.


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Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.


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“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.


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Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’ Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.


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I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.


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When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counsellor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.


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Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.


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“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.


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He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.


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He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law.”


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Thus says God the LORD, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.


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“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;


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to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.


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“I am the LORD. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.


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Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”


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Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.


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Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains!


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The LORD will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.


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“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.


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I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.


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I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.


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“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.


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Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the LORD’s servant?


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But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers; and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’


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Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.


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Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”


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But now thus says the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.


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When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.


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For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.


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Since you have been precious and honoured in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life.


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Don’t be afraid; for I am with you. I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west.


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I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth—


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everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’”


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Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”


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“You are my witnesses,” says the LORD, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.


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I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says the LORD, “and I am God.


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Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”


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Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.


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who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick):


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Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.


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The animals of the field shall honour me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen,


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You have not brought me of your sheep for burnt offerings; neither have you honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense.


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You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.


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I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.


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Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”


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This is what the LORD who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.


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For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:


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One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s;’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to the LORD,’ and honour the name of Israel.”


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This is what the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.


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Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.


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Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”


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Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.


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Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.


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The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.


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The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.


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He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.


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Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.


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He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”


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The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”


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They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.


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No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”


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He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”


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Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.


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I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.


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Sing, you heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.


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Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;


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who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;


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who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’


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Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”


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Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armour; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:


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“I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron.


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I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel.


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For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.


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I am the LORD, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me;


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that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no one else.


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I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am the LORD, who does all these things.


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Distil, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.


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Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’


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Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’”


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Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!


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I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army.


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I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says the LORD of Armies.


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Thus says the LORD: “The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains; and they will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god.


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They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.


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Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.


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For thus says the LORD who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the LORD; and there is no other.


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I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, the LORD, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.


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“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.


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Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, the LORD? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Saviour; There is no one besides me.


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I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.


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They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’” Even to him shall men come; and all those who were incensed against him shall be disappointed.


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Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary.


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They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have gone into captivity.


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“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;


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and even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver.


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Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down—yes, they worship.


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They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.


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Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no one else; I am God, and there is none like me;


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declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;


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calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.


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I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.


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“Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.


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Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.


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Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man.”


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“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms.


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I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke.


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You said, ‘I shall be a mistress forever;’ so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the latter end of it.


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“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:’


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but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.


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For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no one else besides me.


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Therefore evil will come on you; you won’t know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don’t know.


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“Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.


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You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.


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Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.


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Thus shall the things be to you in which you have laboured: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be no one to save you.


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“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the LORD’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness


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(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of Armies is his name):


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I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.


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therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.’


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You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.


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They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’


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Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.


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For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.


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For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another.


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Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.


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“Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom the LORD loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.


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I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.


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“Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I.” Now the Lord GOD has sent me, with his Spirit.


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Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.


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Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:


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your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.


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Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans. With a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, the LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.


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They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.


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Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: the LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name:


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and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand, he has hidden me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close:


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But I said, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”


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Now says the LORD who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him (for I am honourable in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength);


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yes, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”


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Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”


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Thus says the LORD, “In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage:


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saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture.


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They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.


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Behold, these shall come from far; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”


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Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break out into singing, mountains: for the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.


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“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!


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Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says the LORD, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.


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“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.


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The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, The place is too small for me; give place to me that I may dwell.


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Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?’”


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Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.


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Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”


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But thus says the LORD, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.


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I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”


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Thus says the LORD, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.


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Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.


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The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.


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I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.


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For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.


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He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.


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Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.


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Who is among you who fears the LORD, who obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the LORD’s name, and rely on his God.


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Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.


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“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit you were dug from.


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Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.


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For the LORD has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.


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“Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.


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My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and on my arm shall they trust.


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Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.


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“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; don’t fear the reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their insults.


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For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”


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Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?


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Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?


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The ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.


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“I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;


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and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?


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The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.


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For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: the LORD of Armies is his name.


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I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”


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Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.


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There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.


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These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?


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Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.


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Thus says your Lord GOD, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again:


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and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over.”


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Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.


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Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!


