# verses

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And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians, who were living in Gurbaal, and against the Ammonites.


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And the Ammonites weighed out gifts to Uzziah. And his name became widely known, even to the entrance of Egypt, because of his frequent victories.


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And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, above the gate of the corner, and above the gate of the valley, and others on the same side of the wall, and he fortified them.


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Then he also constructed towers in the wilderness, and dug many cisterns, because he had much cattle, both in the plains and in the starkness of the wilderness. Also, he had vineyards and dressers of vines in the mountains and at Carmel. Certainly, he was a man devoted to agriculture.


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Now the army of his warriors, who would go forth to battle, was under the hand of Jeiel, the scribe, and Maaseiah, the teacher, and under the hand of Hananiah, who was among the king’s commanders.


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And the entire army under them was three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, who were fit for war, and who fought on behalf of the king against the adversaries.


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Also, Uzziah prepared for them, that is, for the entire army, shields, and spears, and helmets, and breastplates, and bows, as well as slings for the casting of stones.


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And in Jerusalem, he made various kinds of machines, which he placed in the towers, and at the corners of the walls, so as to shoot arrows and large stones. And his name went forth to far away places, for the Lord was helping him and had strengthened him.


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But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up, even to his own destruction. And he neglected the Lord his God. And entering into the temple of the Lord, he intended to burn incense upon the altar of incense.


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And entering immediately after him, Azariah the priest, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, very valiant men,


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withstood the king, and they said: “It is not your office, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord; rather, it is the office of the priests, that is, of the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated for this same ministry. Depart from the sanctuary, otherwise you will be in contempt. For this act will not be reputed to you for your glory by the Lord God.”


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And Uzziah, having become angry, while holding in his hand the censer so that he might burn incense, threatened the priests. And immediately a leprosy arose on his forehead, in the sight of the priests, in the house of the Lord, at the altar of incense.


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And when the high priest Azariah, and all the rest of the priests, had gazed upon him, they saw the leprosy on his forehead, and they hurried to expel him. Then too, he himself, becoming terrified, rushed to depart, because immediately he had become aware of the wound of the Lord.


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And so, king Uzziah was a leper, even until the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house, being full of leprosy, because of which he had been ejected from the house of the Lord. Then Jotham, his son, directed the house of the king, and he was judging the people of the land.


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But the rest of the words of Uzziah, the first and the last, were written by the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz.


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And Uzziah slept with his fathers. And they buried him in the field of the royal sepulchers, because he was a leper. And Jotham, his son, reigned in his place.


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Jotham was twenty-five years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.


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And he did what was right before the Lord, in accord with all that his father, Uzziah, had done, except that he did not enter into the temple of the Lord, and still the people were transgressing.


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He improved the high gate of the house of the Lord. And he built many things upon the wall of Ophel.


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He fought against the king of the sons of Ammon, and he defeated them. And at that time, the sons of Ammon gave to him one hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand cor of wheat, and the same number of cor of barley. These things the sons of Ammon offered to him in the second and third year.


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Now the rest of the words of Jotham, and all his battles and works, have been written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.


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He was twenty-five years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem.


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And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. And his son, Ahaz, reigned in his place.


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Ahaz was twenty years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what is right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David did.


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Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. Moreover, he also cast statues for the Baals.


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It is he who burned incense in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. And he purified his sons by fire, in accord with the ritual of the nations that the Lord put to death at the advent of the sons of Israel.


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Also, he was sacrificing and burning incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.


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And so the Lord, his God, delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, who struck him and took great plunder from his kingdom. And he carried it away to Damascus. Also, he was delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, and he struck him with great affliction.


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And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed, on one day, one hundred twenty thousand, all of them men of war from Judah, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.


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In the same time, Zichri, a powerful man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah, the son of the king, and Azrikam, the governor of his house, and also Elkanah, who was second to the king.


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And the sons of Israel seized, from their brothers, two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls, and immense plunder. And they took it away to Samaria.


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At that time, there was a prophet of the Lord there, named Oded. And going out to meet the army arriving in Samaria, he said to them: “Behold, the Lord, the God of your fathers, having become angry against Judah, has delivered them into your hands. But you have killed them by atrocities, so that your cruelty has reached up to heaven.


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Moreover, you wanted to subjugate the sons of Judah and Jerusalem as your men and women servants, which is a work that should never be done. And so you sinned in this matter against the Lord your God.


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But listen to my counsel, and release the captives, whom you have brought from your brothers. For a great fury of the Lord is hanging over you.”


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And so, some of the leaders of the sons of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa, the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were arriving from the battle.


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And they said to them: “You shall not lead back captives to here, lest we sin against the Lord. Why are you willing to add to our sins, and to build upon our old offenses? For indeed, the sin is great, and the furious anger of the Lord is hanging over Israel.”


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And the warriors released the spoils and all that they had seized, in the sight of the leaders and the entire multitude.


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And the men, whom we mentioned above, rose up and took the captives. All those who were naked, they clothed from the spoils. And when they had clothed them, and had given them shoes, and had refreshed them with food and drink, and had anointed them because of the hardship, and had cared for them, whoever was not able to walk and whoever was feeble in body, they set them upon beasts of burden, and they led them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers, and they themselves returned to Samaria.


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Also, the Philistines spread out among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Judah. And they seized Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and also Soco, and Timnah, and Gimzo, with their villages, and they lived in them.


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For the Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz, the king of Judah, since he had stripped it of help, and had shown contempt for the Lord.


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And he led against him Tilgath-pilneser, the king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him and laid waste to him, without resistance.


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And so Ahaz, despoiling the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings and the leaders, gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it profited him nothing.


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Moreover, in the time of his anguish, he also added to his contempt against the Lord. King Ahaz himself, by himself,


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immolated victims to the gods of Damascus, those who had struck him. And he said: “The gods of the kings of Syria assist them, and so I will please them with victims, and they will help me.” But to the contrary, they had been the ruin of him and of all Israel.


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And so, Ahaz, having despoiled and broken apart all the vessels of the house of God, closed up the doors of the temple of God, and made for himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.


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Also, he constructed altars in all the cities of Judah, in order to burn frankincense, and so he provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to wrath.


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But the rest of his words, and all his works, the first and the last, have been written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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And Ahaz slept with his fathers. And they buried him in the city of Jerusalem. And they did not allow him to be in the sepulchers of the kings of Israel. And his son, Hezekiah, reigned in his place.


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And so Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old. And he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.


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And he did what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, in accord with all that his father David had done.


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In the first year and month of his reign, he opened the double doors of the house of the Lord, and he repaired them.


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And he said to them: “Listen to me, O Levites, and be sanctified. Cleanse the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away every uncleanness from the sanctuary.


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Our fathers sinned and did evil in the sight of the Lord our God, abandoning him. They turned their faces away from the tabernacle of the Lord, and they presented their backs.


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They closed up the doors which were in the portico, and they extinguished the lamps. And they did not burn incense, and they did not offer holocausts, in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.


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And so the fury of the Lord was stirred up against Judah and Jerusalem, and he handed them over to turmoil, and to destruction, and to hissing, just as you discern with your own eyes.


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Lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword. Our sons, and our daughters and wives have been led away as captives because of this wickedness.


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Now therefore, it is pleasing to me that we should enter into a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel. And he will turn away the fury of his indignation from us.


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My sons, do not choose to be negligent. The Lord has chosen you so that you would stand before him, and minister to him, and worship him, and burn incense to him.”


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Therefore, the Levites rose up, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, from the sons of Kohath; then, from the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and from the sons of Gershon, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah;


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and truly, from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; also, from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;


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indeed also, from the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; then too, from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.


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And they gathered together their brothers. And they were sanctified. And they entered in accord with the command of the king and the order of the Lord, so that they might expiate the house of God.


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And the priests, entering the temple of the Lord so that they might sanctify it, took every uncleanness, which they had found inside, out to the vestibule of the house of the Lord; and the Levites took it away and transported it outside, to the torrent Kidron.


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Now they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the same month, they entered the portico of the temple of the Lord. And then they expiated the temple over eight days. And on the sixteenth day of the same month, they finished what they had begun.


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Also, they entered to king Hezekiah, and they said to him: “We have sanctified the entire house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and its vessels, indeed also the table of the presence, with all its vessels,


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and all the equipment of the temple, which king Ahaz, during his reign, had polluted after his transgression. And behold, these have all been set forth before the altar of the Lord.”


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And rising up at first light, king Hezekiah joined as one all the leaders of the city, and they ascended to the house of the Lord.


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And together they offered seven bulls and seven rams, seven lambs and seven he-goats, for sin, for the kingdom, for the Sanctuary, for Judah. And he spoke to the priests, the sons of Aaron, so that they would offer these upon the altar of the Lord.


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And so they slaughtered the bulls. And the priests took up the blood, and they poured it upon the altar. Then they also slaughtered the rams, and they poured their blood upon the altar. And they immolated the lambs, and they poured the blood upon the altar.


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They brought the he-goats for sin before the king and the entire multitude. And they laid their hands upon them.


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And the priests immolated them, and they sprinkled their blood before the altar, for the expiation of all Israel. For certainly the king had instructed that the holocaust and the sin offering should be made on behalf of all Israel.


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Also, he situated the Levites in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, according to the disposition of king David, and of the seer Gad, and of the prophet Nathan. For indeed, this was the precept of the Lord, by the hand of his prophets.


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And Hezekiah ordered that they should offer holocausts upon the altar. And when the holocausts were being offered, they began to sing praises to the Lord, and to sound the trumpets, and to play various musical instruments, which David, the king of Israel, had prepared.


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Then the entire crowd was adoring, and the singers and those who were holding the trumpeters were exercising their office, until the holocaust was completed.


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And Hezekiah and the rulers instructed the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph, the seer. And they praised him with great joy, and kneeling down, they adored.


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And now Hezekiah also added: “You have filled your hands for the Lord. Draw near, and offer victims and praises in the house of the Lord.” Therefore, the entire multitude offered victims and praises and holocausts, with devout intention.


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Now the number of the holocausts that the multitude offered was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs.


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Truly, the priests were few; neither were they sufficient to remove the pelts from the holocausts. Therefore, the Levites, their brothers, also assisted them, until the work was completed, and the priests, who were of higher rank, were sanctified. For indeed, the Levites are sanctified with an easier ritual than the priests.


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Thus, there were very numerous holocausts, with the fat of the peace offerings and the libations of the holocausts. And the service of the house of the Lord was completed.


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And Hezekiah and all the people were joyful because the ministry of the Lord was accomplished. For certainly, it had pleased them to do this suddenly.


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Also, Hezekiah sent to all of Israel and Judah. And he wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they would come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and so that they would keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.


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Therefore, having taken counsel, the king and the rulers, and the entire assembly of Jerusalem, resolved that they would keep the Passover, in the second month.


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For they had not been able to keep it at its proper time. For the priests, who were unable to suffice, had not been sanctified. And the people had not yet been gathered together in Jerusalem.


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And they resolved that they would send messengers to all of Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, so that they might come and keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem. For many had not kept it, just as it was prescribed by the law.


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And carriers traveled with the letters, by order of the king and his rulers, to all of Israel and Judah, proclaiming, in accord with what the king had ordered: “O sons of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel. And he will return to the remnant who escaped from the hand of the king of the Assyrians.


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Do not choose to be like your fathers and brothers, who withdrew from the Lord, the God of their fathers. And so he delivered them over to destruction, as you yourselves discern.


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Do not choose to harden your necks, as your fathers did. Surrender to the hands of the Lord. And go to his Sanctuary, which he has sanctified unto eternity. Serve the Lord, the God of your fathers, and the fury of his wrath will be turned away from you.


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For if you will return to the Lord, your brothers and sons will find mercy before their masters, who led them away as captives, and they will be returned to this land. For the Lord your God is compassionate and lenient, and he will not avert his face from you, if you will return to him.”


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And so, the carriers were traveling quickly from city to city, throughout the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun, though they were ridiculing and mocking them.


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Even so, certain men from Asher, and from Manasseh, and from Zebulun, acquiescing to this counsel, went to Jerusalem.


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Truly, the hand of God was working in Judah, to give them one heart, so that they would accomplish the word of the Lord, according to the precept of the king and of the rulers.


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And many people gathered together in Jerusalem, so that they could keep the solemnity of unleavened bread, in the second month.


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And rising up, they destroyed the altars which were in Jerusalem, and all the things in which incense was burned to idols. Overturning these things, they cast them into the torrent Kidron.


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Then they immolated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. Also, the priests and Levites, at length having been sanctified, offered the holocausts in the house of the Lord.


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And they stood in their order, according to the disposition and law of Moses, the man of God. Yet truly, the priests took up the blood, which was to be poured out, from the hands of the Levites,


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because a great number were not sanctified. And therefore, the Levites immolated the Passover for those who had not been sanctified to the Lord in time.


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And now a great portion of the people from Ephraim, and Manasseh, and Issachar, and Zebulun, who had not been sanctified, ate the Passover, which is not in accord with what was written. And Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: “The good Lord will be forgiving


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to all who, with their whole heart, seek the Lord, the God of their fathers. And he will not impute it to them, though they have not been sanctified.”


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And the sons of Israel who were found at Jerusalem kept the solemnity of unleavened bread for seven days with great rejoicing, praising the Lord throughout each day, with the Levites and the priests, accompanied by the musical instruments corresponding to their office.


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And Hezekiah spoke to the heart of all the Levites, who had a good understanding concerning the Lord. And they ate during the seven days of the solemnity, immolating victims of peace offerings, and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers.


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And it pleased the entire multitude that they should celebrate, even for another seven days. And they did this with enormous gladness.


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For Hezekiah, the king of Judah, had offered to the multitude one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep. Truly, the rulers had given the people one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. Then a great mulititude of priests was sanctified.


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And the whole multitude of Judah, as much the priests and Levites as the entire crowd that had arrived from Israel, and also the converts from the land of Israel, and those with a habitation in Judah, was overflowing with cheerfulness.


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And there was a great celebration in Jerusalem, to such an extent as had not been in that city since the days of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel.


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Then the priests and Levites rose up and blessed the people. And their voice was heeded. And their prayer reached the holy habitation of heaven.


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And when these things had been celebrated according to ritual, all of Israel who had been found in the cities of Judah went forth, and they broke apart the idols and cut down the sacred groves. They demolished the high places and destroyed the altars, not only out of all Judah and Benjamin, but also out of Ephraim as well as Manasseh, until they utterly destroyed them. And all the sons of Israel returned to their possessions and cities.


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Then Hezekiah appointed the companies of the priests and Levites by their divisions, each man in his proper office, certainly as much for the priests as for the Levites, for the sake of holocausts and peace offerings, so that they might minister and confess and sing, at the gates of the camp of the Lord.


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Now the portion of the king, from his own substance, was such that they could offer a holocaust always, in morning and in evening, also on the Sabbaths, and the new moons, and the other solemnities, just as it was written in the law of Moses.


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And now he instructed the people living in Jerusalem that they were to give portions to the priests and Levites, so that they would be able to attend to the law of the Lord.


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And when this had reached the ears of the multitude, the sons of Israel brought an abundance of first-fruits of grain, wine, and oil, and also honey. And they offered a tenth part of all that the soil brings forth.


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Then too, the sons of Israel and Judah, who were living in the cities of Judah, brought tithes of oxen and sheep, and tithes of the holy things that they had vowed to the Lord their God. And carrying all these things, they made many stacks.


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In the third month, they began to lay out the foundations of the stacks. And in the seventh month, they finished them.


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And when Hezekiah and his rulers had entered, they saw the stacks, and they blessed the Lord and the people of Israel.


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Azariah, the high priest from the stock of Zadok, answered him, saying: “Since the first-fruits began to be offered in the house of the Lord, we have eaten and been satisfied, and much remains. For the Lord has blessed his people. Then what was left over is this great abundance, which you see.”


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And so Hezekiah instructed that they should prepare storage places for the house of the Lord. And when they had done so,


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they faithfully brought in the first-fruits, as well as the tithes and all that they had vowed. Now the overseer of these things was Conaniah, a Levite; and his brother, Shimei, was second.


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And after him, there was Jehiel, and Azariah, and Nahath, and Asaahel, and Jerimoth, and also Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, who were overseers under the hands of Conaniah, and his brother, Shimei, by the authority of Hezekiah, the king, and Azariah, the high priest of the house of God, to whom all these things belonged.


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Yet truly, Kore, the son of Imnah, a Levite and the porter of the eastern gate, was the overseer of the things that were being offered freely to the Lord, and of the first-fruits, and of the things consecrated for the Holy of Holies.


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And under his charge were Eden, and Benjamin, Jeshua, and Shemaiah, and also Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, so that they would distribute faithfully to their brothers, the small as well as the great, their portions


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(except for the males from three years old and upward) for all who were entering the temple of the Lord, and for whatever was needed for the ministry, throughout each day, as well as for the observances according to their divisions.


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And so, for the priests, by their families, and for the Levites, from the twentieth year and upward, by their orders and companies,


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and for the entire multitude, as much for the wives as for their children of both sexes, provisions were offered faithfully from whatever had been sanctified.


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Then too, men were appointed of the sons of Aaron, throughout the fields and the suburbs of each city, who would distribute portions to all the males among the priests and Levites.


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Therefore, Hezekiah did all these things (which we have said) in all of Judah. And he worked what is good and upright and true before the Lord his God,


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for the whole service of the ministry of the house of the Lord, in accord with the law and the ceremonies, desiring to seek his God with his whole heart. And he did so, and he prospered.


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After these things, and after this manner of truth, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians arrived. And entering Judah, he besieged the fortified cities, desiring to seize them.


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And when Hezekiah had seen this, specifically that Sennacherib had arrived, and that the entire force of the war was turning against Jerusalem,


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he took counsel with the rulers and with the most valiant men, so that they might obstruct the heads of the springs which were beyond the city. And with everyone discerning the same judgment about this,


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he gathered together a great multitude, and they obstructed all the springs, and the brook which was flowing through the midst of the land, saying: “Otherwise, the kings of the Assyrians might arrive and find an abundance of water.”


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Also, acting industriously, he built up the entire wall that had been broken apart. And he constructed towers upon it, and another wall outside it. And he repaired Millo, in the City of David. And he made all kinds of weapons and shields.


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And he appointed leaders of the warriors within the army. And he summoned them all to the wide street of the gate of the city. And he spoke to their heart, saying:


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“Act manfully and be strengthened. Do not be afraid. Neither should you dread the king of the Assyrians and the entire multitude that is with him. For many more are with us than with him.


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For with him is an arm of flesh; with us is the Lord our God, who is our helper, and who fights for us.” And the people were strengthened by this type of words from Hezekiah, the king of Judah.


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After these things, Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, sent his servants to Jerusalem, (for he and his entire army were besieging Lachish) to Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and to all the people who were in the city, saying:


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“Thus says Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians: In whom do you have faith, as you sit besieged in Jerusalem?


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Does not Hezekiah deceive you, so that he would deliver you to die from hunger and thirst, by affirming that the Lord your God will free you from the hand of the king of the Assyrians?


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Is this not the same Hezekiah who destroyed his own high places and altars, and who instructed Judah and Jerusalem, saying: ‘You shall worship before one altar, and you shall burn incense upon it?’


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Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Have the gods of the nations and all the lands prevailed so as to free their region from my hand?


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Who is there, out of all the gods of the nations that my fathers destroyed, who is able to rescue his people from my hand, so that now also your God would be able to rescue you from this hand?


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Therefore, let not Hezekiah deceive or delude you with vain persuasion. And you should not believe him. For if no god out of all the nations and kingdoms was able to free his people from my hand, and from the hand of my fathers, consequently neither will your God be able to rescue you from my hand.”


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Then too, his servants were speaking many other things against the Lord God, and against his servant Hezekiah.


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Also, he wrote letters full of blasphemy against the Lord God of Israel. And against him he said: “Just as the gods of other nations were unable to free their people from my hand, so also is the God of Hezekiah unable to rescue his people from this hand.”


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Moreover, he also shouted with a great clamor, in the language of the Jews, toward the people who were sitting upon the walls of Jerusalem, so that he might frighten them and so seize the city.


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And he was speaking against the God of Jerusalem, just as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are works of the hands of men.


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And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed against this blasphemy, and they cried out to heaven.


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And the Lord sent an Angel, who struck all the experienced men and warriors, and the leaders of the army of the king of the Assyrians. And he returned in disgrace to his own land. And when he had entered the house of his god, the sons who had gone forth from his loins killed him with the sword.


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And the Lord saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, and from the hand of all. And he presented to them peace on every side.


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And now many were bringing victims and sacrifices to the Lord in Jerusalem, and gifts to Hezekiah, the king of Judah. And after these things, he was exalted before all the nations.


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In those days, Hezekiah was sick, even unto death, and he prayed to the Lord. And he heeded him, and gave to him a sign.


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But he did not repay according to the benefits which he had received, for his heart was lifted up. And so wrath was brought against him, and against Judah and Jerusalem.


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And after this, he was humbled, because he had exalted his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And therefore the wrath of the Lord did not overwhelm them in the days of Hezekiah.


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Now Hezekiah was wealthy and very famous. And he gathered for himself many treasures of silver and gold and precious stones, of aromatics, and all kinds of weapons, and vessels of great price,


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and also repositories of grain, wine, and oil, and stalls for every beast of burden, and fencing for cattle.


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And he built for himself cities. For indeed, he had innumerable herds and flocks of sheep. For the Lord had given to him an exceedingly great substance.


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This same Hezekiah was the one who blocked the upper font of the waters of Gihon, and who diverted them down to the western part of the City of David. In all his works, he prosperously accomplished whatever he willed.


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Yet still, concerning the legates from the leaders of Babylon, who had been sent to him so that they might inquire about the portent which had happened upon the earth, God permitted him to be tempted, so that everything might be made known which was in his heart.


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Now the rest of the words of Hezekiah, and his mercies, have been written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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And Hezekiah slept with his fathers. And they buried him above the sepulchers of the sons of David. And all of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, celebrated his funeral. And his son, Manasseh, reigned in his place.


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Manasseh was twelve years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.


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But he did evil before the Lord, in accord with all the abominations of the nations which the Lord overturned before the sons of Israel.


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And turning away, he repaired the high places, which had been demolished by his father, Hezekiah. And he constructed altars to the Baals, and made sacred groves. And he adored the entire army of heaven, and he served them.


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Also, he built altars in the house of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”


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And he caused his sons to pass through fire in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. He observed dreams, followed divinations, served the occult arts, had with him magicians and enchanters, and worked many evils before the Lord, so that he provoked him.


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Also, he set up a graven image and molten statue in the house of God, about which God said to David, and to his son Solomon: “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever.


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And I will not cause the foot of Israel to be moved from the land which I delivered to their fathers. Yet this is so, only if they will take care to do what I have instructed them, by the hand of Moses, with the entire law and the ceremonies and the judgments.”


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And so Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil, more so than all the nations which the Lord had overturned before the face of the sons of Israel.


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Therefore, he led over them the leaders of the army of the king of the Assyrians. And they captured Manasseh, and they led him, bound with chains and fetters, to Babylon.


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And after this, being in great anguish, he prayed to the Lord his God. And he did penance greatly before the God of his fathers.


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And he petitioned and begged him intently. And he heeded his prayer, and led him back to Jerusalem, into his kingdom. And Manasseh realized that the Lord himself was God.


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After these things, he built a wall outside the City of David, to the west of Gihon, at the steep valley, from the entrance to the fish gate, circling around as far as Ophel. And he raised it up greatly. And he appointed leaders of the army in all the fortified cities of Judah.


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And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol from the house of the Lord, and also the altars which he had made on the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem. And he cast all these things outside the city.


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Then he repaired the altar of the Lord, and he immolated upon it victims, and peace offerings, with praise. And he instructed Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.


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But the rest of the deeds of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and also the words of the seers who were speaking to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are contained in the words of the kings of Israel.


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Also, his prayer and its heeding, and all his sins and contempt, and the sites on which he built high places and made sacred groves and statues, before he repented, have been written in the words of Hozai.


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Then Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And his son, Amon, reigned in his place.


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Amon was twenty-two years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem.


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And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Manasseh had done. And he immolated to all the idols that Manasseh had fabricated, and he served them.


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But he did not turn his face to the Lord, as his father Manasseh had turned himself. And he sinned much more grievously.


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But the rest of the multitude of the people, having slain those who had struck down Amon, appointed his son, Josiah, as king in his place.


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Josiah was eight years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem.


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And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn away, neither to the right, nor to the left.


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Now in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his father David. And in the twelfth year after he had begun to reign, he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the sacred groves, and the idols, and the graven images.


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And in his sight, they destroyed the altars of the Baals, and they demolished the idols which had been set upon them. And then he cut down the sacred groves and crushed the graven images. And he scattered the fragments upon the tombs of those who had been accustomed to immolate to them.


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And after that, he burned the bones of the priests upon the altars of the idols. And so did he cleanse Judah and Jerusalem.


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Then too, in the cities of Manasseh, and of Ephraim, and of Simeon, even to Naphtali, he overturned everything.


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And when he had destroyed the altars and the sacred groves, and had broken the idols to pieces, and when all the profane shrines had been demolished from the entire land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.


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And so, in the eighteenth year of his reign, having now cleansed the land and the temple of the Lord, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the historian, to repair the house of the Lord his God.


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And they went to Hilkiah, the high priest. And having accepted from him the money which had been brought into the house of the Lord, and which the Levites and porters had gathered together from Manasseh, and Ephraim, and the entire remnant of Israel, and also from all of Judah, and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,


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they delivered it into the hands of those who were in charge of the workers in the house of the Lord, so that they might repair the temple, and restore whatever was weak.


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And they gave it to the artisans and the stoneworkers, so that they might buy stones from the quarries, and wood for the joints of the building and for the upper floors the houses, which the kings of Judah had destroyed.


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And they did everything faithfully. Now the overseers of the workers were Jahath and Obadiah, from the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, from the sons of Kohath, who were supervising the work. All were Levites who knew how to play musical instruments.


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Truly, scribes and teachers, from among the Levites who were porters, were over those who were carrying burdens for various uses.


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And when they carried out the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord by the hand of Moses.


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And he said to Shaphan, the scribe: “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And he delivered it to him.


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Then he took the volume to the king, and he reported to him, saying: “Behold, everything that you entrusted to your servants is completed.


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They have melted together the silver that was found in the house of the Lord. And it has been given to the overseers of the artisans and craftsmen for various works.


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After this, Hilkiah the priest gave to me this book.” And when he had read it in the presence of the king,


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And he instructed Hilkiah, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and also Shaphan, the scribe, and Asaiah, the servant of the king, saying:


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“Go, and pray to the Lord for me, and for the remnant of Israel and Judah, concerning all the words of this book, which has been found. For the great fury of the Lord has rained down upon us, because our fathers did not keep the words of the Lord, to do all that has been written in this volume.”


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Therefore, Hilkiah, and those who had been sent with him by the king, went to Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the vestments. She was living in Jerusalem, in the second part. And they spoke to her the words which we explained above.


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Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lead in evils over this place, and over its inhabitants, with all the curses that have been written in this book, which they have read before the king of Judah.


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For they have abandoned me, and they have sacrificed to foreign gods, so that they provoked me to wrath by all the works of their hands. Therefore, my fury will rain down upon this place, and it will not be extinguished.


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To the king of Judah, who sent you to petition before the Lord, so shall you speak: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Since you listened to the words of this volume,


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and your heart was softened, and you humbled yourself in the sight of God concerning these things which have been said against this place and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and since, revering my face, you have torn your garments, and have wept before me: I also have heeded you, says the Lord.


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For now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be brought into your sepulcher in peace. Neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will lead in, over this place and over its inhabitants.” And so they took back to the king all that she had said.


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ascended to the house of the Lord, united with all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people, from the least even to the greatest. And in their hearing, in the house of the Lord, the king read all the words of the volume.


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And standing up at his tribunal, he struck a covenant before the Lord, so that he would walk after him, and would keep his precepts and testimonies and justifications, with his whole heart and with his whole soul, and so that he would do the things that were written in that volume, which he had read.


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Also, concerning this, he bound by oath all who had been found in Jerusalem and Benjamin. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted in accord with the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers.


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Therefore, Josiah took away all the abominations from all the regions of the sons of Israel. And he caused all who were remaining in Israel to serve the Lord their God. During all his days, they did not withdraw from the Lord, the God of their fathers.


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Now Josiah kept the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and it was immolated on the fourteenth day of the first month.


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And he appointed the priests in their offices, and he exhorted them to minister in the house of the Lord.


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Also, he spoke with the Levites, by whose instruction all of Israel was sanctified to the Lord, saying: “Place the ark in the sanctuary of the temple, which Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, built. For never again shall you carry it. Instead, now you shall minister to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel.


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And prepare yourselves by your houses and families, within each division, just as David, the king of Israel, instructed, and just as his son Solomon has written.


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And having been sanctified, immolate the Passover. And then prepare your brothers, so that they may be able to act in accord with the words which the Lord has spoken by the hand of Moses.”


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After this, Josiah gave to all the people, those who had been found there at the solemnity of the Passover, thirty thousand lambs and young goats from the flocks, and other kinds of small cattle, and also three thousand oxen. All these were from the substance of the king.


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Also, his rulers offered what they had vowed freely, as much for the people as for the priests and Levites. Moreover, Hilkiah, and Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of the Lord, gave to the priests, in order to observe the Passover, two thousand six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen.


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And Conaniah, with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, indeed also Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, rulers of the Levites, gave to the rest of the Levites, in order to celebrate the Passover, five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.


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And the ministry was prepared. And the priests stood in their office, and the Levites also stood in their companies, according to the order of the king.


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And the Passover was immolated. And the priests sprinkled the blood with their hand, and the Levites drew away the pelts of the holocausts.


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And they put these aside, so that they might give them to each one, by their houses and families, and so that they might be offered to the Lord, just as it was written in the book of Moses. And with the oxen, they acted similarly.


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And they roasted the Passover above fire, in accord with what was written in the law. Yet truly, the victims of peace offerings they boiled in cauldrons and kettles and pots. And they promptly distributed these to all the common people.


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Then afterward, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests. Indeed, the priests had been occupied in the oblations of the holocausts and the fat offerings, even until night. Therefore, the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron, last.


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Now the singers, the sons of Asaph, were standing in their order, according to the instruction of David, and of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the prophets of the king. Truly, the porters kept watch at each gate, so as not to depart from their ministry even for one moment. And for this reason, their brothers, the Levites, prepared foods for them.


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And so, the entire worship ritual of the Lord was completed on that day, so that they observed the Passover and offered holocausts upon the altar of the Lord, in accord with the precept of king Josiah.


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And the sons of Israel, who had been found there, kept the Passover at that time, with the solemnity of unleavened bread, for seven days.


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There was no Passover similar to this one in Israel, from the days of Samuel the prophet. And neither did anyone, out of all the kings of Israel, keep such a Passover as did Josiah, the priests and Levites, and all those of Judah and Israel who had been found, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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After Josiah had repaired the temple, Neco, the king of Egypt, ascended to fight at Carchemish, beside the Euphrates. And Josiah went out to meet him.


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But he sent messengers to him, saying: “What is there between me and you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you today. Instead, I am fighting against another house, to which God instructed me to go promptly. Refrain from acting against God, who is with me, otherwise he may kill you.”


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Josiah was not willing to return. Instead, he prepared for war against him. Neither would he agree to the words of Neco from the mouth of God. In truth, he traveled so that he might do battle in the field of Megiddo.


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And there, having been wounded by archers, he said to his servants: “Lead me away from the battle. For I have been severely wounded.”


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And they took him from the chariot, into another chariot which was following him, as was the custom of kings. And they transported him to Jerusalem. And he died, and he was buried in the mausoleum of his fathers. And all of Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him,


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most of all Jeremiah. All the singing men and women repeat his lamentations over Josiah, even to the present day. And this has become like a law in Israel. Behold, it is found written in the Lamentations.


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and also his works, the first and the last, have been written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and they appointed him king in place of his father, in Jerusalem.


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Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem.


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Then the king of Egypt, when he had arrived in Jerusalem, removed him, and condemned the land to one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.


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And he appointed Eliakim, his brother, as king in his place, over Judah and Jerusalem. And he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Truly, he took Jehoahaz with him, and he led him away to Egypt.


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Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did evil before the Lord his God.


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Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans, ascended against him, and led him bound in chains to Babylon.


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But the rest of the words of Jehoiakim, and his abominations that he worked, and the things that were found in him, are contained in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. Then his son, Jehoiachin, reigned in his place.


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Jehoiachin was eight years old when he had begun to reign, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.


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And when the course of a year had turned, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, carrying away, at the same time, the most precious vessels of the house of the Lord. Truly, he appointed his uncle, Zedekiah, as king over Judah and Jerusalem.


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Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he had begun to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.


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And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. And he did not show remorse before the face of the prophet Jeremiah, who was speaking to him from the mouth of the Lord.


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Also, he withdrew from king Nebuchadnezzar, who had bound him by an oath to God, and he hardened his own neck and his own heart, so that he did not return to the Lord, the God of Israel.


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Then too, all the leaders of the priests, with the people, transgressed iniquitously, in accord with all the abominations of the Gentiles. And they polluted the house of the Lord, which he had sanctified to himself in Jerusalem.


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Then the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them, by the hand of his messengers, rising in the night and daily admonishing them. For he was lenient to his people and to his habitation.


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But they ridiculed the messengers of God, and they gave little weight to his words, and they mocked the prophets, until the fury of the Lord ascended against his people, and there was no remedy.


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For he led over them the king of the Chaldeans. And he put to death their young men by the sword, in the house of his sanctuary. There was no pity for adolescents, nor virgins, nor the elderly, nor even for the disabled. Instead, he delivered them all into his hands.


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And all the vessels of the house of Lord, as much the greater as the lesser, and the treasures of the temple, and of the king and the rulers, he carried away to Babylon.


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The enemies set fire to the house of God, and they destroyed the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the towers. And whatever was precious, they demolished.


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If anyone had escaped from the sword, he was led into Babylon. And he served the king and his sons, until the king of Persia would command,


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and the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah would be fulfilled, and the land would celebrate her Sabbaths. For during all the days of the desolation, she kept a Sabbath, until the seventy years were completed.


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Then, in the first year of Cyrus, the king of the Persians, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the heart of Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who commanded this to be proclaimed throughout his entire kingdom, and also in writing, saying:


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“Thus says Cyrus, the king of the Persians: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he has instructed me that I should build for him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Who among you is from his entire people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him ascend.”


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In the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of the Persians, so that the word of the Lord from the mouth of Jeremiah would be fulfilled. And he sent out a voice, throughout his entire kingdom, and also in writing, saying:


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“Thus says Cyrus, the king of the Persians: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me, and he himself has instructed me that I should build a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judea.


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Who among you is from his entire people? May his God be with him. Let him ascend to Jerusalem, which is in Judea, and let him build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel. He is the God who is in Jerusalem.


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And let all who remain, in all the places wherever they may live, assist him, each man from his place, with silver and gold, and goods and cattle, in addition to whatever they may offer voluntarily to the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem.”


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And the leaders of the fathers from Judah and from Benjamin, with the priests, and the Levites, and all those whose spirit was stirred by God, rose up, so that they might ascend to build the temple of the Lord, which was in Jerusalem.


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And all those who were all around assisted their hands with vessels of silver and gold, with goods and cattle, with equipment, in addition to whatever they had offered freely.


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Likewise, king Cyrus offered the vessels of the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god.


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Now Cyrus, king of Persia, offered these by the hand of Mithredath, the son of the treasurer, and he counted these out to Sheshbazzar, the leader of Judah.


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And this is their number: thirty gold bowls, one thousand silver bowls, twenty-nine knives, thirty gold cups,


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All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these, with those who ascended from the transmigration of Babylon, into Jerusalem.


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Now these are the sons of the province, who ascended from the captivity, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had transferred to Babylon, and who were returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each one to his own city.


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They arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:


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The sons of the gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai: altogether one hundred thirty-nine.


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the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth, who were of Hazzebaim, the sons of Ami:


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And these were the ones who ascended from Telmelah, Telharsha, Cherub, and Addan, and Immer. And they were not able to indicate the house of their fathers and their offspring, whether they were of Israel:


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And from the sons of the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and who were called by their name.


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These sought the writing of their genealogy, and they did not find it, and so they were cast out of the priesthood.


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And the cupbearer said to them that they should not eat from the Holy of Holies, until there would arise a priest, learned and perfect.


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not including their men and women servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven. And among these were singing men and singing women, two hundred.


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And some of the leaders among the fathers, when they entered into the temple of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, freely offered some of these to the house of God, in order to construct it in its location.


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They gave to the expenses of the work in accord with their ability: sixty-one thousand gold coins, five thousand silver minas, and one hundred priestly vestments.


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Therefore, the priests and the Levites, and some of the people, and the singing men, and the gatekeepers, and the temple servants lived in their cities, and all of Israel lived in their cities.


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And now the seventh month had arrived, and the sons of Israel were in their cities. Then, the people were gathered together, like one man, in Jerusalem.


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And Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, rose up with his brothers, the priests. And Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, rose up with his brothers. And they built the altar of the God of Israel, so that they might offer holocausts upon it, just as it was written in the law of Moses, the man of God.


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Now they set the altar of God upon its bases, while keeping the people of all the surrounding lands away from it. And they offered upon it a holocaust to the Lord, morning and evening.


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And they kept the solemnity of tabernacles, just as it was written, and the holocaust of each day in order, according to the precept, the work of each day in its time.


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And after these, they offered the continual holocaust, as much on the new moons as on all the solemnities of the Lord that were consecrated, and on all those when a voluntary gift was offered to the Lord.


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From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer holocausts to the Lord. But the temple of God had not yet been founded.


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And so they gave money to those who cut and laid stones. Similarly, they gave food, and drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians, so that they would bring cedar wood, from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa, in accord with what had been commanded of them by Cyrus, the king of the Persians.


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Then, in the second year of their advent to the temple of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the remainder of their brothers, the priests, and the Levites, and all who had arrived from the captivity to Jerusalem, began, and they appointed Levites, from twenty years and over, to hasten the work of the Lord.


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And Jeshua and his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, and the sons of Judah, like one man, stood so that they might have charge over those who did the work in the temple of God: the sons of Henadad, and their sons, and their brothers, the Levites.


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And when the builders had founded the temple of the Lord, the priests stood in their adornment with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, stood with cymbals, so that they might praise God by the hand of David, the king of Israel.


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And they sung together with hymns and confession to the Lord: “For he is good. For his mercy is over Israel unto eternity.” And likewise, all the people shouted with a great clamor in praise to the Lord, because the temple of the Lord had been founded.


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And many of the priests and the Levites, and the leaders of the fathers and of the elders, who had seen the former temple, when now this temple was founded and was before their eyes, wept with a great voice. And many of them, shouting for joy, lifted up their voice.


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Neither could anyone distinguish between the voice of clamor of joy, and a voice of weeping of the people. For the shouting of the people mixed into a great clamor, and the voice was heard from far away.


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Now the enemies of Judah and of Benjamin heard that the sons of the captivity were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel.


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And so, drawing near to Zerubbabel and to the leaders of the fathers, they said to them: “Let us build with you, for we seek your God just as you do. Behold, we have immolated victims to him from the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who brought us here.”


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And Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of the fathers of Israel said to them: “It is not for you to build the house of our God with us. Instead, we alone shall build to the Lord our God, just as Cyrus, the king of the Persians, has commanded us.”


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Therefore, it happened that the people of the land impeded the hands of the people of Judah, and they troubled them in building.


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Then they hired counselors against them, so that they might argue against their plan during all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of the Persians.


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And so, during the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and of Jerusalem.


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And so, in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, and Tabeel, and the others who were in their council wrote to Artaxerxes, king of the Persians. Now the letter of accusation was written in Syriac, and was being read in the Syrian language.


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Rehum, the commander, and Shimshai, the scribe, wrote one letter from Jerusalem to king Artaxerxes, in this manner:


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“Rehum, the commander, and Shimshai, the scribe, and the rest of their counselors, the judges, and rulers, the officials, those from Persia, from Erech, from Babylonia, from Susa, the Dehavites, and the Elamites,


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and the rest of the nations, whom the great and glorious Osnappar transferred and caused to live in the cities of Samaria and in the rest of the regions across the river in peace:


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to king Artaxerxes. (This is a copy of the letter, which they sent to him.) Your servants, the men who are across the river, send a greeting.


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Let it be known to the king, that the Jews, who ascended from you to us, have arrived in Jerusalem, a rebellious and most wicked city, which they are building, constructing its ramparts and repairing the walls.


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And now let be it known to the king, that if this city will have been built up, and its walls repaired, they will not pay tribute, nor tax, nor yearly revenues, and this loss will affect even the kings.


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But, remembering the salt that we have eaten in the palace, and because we are led to believe that it a crime to see the king harmed, we have therefore sent and reported to the king,


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so that you may search in the books of the histories of your fathers, and you may find written in the records, and you may know that this city is a rebellious city, and that it is harmful to the kings and the provinces, and that wars were incited within it from the days of antiquity. For which reason also, the city itself was destroyed.


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We report to the king that if this city will have been built, and its walls repaired, you will have no possession across the river.”


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The king sent word to Rehum, the commander, and to Shimshai, the scribe, and to the rest who were in their council, to the inhabitants of Samaria, and to the others across the river, offering a greeting and peace.


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And it was commanded by me, and they searched and found that this city, from the days of antiquity, has rebelled against the kings, and that seditions and battles have been incited within it.


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Then too, there have been very strong kings in Jerusalem, who also ruled over the entire region which is across the river. They have also taken tribute, and tax, and revenues.


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Now therefore, hear the sentence: Prohibit those men, so that this city may be not built, until perhaps there may be further orders from me.


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See to it that you are not negligent in fulfilling this, otherwise, little by little, the evil may increase against the kings.”


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And so a copy of the edict of king Artaxerxes was read before Rehum, the commander, and Shimshai, the scribe, and their counselors. And they went away hurriedly to Jerusalem, to the Jews. And they prohibited them by force and by strength.


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Then the work of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem was interrupted, and it did not resume until the second year of the reign of Darius, the king of the Persians.


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Now Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, prophesying to the Jews who were in Judea and Jerusalem, prophesied in the name of the God of Israel.


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Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, rose up and began to build the temple of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, assisting them.


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Then, at the same time, Tattenai, who was the governor beyond the river, and Shetharbozenai, and their counselors came to them. And they spoke in this way to them: “Who has given you counsel, so that you would build this house and repair its walls?”


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But the eye of their God was set over the elders of the Jews, and so they were unable to hinder them. And it was agreed that the matter should be referred to Darius, and then they would give a reply against that accusation.


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A copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor of the region beyond the river, and Shetharbozenai, and his counselors, the rulers who were beyond the river, sent to Darius the king.


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Let it be known to the king, that we went to the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which they are building with rough stones, and with timber set into the walls. And this work is being built up diligently, and it increases by their hands.


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Therefore, we questioned those elders, and we spoke to them in this way: ‘Who has given authority to you, so that you would build this house and repair these walls?’


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But we also required of them their names, so that we might report to you. And we have written down the names of their men, those who are leaders among them.


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Then they responded a word to us in this manner, saying: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth. And we are building the temple that was constructed these many years before, and which a great king of Israel had built and constructed.


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But afterward, our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to wrath, so he delivered them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the Chaldean. And he destroyed this house, and he transferred its people to Babylon.


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Then, in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Babylon, king Cyrus issued a decree, so that this house of God would be built.


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And now the vessels of gold and silver from the temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple that was in Jerusalem, and which he had carried away to the temple of Babylon, king Cyrus brought out of the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one called Sheshbazzar, whom he also appointed as governor.


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And he said to him: “Take these vessels, and go, and set them in the temple that is in Jerusalem. And let the house of God be built in its place.”


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And so this same Sheshbazzar then came and set the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. And from that time, even until now, it is being built, and it is not yet completed.’


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Now then, if it seems good to the king, let him search in the king’s library, which is in Babylon, to see whether it was ordered by king Cyrus, that the house of God in Jerusalem should be built. And may the will of the king be sent to us about this matter.”


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Then king Darius instructed, and they searched in the library of books that were deposited in Babylon.


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And there was found at Ecbatana, which is a fortified place in the province of Media, one volume, and this record was written in it:


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“In the first year of king Cyrus, Cyrus the king decreed that the house of God, which is in Jerusalem, shall be built in the place where they immolate victims, and that they should set the foundations so as to support a height of sixty cubits and a width of sixty cubits,


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with three rows of rough stones, and so as to have rows of new timber, and that the expenses shall be given from the house of the king.


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But also, let the gold and silver vessels of the temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple of Jerusalem, and which he carried away to Babylon, be restored and be carried back to the temple of Jerusalem, to their place, just as they had been placed in the temple of God.


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Now therefore, let Tattenai, the governor of the region which is beyond the river, Shetharbozenai, and your counselors, the rulers who are beyond the river, withdraw far away from them,


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and let this temple of God be released to the governor of the Jews and to their elders, so that they may build that house of God in its place.


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Moreover, it has been instructed by me as to what ought to be done by those priests of the Jews, so that the house of God may be built, specifically, that from the king’s treasury, that is, from the tribute which is taken from the region beyond the river, the expenses shall be scrupulously given to those men, so that the work may not be impeded.


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But if it may be necessary, let also calves, and lambs, and young goats for holocausts to the God of heaven, with grain, salt, wine, and oil, according to the rite of the priests who are in Jerusalem, be given to them for each day, so that there may be no complaint in anything.


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And let them offer oblations to the God of heaven, and let them pray for the life of the king and for the lives of his sons.


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Therefore, the decree has been set forth by me, so that, if there be any man who will change this order, a beam shall be taken from his own house, and it shall be set up, and he shall be nailed to it. Then his house shall be confiscated.