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For thus says the Lord GOD, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.


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“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says the LORD, “and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.


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Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks; behold, it is I.”


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How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”


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The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD returns to Zion.


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Break out into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.


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The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


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Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.


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For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.


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Like as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),


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so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.


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For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.


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He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.


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Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.


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But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.


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All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


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He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.


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He was taken away by oppression and judgement; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?


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They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.


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Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.


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After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.


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Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


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“Sing, barren, you who didn’t bear; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says the LORD.


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“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations; don’t spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.


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For you shall spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.


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“Don’t be afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be confounded; for you shall not be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more.


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For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.


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For the LORD has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.


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In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I have mercy on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.


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“For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.


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For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD who has mercy on you.


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“You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colours, and lay your foundations with sapphires.


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I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.


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In righteousness you shall be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.


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Behold, they may gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you.


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“Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings out a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.


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No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgement. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness which is of me,” says the LORD.


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“Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.


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Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which doesn’t satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.


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Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.


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Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”


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let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.


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“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


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For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;


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so shall my word be that goes out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.


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For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.


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Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”


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Thus says the LORD, “Keep justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.


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Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”


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Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”


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For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:


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to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.


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Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, and to love the LORD’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;


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even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”


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The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet will I gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered.”


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His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.


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Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can’t understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.


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“Come,” say they, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, great beyond measure.”


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The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, no one considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil.


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Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,


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you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?


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Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?


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Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial: for you have uncovered to someone besides me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.


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You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.


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You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.


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“Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace even of long time, and you don’t fear me?


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When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.”


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He will say, “Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”


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For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.


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For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have made.


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For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.


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I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.


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I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says the LORD; “and I will heal them.”


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“Cry aloud, don’t spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.


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Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgements; they delight to draw near to God.


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‘Why have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labours.


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Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you don’t fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.


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Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?


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“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?


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Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?


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Then your light shall break out as the morning, and your healing shall spring out speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the LORD’s glory shall be your rear guard.


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Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from your midst the yoke, the putting out of the finger, and speaking wickedly;


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and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;


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and the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don’t fail.


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Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.


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“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honourable; and shall honour it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:


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then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:” for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.


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Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; neither his ear heavy, that it can’t hear:


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but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.


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For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.


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No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.


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They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.


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Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.


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Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.


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The way of peace they don’t know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.


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Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.


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We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.


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We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.


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For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:


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transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.


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Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.


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Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.


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He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.


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He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.


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According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.


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So shall they fear the LORD’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the LORD drives.


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“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed,” says the LORD, “from henceforth and forever.”


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For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you.


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“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms.


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Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.


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The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the LORD.


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All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my glory.


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Surely the islands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.


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“Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favour have I had mercy on you.


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Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive.


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For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.


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“The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.


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The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.


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“Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.


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You shall also drink the milk of the nations, and shall nurse from royal breasts; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.


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For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler.


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Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.


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The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you: but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.


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Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.


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Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.


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The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”


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The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;


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to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;


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to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.


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They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.


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Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall work your fields and your vineyards.


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But you shall be named the priests of the LORD; men will call you the ministers of our God: you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.


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Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonour they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them.


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“For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.


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Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.”


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I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.


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For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring out; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring out before all the nations.


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For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go out as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.


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The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.


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You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.


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You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.


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For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.


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I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on the LORD, take no rest,


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The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have laboured:


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but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”


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Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.


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Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’”


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They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.


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Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”


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“I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.


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I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.


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I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”


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I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of the LORD and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.


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For he said, “Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:” so he was their Saviour.


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In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.


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But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.


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Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in their midst?


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who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?


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As the livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused them to rest; so you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.


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Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.


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For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.


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O LORD, why do you make us to err from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.


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Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence,


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as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!


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When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.


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For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.


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You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time; and shall we be saved?


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For we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.


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There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.


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But now, LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.


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Don’t be furious, LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people.


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Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.


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Will you refrain yourself for these things, LORD? Will you hold your peace, and afflict us very severely?


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“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask; I am found by those who didn’t seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.