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So then, may the God who has caused his name to live there destroy any kingdoms or people who would extend their hand to fight against or to destroy that house of God, which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have established the decree, which I wish to be fulfilled scrupulously.”


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Therefore, Tattenai, the governor of the region beyond the river, and Shetharbozenai, and his counselors, in accord with what king Darius had instructed, diligently executed the same.


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Then the elders of the Jews were building and prospering, in accord with the prophecy of Haggai, the prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. And they built and constructed by the order of the God of Israel, and by the order of Cyrus and Darius, as well as Artaxerxes, the kings of the Persians.


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And they completed this house of God on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of king Darius.


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Then the sons of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the remainder of the sons of the transmigration celebrated the dedication of the house of God with gladness.


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And they offered, for the dedication of the house of God, one hundred calves, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and, as a sin offering for all of Israel, twelve he-goats from among the goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.


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And they appointed the priests into their divisions, and the Levites into their turns, over the works of God in Jerusalem, just as it was written in the book of Moses.


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Then the sons of Israel of the transmigration kept the Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first month.


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For the priests and Levites had been purified as one. All were cleansed in order to immolate the Passover for all the sons of the transmigration, and for their brothers, the priests, and for themselves.


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And the sons of Israel, who had been returned from the transmigration, and all those who had separated themselves from the defilement of the Gentiles of the earth to them, so that they might seek the Lord, the God of Israel, ate


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and kept the solemnity of unleavened bread for seven days with joy. For the Lord had made them joyful, and he had converted the heart of the king of Assur to them, so that he would assist their hands in the work of the house of the Lord, the God of Israel.


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Now after these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians, Ezra, the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,


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the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, priest from the beginning,


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this same Ezra, ascended from Babylon; and he was a proficient scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God gave to Israel. And the king granted to him his every petition. For the hand of the Lord, his God, was over him.


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And some from the sons of Israel, and from the sons of the priests, and from the sons of the Levites, and from the singing men, and from the gatekeepers, and from the temple servants ascended to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of king Artaxerxes.


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For on the first day of the first month, he began to ascend from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month, he arrived at Jerusalem. For the good hand of his God was over him.


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For Ezra prepared his heart, so that he might search the law of the Lord, and so that he might keep and teach precept and judgment in Israel.


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Now this is a copy of the letter of the edict, which king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest, a scribe well-taught in the words and precepts of the Lord and in his ceremonies in Israel:


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“Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra, the priest, a very learned scribe of the law of the God of heaven: a greeting.


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It has been decreed by me, that whosoever wishes, among the people of Israel and their priests and Levites within my kingdom, to go to Jerusalem, may go with you.


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For you have been sent from the face of the king and his seven counselors, so that you may visit Judea and Jerusalem by the law of your God, which is in your hand,


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and so that you may carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose tabernacle is in Jerusalem.


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And all the silver and gold, as much as you will find in the entire province of Babylon, and which the people will wish to offer, and which some of the priests will offer freely to the house of their God, which is in Jerusalem,


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accept it freely. And with this money, carefully purchase calves, rams, lambs, and their sacrifices and libations, and offer these upon the altar of the temple of your God, which is in Jerusalem.


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But also, whatever it will please you and your brothers to do with the remainder of the silver and gold, do so in accord with the will of your God.


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Likewise, the vessels that have been given to you for the ministry of the house of your God, deliver these to the sight of God in Jerusalem.


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Then, whatever more will be needed for the house of your God, as much as is necessary for you to spend, it shall be given from the treasury, and from the king’s finances,


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and by me. I, king Artaxerxes, have appointed and decreed to all the keepers of the public treasury, those who are beyond the river, that whatever Ezra, the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall ask of you, you shall provide it without delay,


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even up to one hundred talents of silver, and up to one hundred cors of wheat, and up to one hundred baths of wine, and up to one hundred baths of oil, and truly salt without measure.


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All that pertains to the rite of the God of heaven, let it be distributed scrupulously to the house of the God of heaven, lest perhaps he may become angry against the kingdom of the king and his sons.


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Likewise, we would make known to you, about all the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the temple servants, and the ministers of the house of this God, that you have no authority to impose tax, or tribute, or duty upon them.


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But as for you, Ezra, in accord with the wisdom of your God, which is in your hand, appoint judges and magistrates, so that they may judge the entire people, which is beyond the river, especially so that they may know the law of your God, but also so as to teach the ignorant freely.


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And any one who will not diligently keep the law of your God, and the law of the king, judgment shall be upon him, either to death, or to exile, or to the confiscation of his goods, or certainly to prison.”


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Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put this into the heart of the king, so that he may glorify the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.


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For he has turned his mercy toward me in the sight of the king, and his counselors, and all the powerful leaders of the king. And so, having been strengthened by the hand of the Lord, my God, which was upon me, I gathered together some of the leaders of Israel, those who were to go up with me.


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And so these are the leaders of the families, with their genealogy, of those who ascended with me from Babylon, during the reign of king Artaxerxes.


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From the sons of Phinehas, Gershom. From the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. From the sons of David, Hattush.


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From the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Parosh, Zechariah, and one hundred fifty men were numbered with him.


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From the sons of Adonikam, who were the last, and these were their names: Eliphelet, and Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and sixty men were with them.


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Now I gathered them together at the river that runs down to Ahava, and we stayed there for three days. And I sought among the people and among the priests for the sons of Levi, and I found none there.


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And so I sent Eliezer, and Ariel, and Shemaiah, and Elnathan, and Jarib, and another Elnathan, and Nathan, and Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise.


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And I sent them to Iddo, who is first within the place of Casiphia. And I placed in their mouth the words that they should speak to Iddo and his brothers, the temple servants, in the place of Casiphia, so that they would lead to us ministers for the house of our God.


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And because the good hand of our God was over us, they led to us a very learned man from the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel, with Sherebiah, and his sons, and his eighteen brothers,


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and Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah, of the sons of Merari, and his brothers, and his sons, numbering twenty.


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And from the temple servants, whom David, and the leaders had provided for the ministry of the Levites, there were two hundred twenty temple servants. All these were called by their names.


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And I proclaimed a fast in that place, beside the river Ahava, so that we might afflict ourselves in the sight of the Lord our God, and so that we might request of him the right way for us, and for our sons, and for all our substance.


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For I was ashamed to petition the king for assistance and for horsemen, who would defend us from the enemy along the way. For we had said to the king: “The hand of our God is over all those who seek him in goodness. And his authority, and his strength and fury, is over all those who forsake him.”


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And I separated twelve from among the leaders of the priests: Sherebiah, and Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers.


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And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold, and the vessels consecrated to the house of our God, which had been offered by the king, and by his counselors and his leaders, and by all those of Israel who had been found.


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And I weighed out to their hands six hundred fifty talents of silver, and one hundred vessels of silver, and one hundred talents of gold,


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and twenty gold bowls which had the weight of one thousand coins, and two vessels of the finest shining brass, as beautiful as gold.


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And I said to them: “You are the holy ones of the Lord, and the vessels are holy, with the silver and the gold, which has been offered freely to the Lord, the God of our fathers.


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Watch and guard them, until you weigh them out before the leaders of the priests and the Levites, and the rulers of the families of Israel in Jerusalem, into the treasury of the house of the Lord.”


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Then the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, so that they might carry these to Jerusalem, into the house of our God.


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Therefore, we set out from the river Ahava, on the twelfth day of the first month, so that we might travel to Jerusalem. And the hand of our God was over us, and he freed us from the hand of the enemy and of those who lay in ambush along the way.


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Then, on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God, by the hand of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui.


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This was done according to the number and weight of everything; and every weight was written down at that time.


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Moreover, those who came from the captivity, the sons of the transmigration, offered holocausts to the God of Israel: twelve calves on behalf of all the people of Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve he-goats for sin. All these were a holocaust to the Lord.


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Then they gave the edicts of the king to the rulers who served in the sight of the king, and to the governors beyond the river, and they exalted the people and the house of God.


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Then, after these things were completed, the leaders came to me, saying: “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, have not been separated from the peoples of the lands and from their abominations, especially those of the Canaanites, and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Jebusites, and Ammonites, and Moabites, and Egyptians, and Amorites.


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For they have taken from their daughters for themselves and for their sons, and they have mixed a holy lineage with the peoples of the lands. And even the hand of the leaders and the magistrates has been first in this transgression.”


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And when I had heard this word, I tore my cloak and my tunic, and I pulled out the hairs of my head and beard, and I sat in mourning.


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Then all those who feared the word of the God of Israel gathered to me, because of the transgression of those who had arrived from the captivity. And I sat in sorrow, until the evening sacrifice.


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And at the evening sacrifice, I rose up from my affliction, and, having torn my cloak and my tunic, I fell to my knees, and I reached out my hands to the Lord, my God.


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And I said: “My God, I am confounded and ashamed to lift up my face to you. For our iniquities have been multiplied over our heads, and our offenses have increased, even up to heaven,


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from the days of our fathers. But also, we ourselves have sinned gravely, even to this day. And for our iniquities, we ourselves, and our kings and our priests, have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the lands, and to the sword, and to captivity, and to plunder, and to confusion of face, just as it is also in this day.


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And now, to a small extent and for a moment, our petition has been made with the Lord our God, so that they may leave us a remnant, and so that a secure place in his holy land may be given to us, and so that our God may illuminate our eyes, and may give us a little life in our servitude.


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For we are servants, yet in our servitude our God has not forsaken us, but he has inclined mercy upon us in the sight of the king of the Persians, so that he may give us life, and may raise up the house of our God, and repair its desolations, and give us a hedge in Judah and Jerusalem.


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which you instructed by the hand of your servants, the prophets, saying: ‘The land, which you shall enter so that you may possess it, is an unclean land, due to the uncleanness of the peoples and of the other lands, the abominations of those who have filled it, from mouth to mouth, with their filth.’


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Now therefore, you should not give your daughters to their sons, nor should you receive their daughters for your sons. And you should not seek their peace, nor their prosperity, even forever. So shall you be strengthened, and so shall you eat the good things of the land, and have your sons as your heirs, even for all time.


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And after all that has happened to us because of our very wicked works and our great offense, you, our God, have freed us from our iniquity, and you have given us salvation, just as it is this day,


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so that we would not turn away and make your commandments void, and so that we would not unite in marriage with the peoples of these abominations. Could you be angry with us even to the very end, so that you would not to leave us a remnant to be saved?


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O Lord, the God of Israel, you are just. For we have been left behind to be saved, just as it is this day. Behold, we are before your sight in our offense. And it is not possible to withstand you in this matter.”


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Therefore, as Ezra was praying, and imploring, and weeping in this way, and was prostrate before the temple of God, an exceedingly great assembly of men and women and children was gathered to him from Israel. And the people wept with a great weeping.


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And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, from the sons of Elam, responded and said to Ezra: “We have sinned against our God, and have taken foreign wives from the peoples of the land. And now, if there is repentance within Israel over this,


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let us strike a pact with the Lord our God, so that we may cast aside all the wives, and those who have been born from them, in accord with the will of the Lord, and of those who fear the precept of the Lord our God. So let it be done, according to the law.


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Therefore, Ezra rose up, and he caused the leaders of the priests and the Levites, and all of Israel, to swear that they would act in accord with this word. And they swore it.


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And Ezra rose up before the house of God, and he went away to the chamber of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib, and he entered into it. He did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. For he was mourning the transgression of those who had arrived from the captivity.


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And a voice was sent into Judah and Jerusalem, to all the sons of the transmigration, so that they would gather together in Jerusalem.


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And all those who would not arrive within three days, in accord with the counsel of the leaders and the elders, would have all his substance taken away, and he would be cast out of the assembly of the transmigration.


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And so, all the men of Judah and of Benjamin convened in Jerusalem within three days. This was in the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. And all the people sat in the street of the house of God, trembling because of the sin and the rain.


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And Ezra, the priest, rose up, and he said to them: “You have transgressed, and you have taken foreign wives, so that you added to the offenses of Israel.


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And now, make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do what pleases him, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from your foreign wives.”


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And the entire multitude responded, and they said with a great voice: “In accord with your word to us, so let be it done.


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Yet truly, since the people are many, and it is the time of rain, and we cannot endure standing outside, and this is not a task for one or two days, (for certainly we have sinned greatly in this matter,)


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let leaders be appointed among the entire multitude. And in all our cities, let those who have taken foreign wives arrive at appointed times, and with them the elders from city to city, and the judges, until the wrath of our God has been averted from us over this sin.”


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And so Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, were appointed over this, and the Levites Meshullam and Shabbethai assisted them.


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And the sons of the transmigration did so. And Ezra, the priest, and the men who were the leaders of the families in the houses of their fathers, and all according to their names, went and sat down, on the first day of the tenth month, so that they might examine the matter.


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And they made an end with all the men who had taken foreign wives, by the first day of the first month.


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And there were found among the sons of the priests some who had taken foreign wives: From the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.


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And they swore with their hands that they would cast aside their wives, and that they would offer for their offense a ram from among the sheep.


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And from the sons of the Levites, Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, the same is Kelita, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.


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And out of Israel, from the sons of Parosh, Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.


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And from the sons of Pahath-moab, Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, and Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.


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The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. And it happened that, in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, I was in the capital city of Susa.


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And Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived, he and some men of Judah. And I questioned them about the Jews who had remained and were left behind from the captivity, and about Jerusalem.


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And they said to me: “Those who have remained and have been left behind from the captivity, there in the province, are in great affliction and in disgrace. And the wall of Jerusalem has been broken apart, and its gates have been burned with fire.”


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And when I had heard this manner of words, I sat down, and I wept and mourned for many days. I fasted and prayed before the face of the God of heaven.


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And I said: “I beg you, O Lord, God of heaven, strong, great, and terrible, who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love you and who keep your commandments:


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may your ears be attentive, and may your eyes be open, so that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I am praying before you today, night and day, for the sons of Israel, your servants. And I am confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which they have sinned against you. We have sinned, I and my father’s house.


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We have been seduced by vanity. And we have not kept your commandments and ceremonies and judgments, which you have instructed to your servant Moses.


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Remember the word which you commanded to your servant Moses, saying: ‘When you will have transgressed, I will disperse you among the nations.


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But if you will return to me, and keep my precepts, and do them, even if you will have been led away to the furthest reaches of the heavens, I will gather you from there, and I will lead you back to the place that I have chosen so that my name would dwell there.’


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And these same are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great strength and by your powerful hand.


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I beg you, O Lord, may your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who are willing to fear your name. And so, guide your servant today, and grant to him mercy before this man.” For I was the cupbearer of the king.


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Now it happened that, in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of king Artaxerxes, wine was before him; and I lifted up the wine, and I gave it to the king. And I was like someone languishing before his face.


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And the king said to me: “Why is your expression sad, though you do not appear to be sick? This is not without cause, but some evil, I know not what, is in your heart.” And I was struck with an exceedingly great fear.


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And I said to the king: “O king, live forever. Why should my expression not be mournful, since the city of the house of the sepulchers of my father is desolate, and its gates have been burned with fire?”


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And I said to the king: “If it seems good to the king, and if your servant is pleasing before your face: that you would send me into Judea, to the city of the sepulcher of my father. And I will rebuild it.”


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And the king said to me, with the queen who was sitting beside him: “Until what time will your journey be, and when will you return?” And it was pleasing before the countenance of the king, and so he sent me. And I established a time for him.


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And I said to the king: “If it seems good to the king, may he give me letters to the governors of the region beyond the river, so that they may lead me through, until I arrive in Judea,


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and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, so that he may give me timber, in order that I may be able to cover the gates of the tower of the house, and the walls of the city, and the house that I will enter.” And the king granted to me in accord with the good hand of my God, who is with me.


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And I went to the governors of the region beyond the river, and I gave them the letters of the king. Now the king had sent with me military leaders and horsemen.


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And Sanballat, a Horonite, and the servant Tobiah, an Ammonite, heard this. And they were saddened, with a great affliction, that a man had arrived who was seeking the prosperity of the sons of Israel.


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And I got up in the night, I and a few men with me. And I did not reveal to anyone what God had placed in my heart to do in Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me, except the animal on which I was sitting.


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And I departed in the night through the gate of the valley, and before the fountain of the dragon, and toward the dung gate. And I considered the wall of Jerusalem, which was broken apart, and its gates, which had been consumed by fire.


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And I continued on to the gate of the fountain, and to the aqueduct of the king. And there was no room for the beast on which I was sitting to pass through.


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And so I climbed up in the night along the torrent, and I considered the wall. And turning back, I went by the gate of the valley, and I returned.


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Now the magistrates did not know where I had gone, or what I had done. For I had revealed nothing, even to that point in time, to the Jews, or to the priests, or to the nobles, or to the magistrates, or to the others who were doing the work.


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And so I said to them: “You know the affliction in which we are, because Jerusalem is desolate, and its gates have been consumed by fire. Come, and let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and let us no longer be in disgrace.”


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And I revealed to them how the hand of my God was with me for good, and the words of the king, which he had spoken to me. And I said: “Let us rise up, and build.” And their hands were strengthened for good.


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But Sanballat, a Horonite, and the servant Tobiah, an Ammonite, and Geshem, an Arab, heard of it. And they ridiculed and disparaged us, and they said: “What is this thing that you are doing? Could you be rebelling against the king?”


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And I replied to them a word, and I said to them: “The God of heaven himself is helping us, and we are his servants. Let us rise up and build. But there is no portion, or justice, or remembrance in Jerusalem for you.”


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And Eliashib, the great priest, rose up, with his brothers, the priests, and they built the gate of the flock. They sanctified it, and they set up its double doors, and as far as the tower of one hundred cubits, they sanctified it, even to the tower of Hananel.


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But the sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate. They covered it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars. And beside them, Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, built.


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And beside him, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel, built. And beside them, Zadok, the son of Baana, built.


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And beside them, the Tekoites built. But the nobles among them did not put their necks to the work of their Lord.


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And Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, built the old gate. They covered it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars.


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And beside them, Melatiah, a Gibeonite, and Jadon, a Meronothite, men from Gibeon and Mizpah, built, on behalf of the governor who was in the region across the river.


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And beside him, Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah the goldsmith, built. And beside him, Hananiah, the son of the perfumer, built. And they left aside Jerusalem as far as the wall of the broad street.


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And beside him, Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, built, opposite his own house. And beside him, Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah, built.


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Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of Pahath-moab, built one half part of the street and the tower of the furnaces.


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And beside him, Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the leader of one half part of a street of Jerusalem, built, he and his daughters.


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And Hanun built the gate of the valley, with the inhabitants of Zanoah. They built it, and they set up its double doors and locks and bars, with one thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the gate of the dunghill.


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And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the leader of the street of Beth-haccherem, built the gate of the dunghill. He built it, and he set up its double doors and locks and bars.


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And Shallum, the son of Colhozeh, the leader of the district of Mizpah, built the gate of the fountain. He built it, and he covered it, and he set up its double doors and locks and bars, and the walls of the pool of Shelah at the garden of the king, and as far as the steps that descend from the City of David.


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After him, Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, the leader of one half part of the street of Bethzur, built, as far as opposite the sepulcher of David, and even to the pool, which was constructed with great labor, and even to the house of the strong.


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After him, the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani, built. After him, Hashabiah, the leader of one half part of the street of Keilah, built, in his own neighborhood.


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After him, their brothers, Binnui, the son of Henadad, the leader of one half part of Keilah, built.


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And beside him, Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the leader of Mizpah, built another measure, opposite the ascent to the strongest corner.


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After him, at the mount, Baruch, the son of Zabbai, built another measure, from the corner even to the door of the house of Eliashib, the great priest.


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After him, Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, built another measure, from the door of the house of Eliashib, along the length of the house of Eliashib.


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After him, Benjamin and Hasshub built, opposite their own house. And after him, Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, built, opposite his own house.


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After him, Binnui, the son of Henadad, built another measure, from the house of Azariah, even to the bend and to the corner.


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Palal, the son of Uzai, built, opposite the bend and the tower that projects from the high house of the king, that is, into the court of the prison. After him, Pedaiah, the son of Parosh, built.


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And the temple servants, who were living in Ophel, built to a point opposite the water gate, toward the east, and the tower that is prominent.


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After him, the Tekoites built another measure in the opposite area, from the great and prominent tower to the wall of the temple.


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After them, Zadok, the son of Immer, built, opposite his own house. And after him, Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east gate, built.


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After him, Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, built another measure. After him, Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, built, opposite his own storehouse. After him, Malchijah, the son of the goldsmith, built, even up to the house of the temple servants and of the sellers of small items, opposite the judgment gate, and even to the upper room of the corner.


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And within the upper room of the corner, at the gate of the flock, the goldsmiths and the merchants built.


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Now it happened that, when Sanballat had heard that we were building the wall, he was very angry. And having been moved exceedingly, he ridiculed the Jews.


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And he said, before his brothers and a crowd of the Samaritans: “What are the foolish Jews doing? Can it be that the Gentiles will allow them? Will they sacrifice and finish in one day? Do they have the ability to make stones out of piles of dust that have been burned up?”


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Then too, Tobiah, an Ammonite, his assistant, said: “Let them build. When the fox climbs, he will leap over their stone wall.”


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Listen, O our God, for we have become an object of contempt. Turn their reproach upon their own head, and grant that they may be despised in a land of captivity.


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May you not conceal their iniquity, and may their sin not be wiped away, before your face, for they have ridiculed those who are building.


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And so we built the wall, and we joined it together, even to the unfinished portion. And the heart of the people was stirred up for the work.


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Now it happened that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabs, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites had heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been closed, and that the breaches had begun to be repaired, they were exceedingly angry.


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And they all gathered together, so that they might go forth and fight against Jerusalem, and so that they might prepare ambushes.


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Then Judah said: “The strength of those who carry has diminished, and the amount of material is very great, and so we will not be able to build the wall.”


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And our enemies said: “Let them neither know, nor realize, until we arrive in their midst, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”


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Now it happened that, on ten occasions, some Jews arrived who were living near them, from all the places from which they came to us, and they told us this.


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So I stationed the people in order, in places behind the wall, all around it, with their swords, and lances, and bows.


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And I gazed around, and I rose up. And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: “Do not be afraid before their face. Remember the great and terrible Lord, and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons and your daughters, and your wives and your households.”


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Then it happened that, when our enemies had heard that it had been reported to us, God defeated their counsel. And we all returned to the walls, each one to his own work.


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And it happened that, from that day, half of their young men were doing the work, and half were prepared for war with lances, and shields, and bows, and armor. And the leaders were behind them in all the house of Judah.


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As for those building the wall, and carrying the burdens, and setting things in place: one of his hands was doing the work, and the other was holding a sword.


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For each one of the builders was girded with a sword at the waist. And they were building, and they were sounding a trumpet beside me.


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And I said to the nobles, and to the magistrates, and to the rest of the common people: “The work is great and wide, and we are separated on the wall far from one another.


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At whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, rush to that place for us. Our God will fight on our behalf.


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And so let us accomplish the work. And let one half part of us hold spears, from the ascent of dawn until the stars come out.”


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Also at that time, I said to the people: “Let each one with his servant remain in the midst of Jerusalem. And let us take turns, throughout the night and day, in doing the work.”


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But I and my brothers, and my servants, and the guards who were behind me, we did not take off our clothes; each one only removed his clothes to wash.


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And there were those who were saying: “Our sons and our daughters are very many. Let us receive grain as a price for them, and then we may eat and live.”


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And there were those who were saying: “Let us offer up our fields and vineyards, and our houses, and then we may receive grain during the famine.”


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And others were saying: “Let us borrow money for the tribute of the king, and let us surrender our fields and vineyards.”


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“And now, as is the flesh of our brothers, so is our flesh; and as are their sons, so also are our sons. Behold, we have subjugated our sons and our daughters into servitude, and some of our daughters are slaves, nor do we have the ability to redeem them, for others possess our fields and our vineyards.”


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And my heart considered within me. And I rebuked the nobles and the magistrates, and I said to them, “Have you each been exacting usury from your brothers?” And I gathered together a great assembly against them.


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And I said to them: “As you know, in accord with what was possible for us, we have redeemed our brothers, the Jews, who had been sold to the Gentiles. And yet you now sell your brothers, and we must redeem them?” And they were silent, nor did they find anything to answer.


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And I said to them: “The thing that you are doing is not good. Why are you not walking in the fear of our God, so that there may be no reproach against us from our enemies, the Gentiles?


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Both I and my brothers, with my servants, have lent money and grain to many. Let us agree not to ask for its return. Let us forgive the other money that is owed to us.


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On this day, restore their fields, and their vineyards, and their olive groves, and their houses to them. Then, too, the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, wine, and oil, which you usually exact from them, give it to them.”


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And they said: “We will restore it, and we will require nothing from them. And we will do just as you say.” And I called the priests, and I had them swear an oath, so that they would act in accord with what I had said.


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Moreover, I shook out my lap, and I said: “So may God shake out every man, who does not fulfill this word. From his house and from his labors, so may he be shaken out and become empty.” And the entire multitude said, “Amen.” And they praised God. Therefore, the people acted in accord with what was said.


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Now from that day, on which the king had ordered me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of king Artaxerxes, for twelve years, I and my brothers did not eat the yearly allowance that was owed to the governors.


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But the former governors, the ones who had been before me, were a burden to the people, and they took from them bread and wine, and forty shekels of money each day. And their officials also oppressed the people. But I did not do so, out of fear of God.


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In fact, I preferred to build in the work of the wall, and I bought no land, and all my servants were gathered to do the work.


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Likewise, the Jews and the magistrates, one hundred and fifty men, were at my table, with those who came to us from among the Gentiles that are around us.


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Now there was prepared for me, on each day, one ox and six choice rams, along with poultry. And once every ten days, I distributed diverse wines and many other things. Yet I did not require my yearly allowance as governor. For the people were greatly impoverished.


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Now it happened that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem, an Arab, and our other enemies, had heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no interruption remaining in it, (even though, at that time, I had not set up the double doors at the gates,)


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Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying: “Come, and let us strike a pact together in the villages, on the plain of Ono.” But they were thinking that they would do me harm.


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Therefore, I sent messengers to them, saying: “I am doing a great work, and I cannot descend, lest perhaps it may be neglected when I go out and descend to you.”


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Then they sent to me, with this same word, four times. And I responded to them with the same word as before.


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And Sanballat sent his servant to me a fifth time, with the former word, and he had a letter in his hand written in this manner:


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“It has been heard among the Gentiles, and Geshem has said it, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel, and because of this, you are building the wall and thinking to raise yourself as a king over them. For this reason,


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you also have stationed prophets, who preach about you in Jerusalem, saying: ‘There is a king in Judea!’ But the king will hear about these words. Therefore, come now, so that we may go to counsel together.”


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And I sent to them, saying: “There has been nothing done according to these words, which you have spoken. For you are inventing these things from your own heart.”


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For all these men wished to frighten us, thinking that our hands would cease from the work, and that we would cease. For this reason, I strengthened my hands all the more.


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And I entered into the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, in secret. And he said: “Let us consult together in the house of God, in the midst of the temple. And let us close the doors of the temple. For they will come to kill you, and they will arrive in the night to put you to death.”


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And I said: “How could anyone like me flee? And who like me should enter the temple, so that he may live? I will not enter.”


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And I understood that God had not sent him, but he had spoken to me as if he were prophesying, and that Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.


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For he had accepted money, so that I would be afraid, and would sin, and so that they would have some evil with which to rebuke me.


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Remember me, O Lord, because of Tobiah and Sanballat, because of their works of this kind. Then, too, Noadiah, a prophetess, and the rest of the prophets, would have made me afraid.


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Then it happened that, when all our enemies had heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they were downcast within themselves. For they knew that this work had been accomplished by God.


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But also, in those days, many letters were being sent by the nobles of the Jews to Tobiah, and were arriving from Tobiah to them.


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For there were many in Judea who had sworn an oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah, and because Jehohanan, his son, had married the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.


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Moreover, they praised him before me, and they reported my words to him. And Tobiah sent letters, so that he might make me afraid.


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Then, after the wall was built, and I set up the double doors, and I enrolled the gatekeepers, and the singing men, and the Levites,


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I instructed Hanani, my brother, and Hananiah, the leader of the house of Jerusalem, (for he seemed to be a truthful man, fearing God more than the others,)


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and I said to them: “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot.” And while they were standing there, the gates were closed and barred. And I stationed guards from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, each one in his turn, and each one opposite his own house.


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Now the city was great and very wide, and the people in its midst were few, and the houses were not yet built.


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But God had given to my heart, and I gathered the nobles, and the magistrates, and the common people, so that I might enroll them. And I found a book of the census of those who first went up, and in it there was found written:


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These are the sons of the province, who ascended from the captivity of the transmigration, those whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had taken away, and who returned into Jerusalem and Judea, each one to his own city.


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They arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:


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The gatekeepers: the sons of Shallum, the sons of Ater, the sons of Talmon, the sons of Akkub, the sons of Hatita, the sons of Shobai, one hundred thirty-eight.


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the sons of Keros, the sons of Siaha, the sons of Padon, the sons of Lebanah, the sons of Hagabah, the sons of Shalmai,


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the sons of Shephatiah, the sons of Hattil, the sons of Pochereth, who was born from Hazzebaim, the son of Amon.


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Now these are the ones who ascended from Telmelah, Telharsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; and they were not able to indicate the house of their fathers and their offspring, whether they were of Israel:


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and among the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai, who took a wife from the daughters of Barzillai, a Gileadite, and he was called by their name.


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These sought their writing in the census, and they did not find it, and so they were cast out of the priesthood.


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And the cupbearer said to them that they should not eat from the Holy of Holies, until a priest would stand up who was learned and skillful.


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aside from their men and women servants, who were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven, and among them were singing men and singing women, two hundred forty-five.


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Now several of the leaders of the families gave to the work. The cupbearer gave to the treasury one thousand drachmas of gold, fifty bowls, and five hundred thirty priestly garments.


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And some of the leaders of the families gave to the treasury of the work twenty thousand drachmas of gold, and two thousand two hundred minas of silver.


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And what the remainder of the people gave was twenty thousand drachmas of gold, and two thousand minas of silver, and sixty-seven priestly garments.


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Now the priests, and the Levites, and the gatekeepers, and the singing men, and the rest of the common people, and the temple servants, and all of Israel dwelt in their own cities.


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And the seventh month had arrived. Now the sons of Israel were in their cities. And all the people were gathered together, like one man, in the street which is before the water gate. And they spoke to Ezra the scribe, so that he would bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had instructed to Israel.


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Therefore, Ezra the priest brought the law before the multitude of men and women, and all those who were able to understand, on the first day of the seventh month.


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And he read it openly in the street which was before the water gate, from morning even until midday, in the sight of the men and women, and those who understood. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book.


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Then Ezra the scribe stood upon a step of wood, which he had made for speaking. And standing beside him were Mattithiah, and Shemaiah, and Anaiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right. And on the left were Pedaiah, Mishael, and Malchijah, and Hashum, and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.


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And Ezra opened the book before all the people. For he stood out above all the people. And when he had opened it, all the people stood up.


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And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people responded, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed down, and they adored God, facing the ground.


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Then Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, caused the people to be silent in order to hear the law. And the people were standing on their feet.


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And they read from the book of the law of God, distinctly and plainly, so as to be understood. And when it was read, they did understand.


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Then Nehemiah (the same is the cupbearer) and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites, who were interpreting for all the people, said: “This day has been sanctified to the Lord our God. Do not mourn, and do not weep.” For all of the people were weeping, as they were listening to the words of the law.


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And he said to them: “Go, eat fat foods and drink sweet drinks, and send portions to those who have not prepared for themselves. For it is the holy day of the Lord. And do not be sad. For the joy of the Lord is also our strength.”


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Then the Levites caused the people to be silent, saying: “Be quiet. For the day is holy. And do not be sorrowful.”


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And so all the people went forth, so that they might eat and drink, and so that they might send portions, and so that they might make a great rejoicing. For they understood the words that he had taught to them.


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And on the second day, the leaders of the families of all the people, the priests, and the Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe, so that he might interpret for them the words of the law.


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And they found written in the law, which the Lord had instructed by the hand of Moses, that the sons of Israel should live in tabernacles on the day of solemnity in the seventh month,


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and that they should proclaim and send out a voice in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying: “Go forth to the mount, and bring olive branches, and the branches of beautiful trees, myrtle branches, and palm branches, and the branches of thick trees,” so that they might make tabernacles, just as it was written.


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And the people went forth and brought. And they made for themselves tabernacles, each one at his own dwelling, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.


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Therefore, the entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made tabernacles and lived in tabernacles. For from the days of Jeshua, the son of Nun, even to that day, the sons of Israel had not done so. And there was exceedingly great rejoicing.


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Now he read in the book of the law of God, throughout each day, from the first day even to the very last day. And they kept the solemnity for seven days. And on the eighth day, there was a gathering according to the ritual.


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Then, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the sons of Israel came together in fasting and in sackcloth, and with soil upon them.


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And the offspring of the sons of Israel were separated from all the sons of foreigners. And they stood up, and they confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.


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And they arose to stand. And they read in the volume of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times they confessed. And they adored the Lord their God.


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Then, upon the step of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, and Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani rose up. And they cried out in a great voice to the Lord their God.


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And the Levites, Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bunni, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said: “Rise up. Bless the Lord your God, from eternity even to eternity! And blessed be the exalted name of your glory, with all blessing and praise.


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You yourself alone, O Lord, made heaven, and the heaven of the heavens, and all their host, the earth and all things that are in it, the seas and all things that are in them. And you gave life to all these things. And the host of heaven adores you.


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You yourself, O Lord God, are the One who chose Abram. And you led him away from the fire of the Chaldeans, and you gave him the name Abraham.


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And you found his heart to be faithful before you. And you formed a covenant with him, so that you might give to him the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite, and of the Amorite, and of the Perizzite, and of the Jebusite, and of the Girgashite, so that you might give it to his offspring. And you have fulfilled your words, for you are just.


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And you gave signs and portents to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to the people of his land. For you knew that they acted arrogantly against them. And you made a name for yourself, just as it is in this day.


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And you divided the sea before them, and they crossed through the midst of the sea on dry land. But their pursuers you cast into the depths, like a stone into great waters.


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And in the pillar of cloud, you were their leader by day, and in the pillar of fire, by night, so that they might see the way along which they might advance.


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You also descended to mount Sinai, and you spoke with them from heaven. And you gave them upright judgments, and the law of truth, and ceremonies, and good precepts.


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You revealed to them your sanctified Sabbath, and you instructed them in commandments, and ceremonies, and the law, by the hand of Moses, your servant.


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You also gave them bread from heaven in their hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their thirst. And you said to them that they should enter and possess the land, over which you lifted up your hand so that you might give it to them.


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Yet truly, they and our fathers acted arrogantly, and they hardened their necks, and they did not listen to your commandments.


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And they were not willing to hear, and they did not remember, your miracles which you had accomplished for them. And they hardened their necks, and they offered their head, so that they would return to their servitude, as if in contention. But you, a forgiving God, lenient and merciful, longsuffering and full of compassion, did not abandon them.


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Indeed, even when they had made for themselves a molten calf, and they had said, ‘This is your God, who led you away from Egypt!’ and had committed great blasphemies,


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even so, in the multitude of your mercies, you did not send them away in the desert. The pillar of cloud did not withdraw from them by day, so that it might lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, so that it might show them the way along which they might advance.


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And you gave them your good Spirit, so that he might teach them, and you did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and you gave them water in their thirst.


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For forty years, you fed them in the desert, and nothing was lacking to them; their garments did not grow old, and their feet were not worn down.


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And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and you distributed to them by lot. And they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, the king of Bashan.


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And you multiplied their sons like the stars of heaven. And you led them into the land, about which you had said to their fathers that they would enter and possess it.


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And the sons arrived and possessed the land. And you humbled the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, before them. And you delivered them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, so that they might do with them just as it was pleasing to them.


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And so they seized fortified cities and fat soil. And they possessed houses filled with all kinds of goods, cisterns made by others, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. And they ate and were satisfied. And they were fattened, and they abounded with delights from your great goodness.


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But they provoked you to wrath, and they withdrew from you, and they cast your law behind their backs. And they killed your prophets, who contended with them so that they might return to you. And they committed great blasphemies.


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And so you gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they afflicted them. And in the time of their tribulation, they cried out to you, and from heaven you heard them. And in accord with your great compassion, you gave to them saviors, who might save them from the hand of their enemies.


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But after they had rested, they turned back, so that they did evil in your sight. And you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, and they possessed them. And they converted, and they cried out to you. And from heaven you heeded them, and you freed them many times, by your mercies.


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And you contended with them, so that they might return to your law. Yet truly, they acted in arrogance, and they did not listen to your commandments, and they sinned against your judgments, which, if a man does them, he shall live by them. And they withdrew from offering their shoulder, and they hardened their neck; neither would they listen.


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And you continued to forbear them for many years. And you contended with them by your Spirit, through the hand of your prophets. And they did not listen, and so you delivered them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.


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Yet in your very many mercies, you did not cause them to be consumed, nor did you abandon them. For you are a compassionate and lenient God.


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Now therefore, our great God, strong and terrible, who keeps covenant and mercy, may you not avert your face from all the hardship that has found us, we and our kings, and our leaders, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathers, and all the people, from the days of king Assur, even to this day.


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For you are just, concerning all things that have overwhelmed us. For you have done truth, but we have acted impiously.


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Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our fathers have not done your law, and they have not been attentive to your commandments and your testimonies, to which you have testified among them.


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And they have not served you, in their kingdoms and with your many good things, which you gave to them, and in the very wide and fat land, which you delivered into their sight, nor did they return from their most wicked pursuits.


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Behold, we ourselves this day are servants. And the land, which you gave to our fathers so that they might eat its bread and have its good things, we ourselves are servants within it.


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And its fruits are multiplied for the kings, whom you have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies, and over our cattle, according to their will. And we are in great tribulation.


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Therefore, concerning all of these things, we ourselves are forming and writing a covenant, and our leaders, our Levites, and our priests are signing it.”


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And the rest of the people were the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, and the singers, the temple servants, and all who had separated themselves, from the peoples of the lands, to the law of God, with their wives, their sons, and their daughters.


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All who were able to understand, pledged on behalf of their brothers, with their nobles, and they came forward to promise and to swear that they would walk in the law of God, which he had given to the hand of Moses, the servant of God, that they would do and keep all the commandments of the Lord our God, and his judgments and his ceremonies,


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and that we would not give our daughters to the people of the land, and that we would not accept their daughters for our sons,


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also that, if the people of the land carry in goods for sale or any useful things, so that they might sell them on the day of the Sabbath, that we would not buy them on the Sabbath, nor on a sanctified day, and that we would release the seventh year and the collection of debt from every hand.


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And we established precepts over ourselves, so that we would give one third part of a shekel each year for the work of the house of our God,


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for the bread of the presence, and for the continual sacrifice, and for a continual holocaust on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, on the solemnities, and for the holy things, and for the sin offering, so that atonement would be made for Israel, and for every use within the house of our God.


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Then we cast lots concerning the oblation of the wood among the priests, and the Levites, and the people, so that it would be carried into the house of our God, by the households of our fathers, at set times, from the times of one year to another, so that they might burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, just as it was written in the law of Moses,


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and so that we might bring in the first-fruits of our land, and the first-fruits of all the produce from every tree, from year to year, in the house of our Lord,


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and the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, just as it was written in the law, and the firstborn of our oxen and our sheep, so that they might be offered in the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God,


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and so that we might bring in the first-fruits of our foods, and of our libations, and the fruits of every tree, also of the vintage and of the oil, to the priests, to the storehouse of our God, with the tithes of our land for the Levites. The Levites also shall receive tithes from our works out of all the cities.


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Now the priest, the son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites in the tithes of the Levites, and the Levites shall offer a tenth part of their tithes in the house of our God, to the storeroom in the house of the treasury.


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For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall carry to the storehouse the first-fruits of the grain, of the wine, and of the oil. And the sanctified vessels shall be there, and the priests, and the singing men, and the gatekeepers, and the ministers. And we shall not forsake the house of our God.


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Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. Yet truly, the remainder of the people cast lots, so that they might choose one part in ten who were to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine parts for the other cities.


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And so these are the leaders of the province, who were living in Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah. Now each one lived in his possession, in their cities: Israel, the priests, the Levites, the temple servants, and the sons of the servants of Solomon.


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And in Jerusalem, there lived some of the sons of Judah, and some of the sons of Benjamin: of the sons of Judah, Athaiah, the son of Aziam, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the sons of Perez;


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Maaseiah, the son of Baruch, the son of Colhozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of a Silonite.


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Now these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu, the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah;


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And Joel, the son of Zichri, was their foremost leader. And Judah, the son of Hassenuah, was second over the city.


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Seraiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God,


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and their brothers, who were doing the works of the temple: eight hundred twenty-two. And Adaiah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zachariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah,


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and his brothers, the leaders among the fathers: two hundred forty-two. And Amassai, the son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer,


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and their brothers, who were very powerful: one hundred twenty-eight. And their foremost leader was Zabdiel, the son of the powerful.


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And from the Levites, there were Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni,


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and Shabbethai and Jozabad, who were over all the works which were exterior to the house of God, from among the leaders of the Levites.


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And Mattaniah, the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, was the leader of praise and confession in prayer, with Bakbukiah, second among his brothers, and Abda, the son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun.


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And the gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, who guarded the doorways, were one hundred seventy-two.


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And the remainder of Israel, the priests and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, each one in his own possession.


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And the director of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica. The singing men in the ministry of the house of God were from the sons of Asaph.


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In fact, there was a precept of the king about them, and an order among the singing men, throughout each day.


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And Pethahiah, the son of Meshezabel, from the sons of Zerah, the son of Judah, was at the hand of the king concerning every word of the people,


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and in the houses throughout all their regions. Some of the sons of Judah lived at Kiriatharba and in its daughter villages, and at Dibon and in its daughter villages, and at Jekabzeel and in its vicinity,


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Zanoah, Adullam, and in their villages, at Lachish and its regions, and at Azekah and in its daughter villages. And they dwelt from Beersheba as far as the valley of Hinnom.


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But the sons of Benjamin lived from Geba, at Michmash, and Aija, and Bethel and in its daughter villages,


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Now these are the priests and the Levites who ascended with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,


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And the Levites, Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah, they and their brothers were over the hymns,


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And in the days of Joiakim, the priests and the leaders of the families were: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;


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The Levites, in the days of Eliashib, and Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, and the priests, were written according to the leaders of the families, during the reign of Darius the Persian.


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The sons of Levi, according to the leaders of the families, were written in the book of the words of those days, even to the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib.


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Now the leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, and their brothers, in their turns, so that they would praise and confess, according to the precept of David, the man of God. And they served equally and in order.


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Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were keepers of the gates and of the vestibules before the gates.


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These were in the days of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah, the governor, and of Ezra, the priest and scribe.


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Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought the Levites from all their places, so that they might bring them to Jerusalem, and so that they might keep the dedication, and rejoice with thanksgiving, and with singing, and with cymbals, psalteries, and lyres.


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Now the sons of the singing men were gathered from the plains surrounding Jerusalem, and from the villages of Netophati,


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and from the house of Gilgal, and from the regions of Geba and Azmaveth. For the singing men had built villages for themselves around Jerusalem.


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And the priests and the Levites were cleansed, and they cleansed the people, and the gates, and the wall.


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Then I caused the leaders of Judah to ascend the wall, and I appointed two great choirs to give praise. And they went to the right upon the wall, toward the dung gate.


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And some of the sons of the priests went forth with trumpets: Zachariah, the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph.


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And his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, and Judah, and Hanani, went forth with the canticles of David, the man of God. And Ezra, the scribe, was before them at the fountain gate.


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And opposite them, they ascended by the steps of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall above the house of David, and as far as the water gate to the east.


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And the second choir of those who gave thanks went forth on the opposite side, and I went after them, and one half part of the people were upon the wall, and upon the tower of the furnaces, as far as the widest wall,


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and above the gate of Ephraim, and above the ancient gate, and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of Hamath, and as far as the flock gate. And they stood still at the watch gate.


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And the two choirs of those who gave praise stood still at the house of God, with myself and one half part of the magistrates who were with me.


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And the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Mijamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, Hananiah, went forth with trumpets,


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with Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. And the singers were singing clearly, and Jezrahiah was their foremost leader.


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And on that day, they immolated great sacrifices, and they rejoiced. For God had caused them to rejoice with great joy. And their wives and children also were glad. And the rejoicing of Jerusalem was heard from far away.


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On that day also, they enrolled men over the storehouses of the treasury, for the libations, and for the first-fruits, and for the tithes, so that the leaders of the city might bring these in, by them, with proper thanksgiving, for the priests and the Levites. For Judah was rejoicing in the priests and the Levites who were assisting.


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And they kept the vigil of their God, and the vigil of expiation, with the singing men and the gatekeepers, in accord with the precept of David, and of Solomon, his son.


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For in the days of David and Asaph, from the beginning, there were leaders appointed over the singers, to give praise in verses, and to confess to God.


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And all of Israel, in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave portions to the singing men and to the gatekeepers, for each day, and they sanctified the Levites, and the Levites sanctified the sons of Aaron.


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Now on that day, they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it, there was found written that the Ammonites and the Moabites must not enter the church of God, even for all time,


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because they did not meet the sons of Israel with bread and water, and they hired Balaam against them, to curse them. But our God turned the curse into a blessing.


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And Eliashib, the priest, was over this task; he had been given charge of the treasury of the house of our God, and he was a close relative of Tobiah.


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Then he made for himself a large storeroom, and in that place, there was laid before him gifts, and frankincense, and vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, the portions of the Levites, and of the singing men, and of the gatekeepers, and the first-fruits of the priests.


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But during all this, I was not in Jerusalem, because in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, the king of Babylon, I went to the king, and at the end of some days, I petitioned the king.


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And I went to Jerusalem, and I understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, such that he would make him a storeroom in the vestibules of the house of God.