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I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;


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a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;


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who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;


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who say, Stand by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.


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“Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom,


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your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says the LORD, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom.”


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Thus says the LORD, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.


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I will bring a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.


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Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.


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“But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny;


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I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer; when I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be disappointed;


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behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit.


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You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord GOD will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:


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so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.


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“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.


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But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.


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I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.


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“There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.


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They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.


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They shall not labour in vain, nor give birth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.


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It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.


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The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.


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Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what kind of house will you build to me? and what place shall be my rest?


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For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be,” says the LORD: “but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.


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He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:


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I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them; because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen; but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”


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Hear the LORD’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.


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A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that renders recompense to his enemies.


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Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she gave birth to her children.


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Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says the LORD: “shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.


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“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;


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that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts; that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”


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For thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees.


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You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies.


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For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.


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For by fire will the LORD execute judgement, and by his sword, on all flesh; and the slain of the LORD shall be many.


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“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says the LORD.


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“For I know their works and their thoughts: the time comes, that I will gather all nations and languages; and they shall come, and shall see my glory.


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“I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.


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They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the LORD, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the LORD’s house.


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“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says the LORD, “so your seed and your name shall remain.


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It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me,” says the LORD.


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“They shall go out, and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”


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The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:


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to whom the LORD’s word came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.


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It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.


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“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”


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But the LORD said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.


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Then the LORD stretched out his hand, and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.


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Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”


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Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”


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the LORD’s word came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” I said, “I see a boiling cauldron; and it is tipping away from the north.”


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For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD; “and they shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah.


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I will utter my judgements against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.


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“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.


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For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.


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They will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says the LORD, “to deliver you.”


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“Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.


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Israel was holiness to the LORD, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,”’ says the LORD.”


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Thus says the LORD, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?


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Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no one passed through, and where no man lived?’


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I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.


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The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.


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“Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says the LORD, “and I will contend with your children’s children.


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For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.


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Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.


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“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.


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The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.


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“Haven’t you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?


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Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?


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“Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, the LORD of Armies.


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“For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.


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Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?


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For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord GOD.


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“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;


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a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.


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“Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.’


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As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;


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who tell wood, ‘You are my father;’ and a stone, ‘You have brought me out:’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us.’


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“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.


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“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.


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Generation, consider the LORD’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?’


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“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.


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How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.


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Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.


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“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’


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Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.


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From there also you shall go out, with your hands on your head; for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.


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“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man’s, will he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says the LORD.


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“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.


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Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead, you refused to be ashamed.


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“‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”


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Moreover, the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.


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I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.


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I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn’t fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.


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Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.


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Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretence,” says the LORD.


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Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,’ says the LORD. ‘I will not keep anger forever.


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Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says the LORD.”


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“Return, backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.


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I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.


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It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,” says the LORD, “they shall say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD!’ neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.


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At that time they shall call Jerusalem ‘The throne of the LORD;’ and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the LORD’s name, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.


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In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.


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“But I said, ‘How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’


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“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says the LORD.


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A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.


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Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are the LORD our God.


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Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.


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But the shameful thing has devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.


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Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”


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“If you will return, Israel,” says the LORD, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;


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and you shall swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.”


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For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.


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Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.


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Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities!’


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Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”


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A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.


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For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn’t turned back from us.


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“It shall happen at that day,” says the LORD, “that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.”


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Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”


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At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;


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Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.


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Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?


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“Tell the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.


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As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says the LORD.


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“Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”


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My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can’t hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.


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Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.


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“For my people are foolish, they don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skilful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”


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I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, before his fierce anger.


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For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.”


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Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.


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You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you, they seek your life.


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For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”


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“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.


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O LORD, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.


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Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.


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I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.


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Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backsliding is increased.


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“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.


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Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD; “and shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?


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“Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not the LORD’s.


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For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.


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They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine.


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Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Armies, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.


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Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know, neither understand what they say.


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They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.


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It will happen, when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’


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‘Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and don’t see; who have ears, and don’t hear:


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Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? and though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail; though they roar, yet they can’t pass over it.’