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And it seemed to me very evil. And I cast the vessels of the house of Tobiah outside of the storeroom.


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And I gave instructions, and they cleansed again the storeroom. And I brought back, into that place, the vessels of the house of God, the sacrifice, and the frankincense.


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And I realized that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, and that each one had fled into his own region, from the Levites, and from the singing men, and from those who were ministering.


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And I brought the case before the magistrates, and I said, “Why have we forsaken the house of God?” And I gathered them together, and I caused them to stand at their stations.


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And we appointed over the storehouses, Shelemiah, the priest, and Zadok, the scribe, and Pedaiah from the Levites, and next to them Hanan, the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah. For they had proven to be faithful. And so the portions of their brothers were entrusted to them.


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Remember me, O my God, because of this, and may you not wipe away my acts of compassion, which I have done for the house of my God and for his ceremonies.


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In those days, I saw, in Judah, some who were treading the presses on the Sabbath, and who were carrying sheaves, and placing on donkeys burdens of wine, and of grapes, and of figs, and all manner of burdens, and who were bringing these into Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath. And I contended with them, so that they would sell on a day when it was permitted to sell.


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And some Tyrians dwelt within, who were bringing fish and all kinds of items for sale. And they were selling on the Sabbaths to the sons of Judah in Jerusalem.


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And I put the nobles of Judah under oath, and I said to them: “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?


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Did not our fathers do these things, and so our God brought all this evil upon us and upon this city? And you are adding more wrath upon Israel by violating the Sabbath!”


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And it happened that, when the gates of Jerusalem had rested on the day of the Sabbath, I spoke, and they closed the gates. And I instructed that they should not open them until after the Sabbath. And I appointed some of my servants over the gates, so that no one would carry in a burden on the day of the Sabbath.


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And so the merchants and those who sold all kinds of items remained just outside of Jerusalem, once and again.


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And I contended with them, and I said to them: “Why are you remaining just beyond the wall? If you do this again, I will send hands upon you.” And so, from that time, they no longer came on the Sabbath.


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I also spoke to the Levites, so that they would be cleansed, and would arrive to guard the gates and to sanctify the day of the Sabbath. Because of this also, O my God, remember me and spare me, in accord with the multitude of your mercies.


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But also in those days, I saw some Jews taking wives from the Ashdodites, and the Ammonites, and the Moabites.


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And their sons spoke partly in the speech of Ashdod, and they did not know how to speak the Jewish language, and they were speaking according to the language of one people or another.


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And I put them under oath, and I cursed them. And I struck some of their men, and I shaved off their hair, and I made them swear to God that they would not give their daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for their sons, nor for themselves, saying:


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“Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin in this kind of thing? And certainly, among many nations, there was no king similar to him, and he was beloved of his God, and God set him as king over all of Israel. And yet foreign women led even him into sin!


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So how could we disobey and do all this great evil, so that we would transgress against our God, and take foreign wives?”


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Now one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the high priest, was a son-in-law to Sanballat, a Horonite, and I made him flee from me.


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O Lord, my God, remember against those who defile the priesthood and the law of the priests and the Levites!


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And so I cleansed them from all foreigners, and I established the orders of the priests and the Levites, each one in his ministry.


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O my God, remember me also, for good, because of the offering of wood, at the appointed times, and because of the first-fruits. Amen.


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In the second year of the reign of Artaxerxes the great, on the first day of the month of Nisan, Mordecai the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin,


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a Jewish man who lived in the city of Susa, a great gentleman, and among the first ones of the king’s court, saw a dream.


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Now he was one of a number of captives, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judah.


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And this was his dream: voices appeared, and confusion, and thunders, and earthquakes, and a disturbance upon the earth.


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And that was a day of darkness and division, of tribulation and anguish, and there was an unnatural dread over the earth.


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And they cried out to God, and from their loud crying, a little fountain grew into a very great river and overflowed into many waters.


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When Mordecai had seen this, and he arose from bed, he was considering what God might want to do, and he kept it fixed in his soul, desiring to know what the dream might signify.


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Now he was staying at that time in the king’s court with Bagatha and Thara the king’s eunuchs, who were porters of the palace.


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And when he realized their thoughts, and had diligently paid close attention, he learned that they were attempting to cast their hand against king Artaxerxes, and he reported this to the king.


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But the king had what had happened written in the commentaries. And even Mordecai handed over the memory of these things into writing.


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And the king instructed him to remain in the court of the palace, having given him this position for the information.


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In truth, Haman the son of Hammedatha the Bougaean had great honor in the eyes of the king, and he wanted to harm Mordecai and his people because of the two eunuchs of the king who had been executed.


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In the days of Artaxerxes, who reigned from India to Ethiopia over one hundred twenty-seven provinces,


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And so, in the third year of his reign, he made a great feast for all the leaders and his servants, for the most powerful among the Persians and the distinguished among the Medes, and for the rulers of the provinces before him,


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so that he might show the glorious riches of his kingdom, as well as its greatness, and so boast of his power, for a long time, namely, one hundred and eighty days.


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And when the days of the feast were nearly completed, he invited all the people, who had been found in Susa, from the greatest even to the least, and he commanded a feast to be prepared, for seven days, in the court of the garden and the arboretum, which had been planted by the care and by the hand of the king.


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And, in every direction, tents the color of the sky and of flax as well as hyacinth were hung up, suspended by cords of linen and even purple, which had been placed through rings of ivory and were held up with marble columns. The couches also, of gold and silver, had been arranged over a pavement of emerald-green, bearing scattered jewels, which was decorated with a wonderful variety of images.


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Moreover, those who had been invited drank from golden cups, and dishes of foods were brought in one after another. Likewise, choice wine was presented in abundance, as was worthy of royal magnificence.


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Nor was anyone compelled to drink who was unwilling, but, just as the king had appointed, one of his nobles was set over each table, so that each one might select what he wanted.


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Likewise, Vashti the queen made a feast for the women, in the palace where king Artaxerxes was accustomed to stay the night.


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And so, on the seventh day, when the king was more cheerful, and, after excessive drinking, had become warmed with wine, he ordered Mehuman, and Biztha, and Harbona, and Bigtha, and Abagtha, and Zethar, and Charkas, seven eunuchs who served in his presence,


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to bring in queen Vashti before the king, with the crown set upon her head, to show her beauty to the whole people and to the leaders, for she was very beautiful.


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She refused, and she showed contempt towards the king’s command, which he had delivered to her by the eunuchs. Whereupon the king, being angry and inflamed with a very great fury,


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questioned the wise men, who, according to royal custom were always near him and all he did was by their counsel, who knew the laws as well as the judgments of their ancestors,


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(but first and foremost were Carshena, and Shethar, and Admatha, and Tarshish, and Meres, and Marsena, and Memucan, seven rulers of the Persians as well as the Medes, who saw the face of the king and who were accustomed to sitting down first after him,)


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and he sent letters to all the provinces of his kingdom, so that every nation was able to hear and to read, in various languages and letters, that husbands are to be the greater rulers in their own houses, and that this should be published to every people.


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And so, after this had been carried out, and the indignation of king Artaxerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what had happened to her.


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And the servants of the king, and his ministers, said, “Let young women be sought for the king, virgins and beautiful,


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and let investigators be sent throughout all the provinces for young women, beautiful and virgins. And let them bring them to the city of Susa, and deliver them to the house of the women under the hand of Hegai the eunuch, who is the overseer and keeper of the king’s women. And let them receive feminine ornaments, and other things necessary for their use.


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And whoever among them all will please the king’s eyes, let her reign instead of Vashti.” The idea pleased the king, and so he ordered it to be done as they had suggested.


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There was a Jewish man in the city of Susa, by the name of Mordecai, son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the house of Benjamin,


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who had been carried away from Jerusalem at the time that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon carried away Jeconiah king of Judah,


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who had raised his brother’s daughter Hadassah, who by another name was called Esther. And she had lost both her parents. She was very beautiful, with a graceful appearance. Since her father and mother had both died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.


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And when the king’s command became very well-known, in accordance with his command, many beautiful virgins were brought to Susa, and were delivered to Hegai the eunuch. Likewise, Esther, along with the other young women, was delivered to him, to be protected with the assembled women.


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She was pleasing to him, and she found favor in his sight. And he commanded a eunuch to hasten the women’s ornaments, and to deliver her share to her, along with seven of the most beautiful young women of the king’s house, so as to both adorn and honor her and her handmaids.


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She was not willing to reveal to him her people or her native land. For Mordecai had instructed her that she should keep silent about all these things.


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He went for a walk every day, in the front courtyard of the house in which the chosen virgins were kept, having concern for Esther’s welfare and wanting to know what would happen to her.


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But, when the time came for each in the line of young women to go in to the king, after everything had been completed concerning feminine grooming, the twelfth month had been reached, to the extent that for six months they were anointed with oil of myrrh, and for another six months they used certain types of makeup and perfumes.


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And when they were going in to the king, whatever they requested to adorn themselves, they received, and when each was pleased with herself, having been prepared in the chamber of the women, she passed on to the king’s chamber.


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And whoever entered at evening, departed in the morning, and then from there she was led to the second house, which was under the hand of Shaashgaz the eunuch, who presided over the king’s concubines. Nor did she have the power to return again to the king, unless the king desired it and had summoned her by name.


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But, as the order continued to progress, the day arrived when Esther, the daughter of Abihail the brother of Mordecai, whom he had adopted as his daughter, was required to go in to the king. She did not seek feminine ornaments, except that whatever Hegai the eunuch and keeper of the virgins chose, he gave her to adorn her. For she was very attractive, and her incredible beauty made her appear gracious and amiable in the eyes of all.


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And so she was led to the chamber of king Artaxerxes, in the tenth month, which is called Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.


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It was inquired into and discovered, and they were both hanged on a gallows. And it was committed to the histories and the chronicles which are delivered in the sight of the king.


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After this, king Artaxerxes exalted Haman, the son of Hammedatha, who was of Agag lineage, and he set his throne above all the rulers whom he had.


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And all the king’s servants, who passed by the doors of the palace, bent their knees and adored Haman, for so the ruler had instructed them. Only Mordecai did not bend his knee, nor adore him.


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The king’s servants, who presided over the doors of the palace, said to him, “Why do you, more than the others, not observe the king’s command?”


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And when they were saying this frequently, and he would not listen to them, they reported it to Haman, desiring to know whether he would continue in his resolution, for he had told them that he was a Jew.


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Now when Haman had heard this, and had proved by a test that Mordecai did not bend his knee to him, nor adore him, he was very angry.


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And he considered it pointless to lay his hands on Mordecai alone, for he had heard that he was part of the Jewish people. And so he wanted more: to destroy the entire nation of the Jews, who were in the kingdom of Artaxerxes.


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In the first month, which is called Nisan, in the twelfth year of the reign of Artaxerxes, the lot was cast into an urn, which in Hebrew is called Pur, in the presence of Haman, to determine on what day and in which month the Jewish people should be destroyed. And it turned out to be the twelfth month, which is called Adar.


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And Haman said to king Artaxerxes, “There is a people dispersed throughout all the provinces of your kingdom and separated one from another, who make use of unusual laws and ceremonies, and who, in addition, show contempt for the king’s ordinances. And you know very well that it is not expedient for your kingdom that they should become insolent through independence.


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If it pleases you, declare that they may be destroyed, and I will weigh out ten thousand talents to the keepers of your treasury.”


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And so the king took the ring that he used, from his own hand, and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha, of Agag lineage, enemy of the Jews.


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And he said to him, “Let the silver, which you promise, be for yourself. As for the people, do with them as it pleases you.”


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And the scribes of the king were summoned, in the first month Nisan, on the thirteenth day of the same month. And it was written, as Haman had commanded, to all the king’s governors, and to the judges of the provinces, and to various peoples, so that each people could read and hear according to their various languages, in the name of king Artaxerxes. And the letters were sealed with his ring.


text:
These were sent by the king’s messengers to all the provinces, so as to kill and destroy all the Jews, from children all the way to the elderly, even little children and women, on one day, that is, on the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is called Adar, and to plunder their goods, even their necessities.


text:
And this was the text of the letter: “Artaxerxes, the great king from India all the way to Ethiopia, to the leaders and generals of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces, which are subject to his authority, greetings.


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Although I have reigned over many nations and subjugated the whole world under my realm, I was by no means willing to abuse the greatness of this power, but to govern my subjects with clemency and leniency, so that they would settle into a quiet life, apart from any terror, and delight in peace, as all mortals would choose to do.


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Yet, in asking my counselors how this might be able to be accomplished, one who excelled the others in wisdom and fidelity, and who was second after the king, named Haman,


text:
explained to me that there was a people, scattered throughout the whole world, that used strange laws, and, acting against the customs of all peoples, despised the commandments of kings and violated the harmony of all nations with their dissension.


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When we had learned this, seeing one nation rebellious against all mankind, having overthrown the usefulness of laws, and going against our orders, and disturbing the peace and harmony of the provinces subject to us,


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we commanded that whomever Haman, who is chief over all the provinces, and second after the king, and whom we honor in the place of a father, whomever he would point out should be destroyed by their enemies, with their wives and children, and that no one may take pity on them, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month Adar of this present year,


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so that these guilty men, all on one day, may go down to the underworld, restoring to our empire the peace that they had disturbed.”


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And the effect of the letters was this: that all provinces would know and prepare for the prescribed day.


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The couriers, who had been sent, hurried to complete the king’s command, but the edict was hung up in Susa immediately. And the king and Haman celebrated a feast, while all the Jews in the city were weeping.


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When Mordecai had heard this, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth, strewing ashes on his head, and he cried out with a loud voice in the main street of the city, revealing the anguish of his soul.


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And he continued with this lamenting, even up to the gate of the palace, for no one clothed with sackcloth is permitted to enter the king’s court.


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Likewise, in all provinces, towns, and places where the king’s cruel decision arrived, there was extraordinary mourning among the Jews with fasting, wailing, and weeping, with many using sackcloth and ashes for their bed.


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Then Esther’s maids and eunuchs went in and informed her. When she heard it, she was shocked, and she sent a garment to clothe him and to take away the sackcloth, but he would not accept it.


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And she sent for Hathach the eunuch, whom the king had appointed to minister to her, and she instructed him to go to Mordecai and to discern from him why he was doing this.


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And departing, Hathach went to Mordecai, who was standing in the street of the city, in front of the palace entrance.


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He told him everything that had happened, how Haman had promised to transfer silver into the king’s treasury for the death of the Jews.


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Also, he gave him a copy of the edict that was hanging up in Susa, so that he would show it to the queen and advise her to go in to the king and beg him on behalf of her people.


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Likewise, all Israel cried out to the Lord with the same intention and supplication because certain death was hanging over them.


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And when she had put aside her royal apparel, she took up garments suitable for weeping and mourning, and instead of various ointments, she covered her head with ashes from burnt dung, and she humbled her body with fasting, and all the aspects of her beauty, she covered with her torn hair.


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And she begged the Lord God of Israel, saying, “My Lord, who alone is our King, help me, a solitary woman, for there is no other helper but you.


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I have heard from my father that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations and our fathers from among all their former ancestors, to possess them as an everlasting inheritance, and you have done for them just as you said.


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And now they are not content to oppress us with a very difficult servitude, but attributing the strength of their hands to the power of their idols,


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they want to alter your promises, and erase your inheritance, and close the mouths of those who praise you, and extinguish the glory of your temple and your altar,


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so that they may open the mouths of the nations, and praise the strength of idols, and proclaim a worldly king in perpetuity.


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Lord, do not hand over your scepter to that which does not exist, lest they laugh at our ruin, but turn their counsel upon themselves and destroy him who has begun to rage against us.


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Be mindful, Lord, and show yourself to us in the time of our tribulation, and give me faith, Lord, King of gods and of every power.


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Grant fitting words to my mouth in the sight of the lion, and transform his heart to hate our enemy, so that both he, and the others who conspire with him, may perish.


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But free us by your hand, and help me, who has no other helper but you, Lord, who holds the knowledge of all things.


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And you know that I hate the glory of the wicked, and I detest the bed of the uncircumcised, and of all outsiders.


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You know my necessity, that I loathe the sign of my exaltation and glory, which is on my head in the days of my exhibition, and that I detest it like a menstruous rag and do not wear it in the days of my silence,


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O God, whose strength is above all things, heed the voice of those who have no other hope, and free us from the hand of the wicked, and rescue me from my fear.”


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And when she was shining in a royal manner, and had called upon God, the Guide and Savior of all, she took two maids with her.


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And she was leaning upon one of them, as if, out of delicateness and great tenderness, she were not able to bear carrying her own body.


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Yet she had a rosy color pouring over her face, for, with gracious and bright eyes, she restrained a sorrowful soul and very great fear.


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And so, entering hesitantly through a series of doors, she stood opposite the king, where he sat upon his royal throne, clothed in royal robes, and shining with gold and precious stones. And he was terrible to behold.


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And when he had lifted up his face, and with burning eyes had shown the fury of his heart, the queen collapsed, and her color turned pale, and she rested her exhausted head upon her handmaid.


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And God changed the king’s spirit into gentleness; quickly and apprehensively, he leapt from his throne, and lifting her up in his arms until she came to herself, he coaxed her with these words:


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And since she remained silent, he took the golden scepter and placed it on her neck, and he kissed her and said, “Why do you not speak to me?”


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She answered, “I saw you, my lord, as an angel of God, and my heart was disturbed for fear of your glory.


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(Alternate text from the Hebrew, verses 17-18:) And so, on the third day, Esther had put on her royal apparel and was standing in the atrium of the king’s house, which was inside, opposite the king’s hall, while he was sitting on his throne in the council room of the palace, opposite the entrance of the house.


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And when he saw Esther the queen standing there, she pleased his eyes, and he extended toward her the golden scepter, which he held in his hand, and she approached and kissed the top of his scepter.


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And the king said to her, “What do you wish, queen Esther? What is your request? Even if you ask for half of the kingdom, it will be given to you.”


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But she responded, “If it pleases the king, I beg you to come with me today, and Haman with you, to the feast that I have prepared.”


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And immediately the king said, “Call Haman quickly, so that he may obey Esther’s will. And so the king and Haman came to the feast, which the queen had prepared for them.


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And the king said to her, after he had drunk wine abundantly, “What are you asking for that should be given to you? And which things do you require? Even if you request half of my kingdom, you will obtain it.”


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If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to give me what I ask, and to fulfill my petition, let the king and Haman come to the feast which I have prepared for them, and tomorrow I will open my mind to the king.”


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And so Haman went out that day joyful and cheerful. And when he saw that Mordecai was sitting in front of the gate of the palace, and that he alone did not get up for him, but did not so much as move from the place where he sat, he was very indignant.


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But, concealing his anger and returning into his house, he gathered to him his friends and Zeresh, his wife.


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And he explained to them the greatness of his riches, and the influence of his sons, and how, with such glory, the king had elevated him above all his rulers and servants.


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And after this, he said, “Also, queen Esther has called no one else to the feast with the king, except me. And I will be dining with the king again tomorrow.


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And though I have all these things, I consider that I have nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in front of the king’s gate.”


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And Zeresh his wife and his other friends answered him, “Order a great beam to be prepared, having a height of fifty cubits, and in the morning speak to the king, so that Mordecai may be hanged from it, and so you will go joyfully with the king to the feast.” This advice pleased him, and so he ordered a high cross to be prepared.


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The king passed that night without sleep, and so he ordered the histories and chronicles of former times to be brought to him. And when they were reading them before him,


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they came to that place where it had been written, how Mordecai had reported the treachery of Bigthan and Teresh the eunuchs, who desired to cut the throat of king Artaxerxes.


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When the king had heard this, he said, “What honor and reward has Mordecai been given for this fidelity?” His servants and ministers said to him, “He has received no compensation at all.”


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And immediately the king said, “Who is in the atrium?” For, you see, Haman was entering the inner atrium of the king’s house to suggest to the king that he should order Mordecai to be hanged on the gallows, which had been prepared for him.


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And when he had entered, he said to him, “What ought to be done for the man whom the king wishes to honor?” But Haman, thinking in his heart and supposing that the king would honor no one else but himself,


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ought to be clothed with the king’s apparel, and be set upon the horse that the king rides, and receive the royal crown upon his head.


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And let the first of the king’s rulers and sovereigns hold his horse, and, as they advance through the street of the city, proclaim before him and say, ‘Thus shall he be honored, whom the king decides to honor.’ ”


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And the king said to him, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, and do as you have said to Mordecai the Jew, who sits in front of the gate of the palace. Be careful not to omit any of those things which you have mentioned.”


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And so Haman took the robe and the horse, and arraying Mordecai in the street of the city, and setting him on the horse, he went before him and cried out, “He is worthy of this honor, whom the king has decided to honor.”


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And Mordecai returned to the palace door. And Haman hurried to go to his house, mourning and hiding his head.


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As they were still speaking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and compelled him to go quickly to the feast, which the queen had prepared.


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And the king said to her again on the second day, after he was warmed with wine, “What is your request, Esther, so that it may be given to you? And what do you want done? Even if you ask for half of my kingdom, you will obtain it.”


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She answered him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O king, and if it pleases you, spare my soul, I ask you, and spare my people, I beg you.


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For I and my people have been handed over to be crushed, to be slain, and to perish. And if we were only being sold as servants and slaves, the evil might be tolerable, and I would have mourned in silence. But now our enemy is one whose cruelty overflows upon the king.”


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And king Artaxerxes answered and said, “Who is this, and of what power, that he would dare to do these things?”


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And Esther said, “This is our most wicked enemy and foe: Haman!” Hearing this, Haman was suddenly dumbfounded, unable to bear the faces of the king and the queen.


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But the king, being angry, rose up and, from the place of the feast, entered into the arboretum of the garden. Haman likewise rose up to entreat Esther the queen for his soul, for he understood that evil was prepared for him by the king.


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When the king returned from the arboretum of the garden and entered into the place of the feast, he found Haman collapsed on the couch on which Esther lay, and he said, “And now he wishes to oppress the queen, in my presence, in my house!” The word had not yet gone out of the king’s mouth, and immediately they covered his face.


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And Harbona, one of the eunuchs who stood in ministry to the king, said, “Behold the wood, which he had prepared for Mordecai, who spoke up on behalf of the king, stands in Haman’s house, having a height of fifty cubits.” The king said to him, “Hang him from it.”


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And so Haman was hanged on the gallows, which he had prepared for Mordecai, and the king’s anger was quieted.


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On that day king, Artaxerxes gave the house of Haman, the adversary of the Jews, to queen Esther, and Mordecai entered before the king. For Esther had confessed to him that he was her paternal uncle.


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And the king took the ring, which he had ordered to be taken from Haman, and he handed it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai over her house.


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Not content with these things, she threw herself down at the king’s feet and wept, and, speaking to him, pleaded that he would give orders that the malice of Haman the Agagite, and his most wicked schemes, which he had contrived against the Jews, would be made ineffective.


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But he, as was the custom, extended the golden scepter with his hand, which was the sign of clemency, and she rose up and stood before him.


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And she said, “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his eyes, and my request is not seen to be disagreeable to him, I beg you that the former letters of Haman, the traitor and enemy of the Jews, by which he instructed them to be destroyed in all the king’s provinces, may be corrected by new letters.


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And one day of retribution was established throughout all the provinces, namely, the thirteenth of the twelfth month Adar.


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“Artaxerxes, the great king from India all the way to Ethiopia, to the generals and leaders of the one hundred twenty-seven provinces that obey our command: greetings, he says.


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In arrogance, many have abused the goodness of leaders and the honor that has been bestowed on them,


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and they strive, not only to oppress the king’s subjects, but, not acting according to the glory given to them, set in motion a plan to ambush those very ones who gave it.


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Neither are they content to withhold thanks for benefits and to violate in themselves the laws of humanity, but they also think they are able to escape from every sentence of the sifting judgment of God.


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And they rush forth in such insanity that they attempt to subvert by filthy lies those who carefully fulfill the offices delegated to them and so perform everything that is deserving of the praise of all.


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Meanwhile, they craftily deceive by fraud the ears of single-minded leaders, and they judge others according to their own nature.


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These things are proven both from the ancient histories and from those things which happen daily: how the zeal of kings can be corrupted by the evil suggestions of such persons.


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Neither should you think, if we change our orders, that they come from a fickle mind, but that we draw conclusions from the quality and necessity of the times, just as the expediency of the public good demands.


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And, so that you may more clearly understand what we are saying: Haman the son of Hammedatha, a Macedonian both in mind and ancestry, and foreign to Persian blood, and with his cruelty contaminating our piety, was accepted by us as a sojourner.


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And our humanity proved to be so great towards him that he was called our father and was adored by all as second only to the king.


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For example, with certain strange and unheard of machinations, he sought the death of Mordecai, whose faith and kindness kept us alive, and Esther, the partner of our kingdom, and all their people.


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This he planned so that, after they were executed, he might work treason against us in our solitude and transfer the kingdom of the Persians to the Macedonians.


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But we, having been resolved to ruin in death the mortal Jews, discovered no fault within them, but on the contrary, they use just laws


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and are sons of the highest and greatest and ever-living God, by whose kindness the kingdom was handed down both to our fathers and to us, and is cared for even unto this day.


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Therefore, you should understand to be null and void those letters that he administered under our name.


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With all the peoples, cities, and provinces, wherever the king’s orders arrived, there was wonderful rejoicing, banquets and feasts, and a solemn holy day, so much so that many of the other nations joined themselves to their religious practices and ceremonies. For a great fear of the name of the Jews had overcome them all.


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Therefore, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which as we have said before is called Adar, when all the Jews were prepared to be executed and their enemies were greedy for their blood, the situation turned around, and the Jews began to have the upper hand and to vindicate themselves of their adversaries.


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And they gathered together throughout each city, and town, and place, so as to extend their hands against their enemies and their persecutors. And no one dared to resist them, because their great power had pierced all the peoples.


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For even the judges of the provinces, and the rulers, and the procurators, and everyone of dignity, who presided over every place and work, extolled the Jews for fear of Mordecai.


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For they knew him to be the leader of the palace and to have much power. Likewise, the fame of his name increased daily and flew everywhere through word of mouth.


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And so the Jews struck their enemies like a great plague and killed them, repaying according to what they had prepared to do to them,


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so much so that even in Susa they executed five hundred men, besides the ten sons of Haman the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews, and their names are these:


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He said to the queen, “In the city of Susa, the Jews have executed five hundred men, and also the ten sons of Haman. How many executions do you think that they have carried out in all the provinces? What more do you ask, and what do you wish, so that I may order it to be done?”


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And she answered, “If it pleases the king, may power be granted to the Jews, so as to do tomorrow in Susa just as they have done today, and that the ten sons of Haman may be hung up the gallows.”


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And the king instructed that it should be so done. And immediately the edict was hung up in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hung up.


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On the fourteenth day of the month Adar, the Jews gathered themselves together, and they executed in Susa three hundred men, but they did not seize their belongings from them.


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Moreover, throughout all the provinces which were subject to the king’s dominion, the Jews made a stand for their lives, and they executed their enemies and their persecutors, so much so that the number of those who were killed amounted to seventy-five thousand, and yet no one touched any of their belongings.


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Now the thirteenth day of the month Adar was the first day with all of the executions, and on the fourteenth day they ceased the killing. This day they established to be sacred, so that in all times hereafter they would be free for feasting, joyfulness, and celebration.


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But, as for those who were carrying out the killings in the city of Susa, they turned to killing on the thirteenth and fourteenth day of the same month. But on the fifteenth day they ceased to attack. And for that reason they established that day as sacred, with feasting and with gladness.


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And his strength and his authority, and the dignity and supremacy with which he exalted Mordecai, have been written in the books of the Medes and the Persians,


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and how Mordecai of Jewish birth, was second after king Artaxerxes, and great among the Jews, and acceptable to the people of his brethren, seeking the good of his people, and speaking about things which pertained to peace for their descendents.


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I remember a dream that I saw, which signified these same things, and nothing of this whatsoever has failed to occur.


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The little fountain which grew into a river, and had turned into light and into the sun, and overflowed into many waters, is Esther, whom the king received as wife and whom he preferred to be queen.


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And my people is Israel, who cried out to the Lord, and the Lord brought salvation to his people, and he freed us from all evils, and he created great signs and portents among the nations.


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And these days shall be observed in the month of Adar, on the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with all zealousness and joy, by the people gathered together into one union, throughout all the generations hereafter of the people of Israel.”


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In the fourth year of the reigns of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who was himself a priest and born of the Levites, and Ptolemy his son, brought this epistle of Purim, which they said was a translation by Lysimachus the son of Ptolemy in Jerusalem.


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There was a man in the land of Uz named Job, and he was a simple and honest man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil.


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And his possession was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, along with five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred she-donkeys, and also a very large family. And this man was great among all the people of the east.


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And his sons went and made a feast by houses, each one on his day. And sending, they called their three sisters to eat and drink with them.


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And when the days of their feasting had been completed, Job sent to them and sanctified them, and, getting up at dawn, he offered holocausts for each one. For he said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and have not praised God in their hearts.” So Job did all the days.


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But on a certain day, when the sons of God came to attend in the presence of the Lord, Satan also arrived among them.


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The Lord said to him, “Where do you come from?” Answering, he said, “I have circled the land, and walked around in it.”


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And the Lord said to him, “Have you not considered my servant, Job? For there is no one like him in the land, a simple and honest man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil.”


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Have you not fortified him, as well as his house and every one of his belongings around him, blessed the works of his hands, and his possession has increased in the land?


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But extend your hand a little, and touch all that he possesses, and see if he still praises you to your face.”


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Therefore, the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, everything that he has is in your hand, only do not extend your hand against him.” And Satan departed from the face of the Lord.


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So, on a certain day, when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine, in the house of their first-born brother,


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a messenger came to Job, who said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were grazing beside them,


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and the Sabeans rushed in and carried away everything, and they struck the servants with the sword; and I alone evaded them to tell you.”


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And while he was still speaking, another arrived, and he said, “The fire of God fell from heaven, and, having struck the sheep and the servants, it consumed them; and I alone escaped to tell you.”


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And while he also was still speaking, another arrived, and he said, “The Chaldeans organized three attacks, and advanced on the camels and took them; and not only that, but they have struck the servants with the sword; and I alone fled to tell you.”


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He was still speaking, and behold, another entered, and he said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine in the house of their first-born brother,


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when suddenly a severe wind rushed forth from a region of the desert and shook the four corners of the house, which collapsed and crushed your children, and they are dead; and I alone escaped to tell you.”


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Then Job got up and tore his garments, and, having shaved his head, he collapsed on the ground, and worshipped,


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and he said, “Naked I departed from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Just as it pleased the Lord, so has it been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”


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But it happened that, on a certain day, when the sons of God had arrived and they stood before the Lord, Satan likewise arrived among them, and he stood in his sight.


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So the Lord said to Satan, “Where do you come from?” Answering, he said, “I have circled the land, and walked around in it.”


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And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you not considered my servant, Job, that there is no one like him in the land, a simple and honest man, fearing God and withdrawing from evil, and still retaining his innocence? Yet you have stirred me against him, so that I would afflict him to no purpose.”


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Answering him, Satan said, “Skin for skin; and everything that a man has, he will give for his life.


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Yet send your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and then you will see whether or not he blesses you to your face.”


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And so, Satan departed from the face of the Lord and he struck Job with a very serious ulcer from the sole of the foot all the way to the crown of his head.


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He said to her, “You have spoken like one of the foolish wives. If we accepted good things from the hand of God, why should we not accept bad things?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.


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And so, three friends of Job, hearing about all the evil that had befallen him, arrived, each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Themanite, and Baldad the Suhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had agreed to come together to visit and console him.


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And when they had raised up their eyes from a distance, they did not recognize him, and, crying out, they wept, and, tearing their garments, they scattered dust over their heads into the sky.


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And they sat with him on the ground for seven day and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his sorrow was very great.


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May the day perish on which I was born, and the night, in which it was said, “A man has been conceived.”


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May that day be turned into darkness, may God not seek it from above, and may light not illuminate it.


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Let darkness and the shadow of death obscure it, let a fog overtake it, and let it be enveloped in bitterness.


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Let a whirlwind of darkness take hold of that night, let it not be counted in the days of the year, nor numbered in the months.


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Let the stars be concealed with its darkness. Let it expect light, and not see it, nor the rising of the dawn in the East.


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or, like a hidden miscarriage, I should not have continued, just like those who, being conceived, have not seen the light.


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And at such times, having been bound together without difficulty, they have not heard the voice of the bailiff.


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Have I not remained hidden? Have I not kept silence? Have I not remained calm? Yet indignation has overcome me.


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If we start to speak to you, perhaps you will take it badly, but who can hold back the words he has conceived?


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Consider this, I beg you: who ever perished being innocent? Or when have the righteous been destroyed?


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The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of young lions have been worn away.


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Furthermore, a word was spoken to me in secret, and, as if by theft, my ears received the pulse of its whisper.


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There appeared an image before my eyes, someone whose face I did not recognize, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze.


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How much more will those who live in houses of clay, which have an earthly foundation, be consumed like the moth?


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From morning all the way to evening, they will be cut down, and because no one understands, they will be destroyed without ceasing.


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His sons will be far from prosperity and will be crushed at the gate, and there will be none who can rescue them.


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Their harvest, the starving will eat. The armed man will rob him, and the thirsty will drink his resources.


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Thereafter, he will act to save the needy from the sword of their mouth, and the poor from the hand of the violent.


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For you are in harmony with the stones of the land, and the beasts of the earth will make peace with you.


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Likewise, you will know that your offspring will be manifold and your progeny will be like the grass of the earth.


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I wish that my sins, for which I deserve wrath, and the calamity that I endure, were weighed out on a balance.


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For the arrows of the Lord are in me, my spirit drinks of their indignation, and the terrors of the Lord are soldiers against me.


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Will the wild ass bray when he has grass? Or will the ox bellow when he stands before a full manger?


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Or can one eat bland food, which is not seasoned with salt? Or can anyone taste that which, if tasted, causes death?


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And may this be my consolation, that in afflicting me with sorrow, although he might not be lenient with me, I still do not contradict the words of the Holy One.


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At that time, when they are scattered, they will perish, and when it becomes hot, they will be freed from their place.


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They have been thrown into confusion, just as I had hoped; they have even come to me and are overwhelmed with shame.


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Why have you diminished the words of truth, when there is none of you who is able to offer proof against me?


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Just as a servant desires the shade, and just as the hired hand looks forward to the end of his work,


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If I lie down to sleep, I will say, “When will I rise?” And next I will hope for the evening and will be filled with sorrows even until darkness.


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My days have passed by more quickly than threads are cut by a weaver, and they have been consumed without any hope.


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And because of this, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the affliction of my spirit. I will converse from the bitterness of my soul.


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I have sinned; what should I do for you, O keeper of men? Why have you set me against you, so that I have become burdensome even to myself?


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Why do you not steal away my sin, and why do you not sweep away my iniquity? Behold, now I will sleep in the dust, and if you seek me in the morning, I will not remain.


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And if now your children have sinned against him, and he has dismissed them into the power of their iniquity,


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If you approach with purity and honesty, he will quickly be attentive to you, and a peaceful life will repay your righteousness,


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Those who hate you, will be clothed with confusion, and the tabernacle of the impious will not continue.


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If strength is sought, he is most strong; if equity in judgment, no one would dare to give testimony for me.


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If I wanted to justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me; if I would reveal my innocence, he would prove me depraved.


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Since the earth has been given into the hand of the impious, he covers the face of its judges; for if it is not him, then who is it?


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For even I would not answer a man who were like myself, nor one who could be heard with me equally in judgment.


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My soul is weary of my life. I will release my words against myself. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.


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Does it seem good to you, if you find fault with me and oppress me, the work of your own hands, and assist the counsel of the impious?


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If I have sinned, and you have spared me for an hour, why do you not endure me to be clean from my iniquity?


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And if I should be impious, woe to me, and if I should be just, I will not lift up my head, being drenched with affliction and misery.


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And because of pride, you will seize me like a lioness, and having returned, you torment me to an extraordinary degree.


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You renew your testimony against me, and you multiply your wrath against me, and these punishments make war within me.


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Will not my few days be completed soon? Release me, therefore, so that I may lament my sorrows a little,


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a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and nothing else but everlasting horror, dwells.


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so that he might reveal to you the secrets of wisdom, and how intricate his law is, and that you would understand how much less he requires of you than your iniquity deserves.


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By chance, will you comprehend the footsteps of God and reach all the way to the perfection of the Almighty?


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If you would send away from you the iniquity that is in your hand, and not let injustice remain in your tabernacle,


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then you would be able to lift up your face without blemish, and you would be steadfast and unafraid.


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And brightness, like that of midday, will rise upon you until evening, and when you would think yourself consumed, you will rise up like the morning star.


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And, when hope has been set before you, you will have faith, and, when buried, you will sleep secure.


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You will rest, and there will be nothing to make you afraid, and many will make requests before your face.


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But the eyes of the impious will fade away, and the path to escape will perish before them, for the abomination of the soul is their hope.


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And I have a heart just as you also do, and I am not inferior to you. For who is ignorant of these things, which you know?


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He who is mocked by his friends as I am, will call upon God, and he will listen to him because it is the sincerity of the just that is being mocked.


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The tabernacles of robbers are numerous, and they provoke God boldly; whereas, it is he who has given all things into their hands.


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In truth, ask the mules, and they will teach you, and the birds of the sky, and they will reveal to you.


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If he tears down, there is no one who can build up; if he encloses a man, there is no one who can open.


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If he restrains the waters, everything will dry up; and if he sends them forth, they will subdue the land.


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He transforms the heart of the leaders of the people on earth, and misleads those who in vain advance upon the inviolable.


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Or, will it please him, from whom nothing can be concealed? Or, will he be deceived, like a man, by your deceitfulness?


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And now, if he would kill me, I will hope in him; in this, truly, I will correct my ways in his sight.


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You have put my feet on a tether, and you have observed all my paths, and you have considered the steps of my feet.


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He comes forth like a flower, and is crushed, and he flees, as if a shadow, and never remains in the same state.


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And do you consider it fitting to look down with your eyes on someone in this way and to lead him into judgment with you?


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The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with you; you have determined his limits, which cannot be surpassed.


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Withdraw a little from him, so that he may rest, until his awaited day arrives, like that of the hired hand.


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just so, when a man is fallen asleep, he will not rise again, until the heavens are worn away; he will not awaken, nor rise from his sleep.


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Who will grant this to me, that you will protect me in the underworld, and hide me until your fury passes by, and establish a time for me, in which you will remember me?


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Do you suppose that a dead man will live again? On each of the days in which I now battle, I wait until my transformation occurs.


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Waters wear away stones, and with a flood the land is reduced little by little; and similarly, you will destroy man.


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You have strengthened him for a little while, so that he may cross over into eternity. You will change his face and send him forth.


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And in this way his body, while he yet lives, will have grief, and his soul will mourn over himself.


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to such an extent that, within yourself, you have expelled reverence and have taken away prayers from the presence of God.


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What is man that he should be immaculate, and that he should appear just, having been born of woman?


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He does not believe that it is possible for him to be turned from darkness into the light, for he sees around him the sword on every side.


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When he moves himself to seek bread, he knows that the day of darkness has been prepared for his hand.


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Tribulation will terrify him, and anguish will prevail over him, like a king who is being prepared to go to battle.


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He will not be enriched, nor will his basic necessities endure, nor will he establish his root in the earth.


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He will not withdraw from the darkness; the flame will burn up his branches, and he will be defeated by the breath of his own mouth.


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He will be wounded like a grapevine, when its cluster is in first flower, and like an olive tree that casts off its flower.


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For the congregation of the hypocrites is fruitless, and fire will devour the tabernacles of those who love to accept money.


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But what can I do? When I am speaking, my grief will not be quiet; and if I am quiet, it will not withdraw from me.


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He has gathered together his fury towards me, and, threatening me, he has roared against me with his teeth; my enemy has beheld me with terrible eyes.


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They have opened their mouths against me, and, reproaching me, they have struck me on the cheek; they are nourished by my sufferings.


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I, who once was wealthy, am now crushed. He has grabbed me by my neck; he has broken me and has place me before him as a sign.


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He has surrounded me with his lances. He has severely wounded my lower back, he has not been lenient, and he has poured out my organs upon the earth.


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And I wish that a man might be so judged before God, just as the son of man is judged with his assistant!


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Everything of mine will descend into the deepest underworld; do you think that, in that place at least, there will be rest for me?


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You, who ruins your own soul in your fury, will the earth be forsaken because of you, and will the cliffs be moved from their place?


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Let the companions of he who is not, dwell in his tabernacle; let brimstone rain down upon his tabernacle.


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Neither his offspring, nor his descendents, will exist among his people, nor will there be any remnants in his country.


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At least now you should understand that God has not afflicted me with a balanced judgment, though he has encompassed me with his scourges.


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Behold, I will cry out, enduring violence, and no one will hear. I will announce loudly, but there is no one who may judge.


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He has destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and, like an uprooted tree, he has taken away my hope.


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His troops have gathered together, and they have made their way to me, and they have besieged my tabernacle all around.


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The inhabitants of my house and my maidservants treat me just as if I were a stranger, and I have been like an sojourner in their eyes.


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Those who were sometime my counselors, treat me like an abomination; and he whom I valued the most has turned against me.


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Since my flesh has been consumed, my bone adheres to my skin, and only my lips have been left around my teeth.


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Have mercy on me, have compassion on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.


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Who will grant to me that my words may be written down? Who will grant to me that they may be inscribed in a book,


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It is he whom I myself will see, and he whom my eyes will behold, and no other. This, my hope, has taken rest in my bosom.


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So then, flee from the face of the sword, for the sword is the avenger of iniquities; but know this: there is to be a judgment.


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In response, various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind moves quickly through different ideas.


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The teaching you use to admonish me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding will respond for me.


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in the end, he will be destroyed like a trash heap, and those who had seen him will say: “Where is he?”


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He will be repaid for all he has done, yet he will not be consumed; according to the multitude of his schemes, so also will he suffer.


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And yet his stomach will not be satisfied, and when he has the things he desires, he will not be able to possess them.


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When he will be satisfied, he will be constrained; he will seethe, and all anguish will fall upon him.


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May his stomach be filled, so that God may send forth the fury of his wrath to him and may rain down his battle upon him.


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which had been drawn and had issued forth from its sheath, glittering in its bitterness: the horrible ones will go forth and approach over him.


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All darkness has been hidden in his secrecy. A fire that has not been set will devour him; he will be thrown down and forsaken in his tabernacle.


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They see their offspring continue before them: a commotion of close relatives and of children’s children in their sight.


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Their cattle have conceived and have not miscarried; their cow has given birth and is not deprived of her newborn.


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It is true that their good things are not in their power. May the counsel of the impious be far from me!


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How often will the lamp of the wicked be extinguished, and a deluge overtake them, and how often will he distribute the afflictions of his wrath?


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God will preserve the grief of the father for his sons, and, when he repays, then he will understand.


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For what does he care what happens to his house after him, or if the number of its months are reduced by half?


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He has been found acceptable to the banks of the River of Lamentation, and he will draw any man towards him, and there are countless before him.


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Therefore, how long will you console me in vain, when your answer is shown to be repugnant to truth?


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What advantage is it to God, if you were just? Or what do you provide for him, if your way should be immaculate?


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For you have taken away the collateral of your brothers without cause, and stripped them naked of their clothing.


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By the strength of your arm, you took possession of the land, and you retain it by being the strongest.


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And did you think that you would not see darkness and that you were not to be overwhelmed by the on-rush of overflowing waters?


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Have you not considered that God is higher than the heavens and is lifted above the height of the stars?


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and, “The clouds are his hiding-place,” and, “He does not examine us closely,” and, “He makes his rounds at the limits of the heavens.”


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If you will return to the Almighty, you will be rebuilt, and you will put sinfulness far from your tabernacle.


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For he who had been humbled, will be in glory; and he who will lower his eyes, will be the one saved.


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Now again my conversation is in bitterness, and the force of my scourging weighs more heavily on me because of my mourning.


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I do not want him to contend with me with much strength, nor to overwhelm me with the bulk of his greatness.


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If I turn to the left, what can I do? I will not take hold of him. If I turn myself to the right, I will not see him.


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I have not withdrawn from the commands of his lips, and the words of his mouth I have hidden in my sinews.


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For he is alone, and no one is able to disturb his intention; and whatever his spirit wills, that he accomplishes.


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And, for this reason, I have been troubled at his presence, and, when I consider him, I am approached by fear.


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Others, like wild asses in the desert, go forth to their work; by watching for prey, they obtain bread for their children.


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From the naked and those who do not have enough clothing, and from the hungry, they have taken away sheaves of grain.


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They take their midday rest among the stockpiles of those who, though they have trodden the winepresses, suffer thirst.


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In the cities, they caused the men to groan and the spirit of the wounded to cry out, and so God does not allow this to go unpunished.


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They have been rebellious against the light; they have not known his ways, nor have they returned by his paths.


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The killer of men rises at first light; he executes the destitute and the poor, but, in truth, he is like a thief in the night.


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He passes through houses in the nighttime, just as they had agreed among themselves in the daytime; and they are ignorant of the light.


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If sunrise should suddenly appear, it is treated by them like the shadow of death; and they walk in darkness, as if in light.


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He is nimble on the surface of water. His place on land is to be accursed. May he not walk by way of the vineyards.


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Let mercy forget him. His charm is worms. Let him not be remembered, but instead be broken like an unfruitful tree.


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He has pulled down the strong by his strength, and, when he stands up, he will not have trust in his life.


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God has given him a place for repentance, and he abuses it with arrogance, but his eyes are upon his ways.


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They are lifted up for a little while, but they will not continue, and they will be brought low, just like all things, and they will be taken away, and, like the tops of the ears of grain, they will be crushed.


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But, if this is not so, who is able to prove to me that I have lied and to place my words before God?


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Is there any limit to the number of his soldiers or to the number of those over whom his light rises?