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Neither do they say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’


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For among my people are found wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.


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As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.


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They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t judge the right of the needy.


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“Shall I not punish for these things?” says the LORD. “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?


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The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?


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“Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks out from the north, and a great destruction.


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Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his place.”


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“Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.


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For the LORD of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.


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As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.


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Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.”


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Thus says the LORD of Armies, “They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.”


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To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the LORD’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.


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Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD. I am weary with holding in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.


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Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.”


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“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.


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They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.


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Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down,” says the LORD.


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Thus says the LORD, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’


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I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’


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Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.


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To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.”


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Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them. The neighbour and his friend shall perish.”


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Thus says the LORD, “Behold, a people comes from the north country. A great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.


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They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.”


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We have heard its report; our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labour.


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Don’t go out into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror, are on every side.


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Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.


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“I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.


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They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.


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The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.


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“Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.’”


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Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.


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Don’t trust in lying words, saying, ‛the LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, the LORD’s temple, are these.’


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For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour;


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if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:


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then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forever more.


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Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,


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and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‛We are delivered;’ that you may do all these abominations?


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Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.


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“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.


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Now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer:


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therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.


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I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.


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“Therefore don’t pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.


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The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.


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Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.”


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Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.


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For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:


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but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’


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But they didn’t listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.


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Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:


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yet they didn’t listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.


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“You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.


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You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the LORD their God, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’


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Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.


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“For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.


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They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn’t command, nor did it come into my mind.


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Therefore behold, the days come”, says the LORD, “that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.


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The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and no one shall frighten them away.


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Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.”


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“At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;


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and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.


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Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of Armies.


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“Moreover you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “‘Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?


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Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit, they refuse to return.


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I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.


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Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know the LORD’s law.


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How do you say, “We are wise, and the LORD’s law is with us?” But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.


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The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected the LORD’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?


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Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.


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They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.


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Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.


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I will utterly consume them, says the LORD: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.


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Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.


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The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.


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For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says the LORD.


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Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn’t the LORD in Zion? Isn’t her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?


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Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?


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Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!


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Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.


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They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me, says the LORD.


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Take heed everyone of his neighbour, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will go about with slanders.


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They will deceive everyone his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.


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Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?


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Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.


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Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?


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For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.


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I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.


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Who is the wise man, that may understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?


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The LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,


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but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;


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therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.


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I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.


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Thus says the LORD of Armies, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come:


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and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.


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For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.


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Yet hear the LORD’s word, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbour lamentation.


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For death has come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.


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Speak, Thus says the LORD, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and no one shall gather them.


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Thus says the LORD, Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don’t let the rich man glory in his riches;


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but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.


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Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in uncircumcision:


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Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.


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Thus says the LORD, “Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.


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For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.


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They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.


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They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak: they must be carried, because they can’t go. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”


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Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it belongs to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is no one like you.


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There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men.


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But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.


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You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.


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He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:


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when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.


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Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.


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The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: the LORD of Armies is his name.


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For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.


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Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.


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My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children have gone away from me, and they are no more. There is no one to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.


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For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of the LORD: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.


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The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.


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Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.


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Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;


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and say to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who doesn’t hear the words of this covenant,


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which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so you shall be my people, and I will be your God;


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that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, LORD.


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The LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.


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For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.


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Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.


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The LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.


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Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.


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Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.


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For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.


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Therefore don’t pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.


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What has my beloved to do in my house, since she has worked lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.


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The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.


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For the LORD of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.


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But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I didn’t know that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.


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But, the LORD of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.


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Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, You shall not prophesy in the LORD’s name, that you not die by our hand;


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therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;


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and there shall be no remnant to them: for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.


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You are righteous, LORD, when I contend with you; yet I would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?


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You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they produce fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.


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But you, LORD, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.


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How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? for the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.


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If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?


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For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: don’t believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.


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I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.


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My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.


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Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.


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Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.


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They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.


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Destroyers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of the LORD devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.


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They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.


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Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbours, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.


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It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.


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It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As the LORD lives; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.


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But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says the LORD.