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To whom have you given advice? Perhaps it is to him that has no wisdom or prudence that you have revealed your many ideas.


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Behold, these things have been said about his ways in part, and, since we barely have heard a small drop of his word, who will be able to gaze upon the thunder of his greatness?


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Far be it from me that I should judge you to be right, for, until I expire, I will not withdraw from my innocence.


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I will not forsake my justification, which I have just begun to grasp, for my heart does not find blame for me in my whole life.


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This is the portion of the impious man with God, and the inheritance of the violent, which they will receive from the Almighty.


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If his sons should happen to increase, they will be for the sword, and his grandsons will not be satisfied with bread.


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then yes, he will gather, but the just will be clothed with it and the innocent will divide the silver.


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When he falls asleep, the rich man will leave him with nothing; he will open his eyes and find nothing.


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A burning wind will pick him up and carry him away, and, like a whirlwind, it will rush him from his place.


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He has established a time for darkness, and he has settled on an end for all things, as well as for the stone that is in the gloom and shadow of death.


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The burning separates a pilgrim people from those who have been forgotten by the feet of the destitute man and from the unapproachable.


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It will not be compared with the dyed colors of India, nor with the very costly stone sardonyx, nor with the sapphire.


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The exalted and the eminent will not be remembered in comparison with it. Yet wisdom is drawn out of concealment.


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It has been hidden from the eyes of all living things, just as the birds of the heavens escape notice.


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And he said to man, “Behold the fear of the Lord. Such is wisdom. And to withdraw from evil, this is understanding.”


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Who will grant to me that I might be as I was in former months, according to the days when God kept watch over me?


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The blessing of him who would have been destroyed came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow.


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I was the father of the poor; and if I lacked knowledge about any case, I investigated very diligently.


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If I had ever laughed at them, they would not have believed it, and the light of my face was not cast down towards the ground.


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If I wished to go to them, I sat down first, and, though I sat like a king surrounded by an army, yet I was a comforter to whose who mourned.


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But now, those younger in years scorn me, whose fathers I would not have seen fit to place with the dogs of my flock,


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They were barren from poverty and hunger; they gnawed in solitude, layered with misfortune and misery.


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They took these things from the steep valleys, and when they discovered one of these things, they rushed to the others with a cry.


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Immediately, upon rising, my calamities rise up to the right. They have overturned my feet and have pressed me down along their way like waves.


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They have diverted my journeys; they have waited to ambush me, and they have prevailed, and there was no one who might bring help.


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They have rushed upon me, as when a wall is broken or a gate opened, and they have been pulled down into my miseries.


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I have been reduced to nothing. You have taken away my desire like a wind, and my health has passed by like a cloud.


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By the sheer number of them my clothing is worn away, and they have closed in on me like the collar of my coat.


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Truly, then, you do not extend your hand in order to consume them, and if they fall down, you will save them.


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I expected good things, but evil things have come to me. I stood ready for light, yet darkness burst forth.


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For what portion should God from above hold for me, and what inheritance should the Almighty from on high keep?


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If my steps have turned aside from the way, or if my heart has followed my eyes, or if a blemish has clung to my hands,


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If I have despised being subject to judgment with my servant or my maid, when they had any complaint against me,


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Is not he who created me in the womb, also he who labored to make him? And did not one and the same form me in the womb?


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if I have looked down on him who was perishing because he had no clothing and the poor without any covering,


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if I have lifted up my hand over an orphan, even when it might seem to me that I the advantage over him at the gate;


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if the men around my tabernacle have not said: “He might give us some of his food, so that we will be filled,”


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if I became frightened by an excessive crowd, and the disrespect of close relatives alarmed me, so that I would much rather have remained silent or have gone out the door;


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then, would he grant me a hearing, so that the Almighty would listen to my desire, and he who judges would himself write a book,


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then, may thistles spring forth for me instead of grain, and thorns instead of barley. (This ended the words of Job.)


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And Eliu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram, was angry and indignant. But he was angry against Job because he described himself to be just in the presence of God.


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Moreover, he was indignant with his friends because they had not found a reasonable response, except in so far as they condemned Job.


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And so Eliu the son of Barachel the Buzite responded by saying: I am younger in years, and you are more ancient; therefore, I kept my head low, for I was afraid to reveal to you my opinion.


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But I see now that there is only breath in men, and that it is the inspiration of the Almighty that gives understanding.


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For I have endured your words; I have paid attention to your deliberations, while you were being argumentative with words.


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And as long as I supposed that you were saying something, I considered; but now I see that there is none of you that is able to argue with Job and to respond to his words.


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Then they were filled with dread, and so they no longer responded, and they withdrew from their speechmaking.


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Therefore, because I have waited and they have not been speaking, for they stood firm and did not respond at all,


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For I do not know how long I will continue, and whether, after a while, my Maker might take me away.


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Behold, God has made me, just as he also has made you, and I, likewise, have been formed of the same clay.


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Therefore, it is for this reason that you have not been justified. For I tell you that God is greater than man.


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Through a dream in a vision of the night, when a deep sleep falls over men, and they are sleeping in their beds,


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he will have mercy on him, and he will say, “Free him, so that he will not descend to destruction. I have found a reason to be favorable to him.


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He will beg pardon from God, and he will be soothing to him; and he will look upon his face in jubilation, and he will restore his justice to man.


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He will consider mankind, and he will say: “I have sinned and truly I have offended, yet I was not treated as I deserved.”


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Is he that does not love judgment able to be corrected? And how can you so greatly condemn him who is just?


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He does not accept the reputation of leaders; nor does he recognize the tyrant as he contends against the poor. For all are the work of his hands.


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They will die suddenly, and the people will be troubled in the middle of the night, but they will pass through it, and the violent will be taken away without a hand.


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They, as if with great diligence, have withdrawn from him, and they refused to understand all his ways,


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For, when he grants peace, who is there that can condemn? When he hides his face, who is there that can contemplate him, either among the nations, or among all men?


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Does God require this of you because it is displeasing to you? For you were the first to speak, and not I. But if you know something better, speak.


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For he adds blasphemy on top of his sins; nevertheless, let him be constrained to be among us, and then let him provoke God to judgment with his speeches.


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For you said, “Having done what is right does not please you,” and, “How will it benefit you, if I sin?”


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If you sin, how will it hurt him? And if your iniquities are multiplied, what will you do against him?


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Because of the multitude of false accusers, they will cry out; and they will lament because of the strong arm of the tyrants.


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who teaches us in addition to the beasts of the earth, and who educates us along with the birds of the air?”


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He will not take his eyes away from the just, and he continually establishes kings on their throne, and they are exalted.


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Likewise, he will open their ears to his correction, and he will speak to them, so that they may return from iniquity.


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The false and the crafty provoke the wrath of God, yet they do not cry out to him when they are chained.


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Therefore, he will save you from the narrow mouth very widely, even though it has no foundation under it. Moreover, your respite at table will be full of fatness.


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Therefore, do not let anger overwhelm you so that you oppress another; neither should you allow a multitude of gifts to influence you.


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After this, a noise will sound; he will thunder with the voice of his greatness, and it will not be tracked down, yet his voice will be obeyed.


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It shines all around, wherever the will of him that governs them will lead, to anywhere he will command, over the whole face of the earth,


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whether in one tribe, or in his own region, or in whatever place of his mercy that he will order them to be found.


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Perhaps you have made the heavens with him, which are very solid, as if they had been cast from brass.


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Who will explain to him the things that I am saying? Even while a man is still speaking, he will be devoured.


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Although they do not see the light, the air will be thickened suddenly into clouds, and the wind, passing by, will drive them away.


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We are not worthy to be able to find him. Great in strength, great in judgment, great in justice: he is indescribable.


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Therefore, men will fear him, and all those who seem to themselves to be wise, will not dare to contemplate him.


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And I said: “This far you will approach, and you will proceeded no further, and here you will break your swelling waves.”


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And did you hold the extremities of the earth, shaking them, and have you shaken the impious out of it?


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Have you entered the depths of the sea, and have you taken a walk in the uttermost parts of the abyss?


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Have you been admitted into the storehouses of the snows, and have you gazed upon the stockpile of the brimstone,


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Will you have the strength to join together the sparkling stars of the Pleiades, or are you able to disperse the circling of Arcturus?


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Can you bring forth the morning star, in its time, and make the evening star rise over the sons of the earth?


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Who provides the raven with its meal, when her chicks cry out to God, as they wander around because they have no food?


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Do you know at what time the wild goats have given birth among the rocks, or do you observe the deer when they go into labor?


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Can you detain the rhinoceros with your harness to plough for you, and will he loosen the soil of the furrows behind you?


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She is hardened against her young, as if they were not hers; she has labored in vain, with no fear compelling her.


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Seething and raging, he drinks up the earth; neither does he pause when the blast of the trumpet sounds.


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When he hears the bugle, he says, “Ha!” He smells the battle from a distance, the exhortation of the officers, and the battle cry of the soldiers.


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Will he who contends with God be so easily silenced? Certainly, he who argues with God must also respond to him.


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What could I possibly answer, since I have been speaking thoughtlessly? I will place my hand over my mouth.


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Envelop yourself with splendor, and raise yourself up on high, and be glorious, and put on splendid garments.


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Behold, he will drink a river and not be amazed, and he has confidence that the Jordan could flow into his mouth.


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He will seize him through his eyes, as if with a hook, and he will bore through his nostrils, as if with stakes.


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Who has given to me beforehand, so that I should repay him? All things that are under heaven are mine.


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The parts of his body work in harmony together. He will send lightning bolts against him, and they will not be carried to another place.


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When he will be raised up, the angels will be afraid, and, because they are terrified, they will purify themselves.


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The archer will not cause him to flee; the stones of the sling have been turned into stubble for him.


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He will make the depths of the sea boil like a pot, and he will set it to bubble just as ointments do.


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There is no power on the earth that is being compared to him, who has been made so that he fears no one.


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So, who is it that would disguise a lack of knowledge as counsel? Therefore, I have been speaking foolishly, about things whose measure exceeds my knowledge.


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But after the Lord had finished speaking these words to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Themanite: My wrath has been kindled against you, and against your two friends, because you have not been speaking correctly in my eyes, as my servant Job has done.


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Therefore, have seven bulls and seven rams brought to you, and go to my servant Job, and offer these as a holocaust for yourselves. But also, my servant Job will pray for you; I will accept his face, so that foolishness will not be imputed to you. For you have not been speaking correctly about me, as my servant Job has done.


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So Eliphaz the Themanite, and Baldad the Suhite, and Zophar the Naamathite departed, and they did just as the Lord had spoken to them, and the Lord accepted the face of Job.


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Likewise, the Lord was moved by the repentance of Job, when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave to Job twice as much as he had before.


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Yet all his brethren came to him, and all his sisters, and everyone who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house. They also shook their heads over him and comforted him, because of all the bad things that God had inflicted on him. And each one of them gave him one female sheep, and one earring of gold.


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And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job even more than his beginning. And he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand pairs of oxen, and a thousand she-donkeys.


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And he called the name of one, Daylight, and the name of the second, Cinnamon, and the name of the third, Horn of Cosmetics.


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And, in the whole world, there were not found women so beautiful as the daughters of Job. And so their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.


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But Job lived long after these events, for a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children, and his children’s children, all the way to the fourth generation, and he died an old man and full of days.


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Blessed is the man who has not followed the counsel of the impious, and has not remained in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence.


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And he will be like a tree that has been planted beside running waters, which will provide its fruit in its time, and its leaf will not fall away, and all things whatsoever that he does will prosper.


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Not so the impious, not so. For they are like the dust that the wind casts along the face of the earth.


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The kings of the earth have stood up, and the leaders have joined together as one, against the Lord and against his Christ:


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Ask of me and I will give to you: the Gentiles for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.


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Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord might become angry, and you would perish from the way of the just.


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When I called upon him, the God of my justice heeded me. In tribulation, you have enlarged me. Have mercy on me, and heed my prayer.


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Sons of men, how long will you be dull in heart, so that whatever you love is in vain, and whatever you seek is false?


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And know this: the Lord has made wondrous his holy one. The Lord will heed me when I cry out to him.


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Be angry, and do not be willing to sin. The things that you say in your hearts: be sorry for them on your beds.


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You hate all who work iniquity. You will destroy all who speak a lie. The bloody and deceitful man, the Lord will abominate.


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But I am in the multitude of your mercy. I will enter your house. I will show adoration toward your holy temple, in your fear.


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Their throat is an open sepulcher. They have acted deceitfully with their tongues. Judge them, O God. Let them fall by their own intentions: according to the multitude of their impiety, expel them. For they have provoked you, O Lord.


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But let all those who hope in you rejoice. They will exult in eternity, and you will dwell in them. And all those who love your name will glory in you.


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I have labored in my groaning. Every night, with my tears, I will wash my bed and drench my blanket.


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Let all my enemies be ashamed and together be greatly troubled. May they be converted and become ashamed very quickly.


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lest at any time, like a lion, he might seize my soul, while there is no one to redeem me, nor any who can save.


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if I have repaid those who rendered evils to me, may I deservedly fall away empty before my enemies:


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let the enemy pursue my soul, and take hold of it, and trample my life into the earth, and drag down my glory into the dust.


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Rise up, Lord, in your anger. And be exalted to the borders of my enemies. And rise up, O Lord my God, according to the precept that you commanded,


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The Lord judges the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice and according to my innocence within me.


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The wickedness of sinners will be consumed, and you will direct the just: the examiner of hearts and temperaments is God.


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Unless you will be converted, he will brandish his sword. He has extended his bow and made it ready.


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I will confess to the Lord according to his justice, and I will sing a psalm to the name of the Lord Most High.


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O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name throughout all the earth! For your magnificence is elevated above the heavens.


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Out of the mouths of babes and infants, you have perfected praise, because of your enemies, so that you may destroy the enemy and the revenger.


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For I will behold your heavens, the works of your fingers: the moon and the stars, which you have founded.


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You have subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and in addition: the beasts of the field,


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For you have accomplished my judgment and my cause. You have sat upon the throne that judges justice.


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You have rebuked the Gentiles, and the impious one has perished. You have deleted their name in eternity and for all generations.


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The spears of the enemy have failed in the end, and their cities, you have destroyed. Their memory has perished with a loud noise.


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Because of those who yearned for their blood, he has remembered them. He has not forgotten the cry of the poor.


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You lift me up from the gates of death, so that I may announce all your praises at the gates of the daughter of Zion.


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I will exult in your salvation. The Gentiles have become trapped in the ruin that they made. Their foot has been caught in the same snare that they themselves had hidden.


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The Lord will be recognized when making judgments. The sinner has been caught in the works of his own hands.


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So then, why, O Lord, have you withdrawn far away? Why have you overlooked us in opportunity, in tribulation?


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While the impious is arrogant, the poor is enflamed. They are held by the counsels that they devise.


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God is not before his sight. His ways are stained at all times. Your judgments are removed from his face. He will be master of all his enemies.


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For he has said in his heart, “I will not be disturbed: from generation to generation without evil.”


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His eyes catch sight of the poor. He lies in ambush, in hiding like a lion in his den. He lies in ambush, so that he may seize the poor, to seize the poor as he draws him in.


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With his snare, he will bring him down. He will crouch down and pounce, when he has power over the poor.


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For he has said in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has turned away his face, lest he see to the end.”


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You do see, for you examine hardship and sorrow, so that you may deliver them into your hands. The poor one has been abandoned to you. You will be a helper to the orphan.


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The Lord shall reign in eternity, even forever and ever. You will perish the Gentiles from his land.


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The Lord has heeded the desire of the poor. Your ear has listened to the preparation of their heart,


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so as to judge for the orphan and the humble, so that man may no longer presume to magnify himself upon the earth.


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For behold, the sinners have bent their bow. They have prepared their arrows in the quiver, so as to shoot arrows in the dark at the upright of heart.


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The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes look upon the poor. His eyelids question the sons of men.


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He will rain down snares upon sinners. Fire and brimstone and windstorms will be the portion of their cup.


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Save me, O Lord, because holiness has passed away, because truths have been diminished, before the sons of men.


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They have been speaking emptiness, each one to his neighbor; they have been speaking with deceitful lips and a duplicitous heart.


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Because of the misery of the destitute and the groaning of the poor, now I will arise, says the Lord. I will place him in safety. I will act faithfully toward him.


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The eloquence of the Lord is pure eloquence, silver tested by fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times.


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Unto the end. A Psalm of David. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me until the end? How long will you turn your face away from me?


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Look upon me and listen to me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I fall asleep forever in death,


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lest at any time my enemy may say, “I have prevailed against him.” Those who trouble me will exult, if I have been disturbed.


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But I have hoped in your mercy. My heart will exult in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, who assigns good things to me. And I will sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High.


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Unto the end. A Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They were corrupted, and they have become abominable in their studies. There is no one who does good; there is not even one.


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The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any who were considering or seeking God.


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They have all gone astray; together they have become useless. There is no one who does good; there is not even one.


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Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, they have been acting deceitfully; the venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.


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Their feet are swift to shed blood. Grief and unhappiness are in their ways; and the way of peace, they have not known.


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Who will grant the salvation of Israel from Zion? When the Lord turns away the captivity of his people, Jacob will exult, and Israel will rejoice.


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A Psalm of David. O Lord, who will dwell in your tabernacle? Or who will rest on your holy mountain?


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He who speaks the truth in his heart, who has not acted deceitfully with his tongue, and has not done evil to his neighbor, and has not taken up a reproach against his neighbors.


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In his sight, the malicious one has been reduced to nothing, but he glorifies those who fear the Lord. He who swears to his neighbor and does not deceive.


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He who has not given his money in usury, nor accepted bribes against the innocent. He who does these things will be undisturbed for eternity.


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Their infirmities have been multiplied; after this, they acted more quickly. I will not gather for their convocations of blood, nor will I remember their names with my lips.


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The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup. It is you who will restore my inheritance to me.


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I will bless the Lord, who has bestowed understanding upon me. Moreover, my temperament has also corrected me, even through the night.


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I have made provision for the Lord always in my sight. For he is at my right hand, so that I may not be disturbed.


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Because of this, my heart has been joyful, and my tongue has exulted. Moreover, even my body will rest in hope.


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You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with joy by your countenance. At your right hand are delights, even to the end.


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A Prayer of David. Lord, listen to my justice, attend to my supplication. Pay attention to my prayer, which is not from deceitful lips.


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You have tested my heart and visited it by night. You have examined me by fire, and iniquity has not been found in me.


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Therefore, may my mouth not speak the works of men. I have kept to difficult ways because of the words of your lips.


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From those who resist your right hand, preserve me like the pupil of your eye. Protect me under the shadow of your wings,


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They have cast me out, and now they have surrounded me. They have cast their eyes down to the earth.


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Rise up, O Lord, arrive before him and displace him. Deliver my soul from the impious one: your spear from the enemies of your hand.


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Lord, divide them from the few of the earth in their life. Their gut has been filled from your hidden stores. They have been filled with sons, and they have bequeathed to their little ones the remainder.


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But as for me, I will appear before your sight in justice. I will be satisfied when your glory appears.


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Unto the end. For David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this canticle to the Lord, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said:


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The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my liberator. My God is my helper, and I hope in him: my protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my support.


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In my tribulation, I called upon the Lord, and I cried out to my God. And he listened to my voice from his holy temple. And my cry in his presence entered into his ears.


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The earth was shaken, and it trembled. The foundations of the mountains were disturbed, and they were shaken, because he was angry with them.


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And he set darkness as his hiding place, with his tabernacle all around him: dark waters in the clouds of the air.


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And he sent forth his arrows and scattered them. He multiplied lightnings, and he set them in disarray.


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Then the fountains of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were revealed, by your rebuke, O Lord, by the inspiration of the Spirit of your wrath.


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He rescued me from my strongest enemies, and from those who hated me. For they had been too strong for me.


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And the Lord will reward me according to my justice, and he will repay me according to the purity of my hands.


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And the Lord will reward me according to my justice and according to the purity of my hands before his eyes.


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As for my God, his way is undefiled. The eloquence of the Lord has been examined by fire. He is the protector of all who hope in him.


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And you have given me the protection of your salvation. And your right hand sustains me. And your discipline has corrected me unto the end. And your discipline itself will teach me.


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And you have wrapped me with virtue for the battle. And those rising up against me, you have subdued under me.


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And I will crush them into dust before the face of the wind, so that I will obliterate them like the mud in the streets.


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You will rescue me from the contradictions of the people. You will set me at the head of the Gentiles.


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The sons of foreigners have been deceitful to me, the sons of foreigners have grown weak with time, and they have wavered from their paths.


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And you will exalt me above those who rise up against me. From the iniquitous man, you will rescue me.


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Because of this, O Lord, I will confess to you among the nations, and I will compose a psalm to your name:


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magnifying the salvation of his king, and showing mercy to David, his Christ, and to his offspring, even for all time.


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He has placed his tabernacle in the sun, and he is like a bridegroom coming out of his bedroom. He has exulted like a giant running along the way;


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his departure is from the summit of heaven. And his course reaches all the way to its summit. Neither is there anyone who can hide himself from his heat.


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The law of the Lord is immaculate, converting souls. The testimony of the Lord is faithful, providing wisdom to little ones.


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The justice of the Lord is right, rejoicing hearts. The precepts of the Lord are brilliant, enlightening the eyes.


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The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for all generations. The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves:


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and from those of others, spare your servant. If they will have no dominion over me, then I will be immaculate, and I will be cleansed from the greatest transgression.


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And the eloquence of my mouth will be so as to please, along with the meditation of my heart, in your sight, forever, O Lord, my helper and my redeemer.


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May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Now I know that the Lord has saved his Christ. He will hear him from his holy heaven. The salvation of his right hand is in his power.


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For you have gone ahead of him with blessings of sweetness. You have placed a crown of precious stones on his head.


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He petitioned you for life, and you have granted him length of days, in the present time, and forever and ever.


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For you will give him as a blessing forever and ever. You will make him rejoice with gladness in your presence.


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You will make them like an oven of fire, in the time of your presence. The Lord will stir them up with his wrath, and fire will devour them.


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For they have turned evils upon you; they have devised plans, which they have not been able to accomplish.


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O God, my God, look upon me. Why have you forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my offenses.


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My God, I will cry out by day, and you will not heed, and by night, and it will not be foolishness for me.


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And so, I have been poured out like water, and all my bones have been scattered. My heart has become like wax, melting in the midst of my chest.


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My strength has dried up like clay, and my tongue has adhered to my jaws. And you have pulled me down, into the dust of death.


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For many dogs have surrounded me. The council of the malicious has besieged me. They have pierced my hands and feet.


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May all the offspring of Israel fear him. For he has neither spurned nor despised the pleas of the poor. Neither has he turned his face away from me. And when I cried out to him, he heeded me.


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My praise is with you, within a great church. I will pay my vows in the sight of those who fear him.


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The poor will eat and be satisfied, and those who yearn for the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will live forever and ever.


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All the ends of the earth will remember, and they will be converted to the Lord. And all the families of the Gentiles will adore in his sight.


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All the fat of the earth have gnashed their teeth, and they have adored. In his sight, they will fall down, all those who descend to the ground.


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There will be announced for the Lord a future generation, and the heavens will announce his justice to a people who will be born, whom the Lord has made.


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For, even if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they have given me consolation.


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You have prepared a table in my sight, opposite those who trouble me. You have anointed my head with oil, and my cup, which inebriates me, how brilliant it is!


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And your mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and so may I dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days.


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For the First Sabbath. A Psalm of David. The earth and all its fullness belong to the Lord: the whole world and all that dwells in it.


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The innocent of hands and the clean of heart, who has not received his soul in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbor.


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Lift up your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates. And the King of Glory shall enter.


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May all those who act unjustly over nothing be confounded. O Lord, demonstrate your ways to me, and teach me your paths.


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Direct me in your truth, and teach me. For you are God, my Saviour, and I remain with you all day long.


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Do not remember the offenses of my youth and my ignorances. Remember me according to your mercy, because of your goodness, O Lord.


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The Lord is sweet and righteous. Because of this, he will grant a law to those who fall short in the way.


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All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, to those who yearn for his covenant and his testimonies.


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Which is the man who fears the Lord? He has established a law for him, on the way that he has chosen.


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Unto the end. A Psalm of David. Judge me, Lord, for I have been walking in my innocence, and by hoping in the Lord, I will not be weakened.


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I have not sat with the council of emptiness, and I will not enter with those who carry out injustice.


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A Psalm of David, before he was sealed. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?


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Meanwhile, the guilty draw near to me, so as to eat my flesh. Those who trouble me, my enemies, have themselves been weakened and have fallen.


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If entrenched armies were to stand together against me, my heart would not fear. If a battle were to rise up against me, I would have hope in this.


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One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, so that I may behold the delight of the Lord, and may visit his temple.


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For he has hidden me in his tabernacle. In the day of evils, he has protected me in the hidden place of his tabernacle.


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He has exalted me upon the rock, and now he has exalted my head above my enemies. I have circled around and offered a sacrifice of loud exclamation in his tabernacle. I will sing, and I will compose a psalm, to the Lord.


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Do not turn your face away from me. In your wrath, do not turn aside from your servant. Be my helper. Do not abandon me, and do not despise me, O God, my Saviour.


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Do not surrender me to the souls of those who trouble me. For unjust witnesses have risen up against me, and iniquity has lied to itself.


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A Psalm of David himself. To you, Lord, I will cry out. My God, do not be silent toward me. For if you remain silent toward me, I will become like those who descend into the pit.


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Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication, when I pray to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy temple.


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Do not draw me away together with sinners; and let me not perish with those who work iniquity, who speak peacefully to their neighbor, yet evils are in their hearts.


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Give to them according to their works and according to the wickedness of their inventions. Assign to them according to the works of their hands. Repay them with their own retribution.


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Since they have not understood the works of the Lord and the works of his hands, you will destroy them, and you will not build them up.


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The Lord is my helper and my protector. In him, my heart has hoped and I have been helped. And my flesh has flourished again. And from my will, I shall confess to him.


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O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance, and reign over them and exalt them, even unto eternity.


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A Psalm of David, at the completion of the tabernacle. Bring to the Lord, O sons of God, bring to the Lord the sons of rams.


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Bring to the Lord, glory and honor. Bring to the Lord, glory for his name. Adore the Lord in his holy court.


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The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of majesty has thundered. The Lord is over many waters.


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And it will break them into pieces, like a calf of Lebanon, and in the same way as the beloved son of the single-horned beast.


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The voice of the Lord is preparing the stags, and he will reveal the dense woods. And in his temple, all will speak his glory.


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I will extol you, Lord, for you have sustained me, and you have not allowed my enemies to delight over me.


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For wrath is in his indignation, and life is in his will. Toward evening, weeping will linger, and toward morning, gladness.


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O Lord, in your will, you made virtue preferable to beauty for me. You turned your face away from me, and I became disturbed.


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What use would there be in my blood, if I descend into corruption? Will dust confess to you or announce your truth?


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You have turned my mourning into gladness for me. You have cut off my sackcloth, and you have surrounded me with joy.


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So then, may my glory sing to you, and may I not regret it. O Lord, my God, I will confess to you for eternity.


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Incline your ear to me. Hasten to rescue me. Be for me a protector God and a house of refuge, so as to accomplish my salvation.


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For you are my strength and my refuge; and for the sake of your name, you will lead me and nourish me.


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I will exult and rejoice in your mercy. For you have looked upon my humility; you have saved my soul from needfulness.


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Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am troubled. My eye has been disturbed by wrath, along with my soul and my gut.


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For my life has fallen into sorrow, and my years into sighing. My virtue has been weakened in poverty, and my bones have been disturbed.


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I have become a disgrace among all my enemies, and even more so to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances. Those who catch sight of me, flee away from me.


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For I have heard the harsh criticism of many who linger in the area. While assembled together against me in that place, they deliberated on how to take away my life.


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My fate is in your hands. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who are persecuting me.


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Do not let me be confounded, Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the impious be ashamed and be drawn down into Hell.


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May deceitful lips be silenced: those that speak iniquity against the just, in arrogance and in abusiveness.


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How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you keep hidden for those who fear you, which you have perfected for those who hope in you, in the sight of the sons of men.


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You hide them in the concealment of your face, from the disturbance of men. You protect them in your tabernacle, from the contradiction of tongues.


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But I said in the excess of my mind: “I have been cast away from the glance of your eyes.” And so, you heeded the voice of my prayer, while I was still crying out to you.


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Love the Lord, all you his saints. For the Lord will require truth, and he will abundantly repay those who act with arrogance.


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The understanding of David himself. Blessed are they whose iniquities have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.


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For, day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. I have been converted in my anguish, while still the thorn is piercing.


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I have acknowledged my offense to you, and I have not concealed my injustice. I said, “I will confess against myself, my injustice to the Lord,” and you forgave the impiety of my sin.


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For this, everyone who is holy will pray to you in due time. Yet truly, in a flood of many waters, they will not draw near to him.


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You are my refuge from the tribulation that has surrounded me. You are my exultation: rescue me from those who are surrounding me.


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I will give you understanding, and I will instruct you in this way, in which you will walk. I will fix my eyes upon you.


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Do not become like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding. Their jaws are constrained with bit and bridle, so as not to draw near to you.


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Confess to the Lord with stringed instruments; sing psalms to him with the psaltery, the instrument of ten strings.


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By the word of the Lord, the heavens were established, and all their power, by the Spirit of his mouth:


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The Lord scatters the counsels of the nations. Moreover, he reproves the thoughts of the people, and he rejects the counsels of the leaders.


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But the counsel of the Lord remains for eternity, the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation.


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To David, when he changed his appearance in the sight of Abimelech, and so he dismissed him, and he went away.


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The rich have been needy and hungry, but those who seek the Lord will not be deprived of any good thing.


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But the countenance of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to perish the remembrance of them from the earth.


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Bring forth the spear, and close in on those who persecute me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”


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Let them be confounded and in awe, who pursue my soul. Let them be turned back and be confounded, who think up evil against me.


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For, without cause, they have concealed their snare for me unto destruction. Over nothing, they have rebuked my soul.


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Let the snare, of which he is ignorant, come upon him, and let the deception, which he has hidden, take hold of him: and may he fall into that very snare.


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All my bones will say, “Lord, who is like you?” He rescues the needy from the hand of the stronger one, the indigent and the poor from those who plunder him.


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But as for me, when they were harassing me, I was clothed with haircloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer will become my sinews.


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Like a neighbor, and like our brother, so did I please; like one mourning and contrite, so was I humbled.


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And they have been joyful against me, and they joined together. Scourges have been gathered over me, and I was ignorant of it.


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They have been scattered, yet they were unremorseful. They have tested me. They scoffed at me with scorn. They gnashed their teeth over me.


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Lord, when will you look down upon me? Restore my soul from before their malice, my only one from before the lions.


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May those who are my unjust adversaries not be glad over me: those who have hated me without cause, and who nod agreement with their eyes.


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For indeed, they spoke peacefully to me; and speaking with passion to the earth, they intended deceit.


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Do not let them say in their hearts, “Well, well, to our soul.” Neither let them say, “We have devoured him.”


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Let them blush and be in awe together, those who congratulate at my misfortunes. Let them be clothed with confusion and awe, who speak great things against me.


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Let them exult and rejoice, who wish my justice, and let them ever say, “The Lord be magnified,” who will the peace of his servant.


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The unjust one has said within himself that he would commit offenses. There is no fear of God before his eyes.


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The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He is unwilling to understand, so that he may act well.


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He has been considering iniquity on his bed. He has set himself on every way that is not good; moreover, he has not hated evil.


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Your justice is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are a great abyss. Men and beasts, you will save, O Lord.


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How you have multiplied your mercy, O God! And so the sons of men will hope under the cover of your wings.


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They will be inebriated with the fruitfulness of your house, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your enjoyment.


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In that place, those who work iniquity have fallen. They have been expelled; they were not able to stand.


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A Psalm of David himself. Do not choose to imitate the malicious; neither should you envy those who work iniquity.


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For they will quickly wither away like dry grass, and in like manner to kitchen herbs, they will soon droop.


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Be subject to the Lord and pray to him. Do not choose to compete with him who prospers in his way, with the man who does injustice.


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For those who are malicious will be exterminated. But those who remain with the Lord, these will inherit the land.


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Yet still a little while, and the sinner will not be. And you will search his place and find nothing.


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The sinners have drawn the sword, they have bent their bow, so as to cast down the poor and the needy, so as to massacre the upright of heart.


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for sinners will perish. Truly, the adversaries of the Lord, soon after they have been honored and exalted, will fade away, in the same way that smoke fades away.


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I have been young, and now I am old; and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his offspring seeking bread.


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For the Lord loves judgment, and he will not abandon his saints. They will be kept safe in eternity. The unjust will be punished, and the offspring of the impious will perish.


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Wait for the Lord, and keep to his way. And he will exalt you, so as to inherit the land that you may seize. When the sinners will have passed away, then you shall see.


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And the Lord will help them and free them. And he will rescue them from sinners and save them, because they have hoped in him.


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There is no health in my flesh before the face of your wrath. There is no peace for my bones before the face of my sins.


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For my iniquities have walked over my head, and they have been like a heavy burden weighing upon me.


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I have become miserable, and I have been bent down, even to the end. I have walked with contrition all day long.


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My heart has been disturbed. My strength has abandoned me, and the light of my eyes has abandoned me, and it is not with me.


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My friends and my neighbors have drawn near and stood against me. And those who were next to me stood far apart. And those who sought my soul used violence.


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And those who sought evil accusations against me were speaking emptiness. And they practiced deceitfulness all day long.


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For I said, “Lest at any time, my enemies might rejoice over me,” and, “While my feet are being shaken, they have spoken great things against me.”


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But my enemies live, and they have been stronger than me. And those who have wrongfully hated me have been multiplied.


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I said, “I will keep to my ways, so that I will not offend with my tongue.” I posted a guard at my mouth, when a sinner took up a position against me.


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I spoke with my tongue, “O Lord, make me know my end, and what the number of my days will be, so that I may know what is lacking to me.”


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Behold, you have made my days measurable, and, before you, my substance is as nothing. Yet truly, all things are vanity: every living man.


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So then, truly man passes by like an image; even so, he is disquieted in vain. He stores up, and he knows not for whom he will gather these things.


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I fall short at corrections from the strength of your hand. For you have chastised man for iniquity. And you have made his soul shrink away like a spider. Nevertheless, it is in vain that any man be disquieted.


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O Lord, heed my prayer and my supplication. Pay attention to my tears. Do not be silent. For I am a newcomer with you, and a sojourner, just as all my fathers were.


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And he heard my prayers and he led me out of the pit of misery and the quagmire. And he stationed my feet upon a rock, and he directed my steps.


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And he sent a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God. Many will see, and they will fear; and they will hope in the Lord.


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Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, and who has no respect for vanities and absurd falsehoods.


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You have accomplished your many wonders, O Lord my God, and there is no one similar to you in your thoughts. I have announced and I have spoken: they are multiplied beyond number.


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Sacrifice and oblation, you did not want. But you have perfected ears for me. Holocaust and sin offering, you did not require.


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I have announced your justice in a great Church: behold, I will not restrain my lips. O Lord, you have known it.


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I have not concealed your justice within my heart. I have spoken your truth and your salvation. I have not concealed your mercy and your truth from a great assembly.


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For evils without number have surrounded me. My iniquities have taken hold of me, and I was not able to see. They have been multiplied beyond the hairs of my head. And my heart has forsaken me.


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Let them together be confounded and awed, who seek after my soul to steal it away. Let them be turned back and be in awe, who wish evils upon me.


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Let all who seek you exult and rejoice over you. And let those who love your salvation always say, “May the Lord be magnified.”


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But I am a beggar and poor. The Lord has been concerned about me. You are my helper and my protector. My God, do not delay.


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Blessed is he who shows understanding toward the needy and the poor. The Lord will deliver him in the evil day.


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May the Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth. And may he not hand him over to the will of his adversaries.


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May the Lord bring him help on his bed of sorrow. In his infirmity, you have changed his entire covering.


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And when he came in to see me, he was speaking emptiness. His heart gathered iniquity to itself. He went outside, and he was speaking in the same way.


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But you have sustained me, because of my innocence, and you have confirmed me in your sight in eternity.


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My soul has thirsted for the strong living God. When will I draw close and appear before the face of God?


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These things I have remembered; and my soul within me, I have poured out. For I will cross into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, all the way to the house of God, with a voice of exultation and confession, the sound of feasting.


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Why are you sad, my soul? And why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still confess to him: the salvation of my countenance,


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and my God. My soul has been troubled within myself. Because of this, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan and from Hermon, from the little mountain.


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Abyss calls upon abyss, with the voice of your floodgate. All your heights and your waves have passed over me.


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In the daylight, the Lord has ordered his mercy; and in the night, a canticle to him. With me is a prayer to the God of my life.


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I will say to God, “You are my supporter. Why have you forgotten me? And why do I walk in mourning, while my adversary afflicts me?”


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While my bones are being broken, my enemies, who trouble me, have reproached me. Meanwhile, they say to me every single day, “Where is your God?”


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My soul, why are you saddened? And why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still confess to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God.


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A Psalm of David. Judge me, O God, and discern my cause from that of a nation not holy; rescue me from a man unjust and deceitful.


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For you are God, my strength. Why have you rejected me? And why do I walk in sadness, while the adversary afflicts me?


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Send forth your light and your truth. They have guided me and led me, to your holy mountain and into your tabernacles.


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And I will enter, up to the altar of God, to God who enlivens my youthfulness. To you, O God, my God, I will confess upon a stringed instrument.


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Why are you sad, my soul? And why do you disquiet me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God.


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We have heard, O God, with our own ears. Our fathers have announced to us the work that you wrought in their days and in the days of antiquity.


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Your hand dispersed the Gentiles, and you transplanted them. You afflicted a people, and you expelled them.


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For they did not take possession of the land by their sword, and their own arm did not save them. But your right hand and your arm, and the light of your countenance did so, because you were pleased with them.


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With you, we will brandish a horn before our enemies; and in your name, we will spurn those rising up against us.


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before the voice of the reproacher and the commentator, before the face of the adversary and the pursuer.


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All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, and we have not acted unjustly in your covenant.


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will not God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart. For, because of you, we are being killed all day long. We are considered as sheep for the slaughter.


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Unto the end. For those who will be changed. To the sons of Korah, toward understanding. A Canticle for the Beloved.


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My heart has uttered a good word. I speak of my works to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a scribe who writes quickly.


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You are a brilliant form before the sons of men. Grace has been poured freely into your lips. Because of this, God has blessed you in eternity.


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With your splendor and your excellence extended, proceed prosperously, and reign for the sake of truth and meekness and justice, and so will your right hand lead you wondrously.


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You have loved justice and hated iniquity. Because of this, God, your God, has anointed you, before your co-heirs, with the oil of gladness.


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Myrrh and balsam and cinnamon perfume your garments, from the houses of ivory. From these, they have delighted you:


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the daughters of kings in your honor. The queen assisted at your right hand, in clothing of gold, encircled with diversity.


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clothed all around with diversities. After her, virgins will be led to the king. Her neighbors will be brought to you.


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For your fathers, sons have been born to you. You will establish them as leaders over all the earth.


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They will remember your name always, for generation after generation. Because of this, people will confess to you in eternity, even forever and ever.


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Because of this, we will not be afraid when the earth will be turbulent and the mountains will be transferred into the heart of the sea.


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They thundered, and the waters were stirred up among them; the mountains have been disturbed by his strength.


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The peoples have been disturbed, and the kingdoms have been bowed down. He uttered his voice: the earth has been moved.


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carrying away wars even to the end of the earth. He will crush the bow and break the weapons, and he will burn the shield with fire.


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Be empty, and see that I am God. I will be exalted among the peoples, and I will be exalted upon the earth.


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The leaders of the peoples have been gathered together by the God of Abraham. For the strong gods of the earth have been exceedingly exalted.


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Mount Zion is being founded with the exultation of the whole earth, on the north side, 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 hosts, in the city of our God. God has founded it in eternity.


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According to your name, O God, so does your praise reach to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of justice.


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Set your hearts on her virtue. And distribute her houses, so that you may discourse of it in another generation.


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He will not see death, when he sees the wise dying: the foolish and the senseless will perish together. And they will leave their riches to strangers.


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And their sepulchers will be their houses forever, their tabernacles from generation to generation. They have called their names in their own lands.


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And man, when he was held in honor, did not understand. He has been compared to the senseless beasts, and he has become like them.


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They have been placed in Hell like sheep. Death will feed on them. And the just will have dominion over them in the morning. And their help will grow old in Hell for their glory.


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Do not be afraid, when a man will have been made rich, and when the glory of his house will have been multiplied.


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He will even enter with the progeny of his fathers, but, even in eternity, he will not see the light.


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Man, when he was in honor, did not understand. He has been compared to the senseless beasts, and he has become like them.


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A Psalm of Asaph. The God of gods, the Lord has spoken, and he has called the earth, from the rising of the sun even to its setting,


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God will arrive manifestly. Our God also will not keep silence. A fire will flare up in his sight, and a mighty tempest will surround him.


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Listen, my people, and I will speak. Listen, Israel, and I will testify for you. I am God, your God.


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But to the sinner, God has said: Why do you discourse on my justices, and take up my covenant through your mouth?


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These things you have done, and I was silent. You thought, unjustly, that I ought to be like you. But I will reprove you, and I will set myself against your face.


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Understand these things, you who forget God; lest at any time, he might quickly take you away, and there would be no one to rescue you.


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The sacrifice of praise will honor me. And in that place is the journey by which I will reveal to him the salvation of God.


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Be merciful to me, O God, according to your great mercy. And, according to the plentitude of your compassion, wipe out my iniquity.


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Against you only have I sinned, and I have done evil before your eyes. And so, you are justified in your words, and you will prevail when you give judgment.


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For behold, you have loved truth. The obscure and hidden things of your wisdom, you have manifested to me.


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You will sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be cleansed. You will wash me, and I will be made whiter than snow.


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In my hearing, you will grant gladness and rejoicing. And the bones that have been humbled will exult.


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For if you had desired sacrifice, I would certainly have given it, but with holocausts, you will not be delighted.


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Then you will accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations, and holocausts. Then they will lay calves upon your altar.


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Because of this, God will destroy you in the end. He will pull you up, and he will remove you from your tabernacle and your root from the land of the living.


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“Behold the man who did not set God as his helper. But he hoped in the multitude of his riches, and so he prevailed in his emptiness.”


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But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God unto eternity, and forever and ever.


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I will confess to you forever, because you have accomplished it. And I will wait on your name, for it is good in the sight of your saints.


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Unto the end. For Mahalath: the thoughts of David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”


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God gazed down from heaven on the sons of men, to see if there were any who were considering or seeking God.


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All have gone astray; together they have become useless. There is no one who does good; there is not even one.


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They have not called upon God. In that place, they have trembled in fear, where there was no fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who please men. They have been confounded, because God has spurned them.


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Who will grant from Zion the salvation of Israel? Jacob will exult, when God will convert the captivity of his people; and Israel will rejoice.


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For strangers have risen up against me, and the strong have sought my soul. And they have not set God before their eyes.


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at the voice of the adversary and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have diverted iniquities toward me, and they have been harassing me with rage.


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Cast them down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. For I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.


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For if my enemy had spoken evil about me, certainly, I would have sustained it. And if he who hated me had been speaking great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.


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Let death come upon them, and let them descend alive into Hellfire. For there is wickedness in their dwellings, in their midst.


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He will redeem my soul in peace from those who draw near to me. For, among the many, they were with me.


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God will hear, and He who is before time will humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God.


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They were divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart has drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and they are arrows.


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Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will nurture you. He will not allow the just to be tossed about forever.


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Truly, O God, you will lead them away into the well of death. Bloody and deceitful men will not divide their days in half. But I will hope in you, O Lord.


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Unto the end. For the people who have become far removed from the Sacred. Of David, with the inscription of a title, when the Philistines held him in Gath.


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Have mercy on me, O God, because man has trampled over me. All day long, he has afflicted me by fighting against me.


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In God, I will praise my words. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do to me.


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O God, I have announced my life to you. You have placed my tears in your sight, and even in your promise.


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Then my enemies will be turned back. On whatever day that I call upon you, behold, I know that you are my God.


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In God, I will praise the word. In the Lord, I will praise his speech. In God, I have hoped. I will not fear what man can do to me.


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For you have rescued my soul from death and my feet from slipping, so that I may be pleasing in the sight of God, in the light of the living.


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Unto the end. May you not destroy. Of David, with the inscription of a title, when he fled from Saul into a cave.


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Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me. For my soul trusts in you. And I will hope in the shadow of your wings, until iniquity passes away.


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He sent from heaven and freed me. He has surrendered into disgrace those who trampled me. God has sent his mercy and his truth.


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And he has rescued my soul from the midst of the young lions. I slept troubled. The sons of men: their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword.


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They prepared a snare for my feet, and they bowed down my soul. They dug a pit before my face, yet they have fallen into it.


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Sinners have become foreigners from the womb; they have gone astray from conception. They have been speaking falsehoods.


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They will come to nothing, like water flowing away. He has aimed his bow, while they are being weakened.


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Like wax that flows, they will be carried away. Fire has fallen upon them, and they will not see the sun.


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The just one will rejoice when he sees vindication. He will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.


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Unto the end. May you not destroy. Of David, with the inscription of a title, when Saul sent and watched his house, in order to execute him.


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Rise up to meet me, and see: even you, O Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel. Reach out to visit all nations. Do not take pity on all those who work iniquity.


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They will return toward evening, and they will suffer hunger like dogs, and they will wander around the city.


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God will oversee my enemies for me. Do not slay them, lest at times my people may forget them. Scatter them by your virtue. And depose them, O Lord, my protector,


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by the offense of their mouth and by the speech of their lips. And may they be caught in their arrogance. And, for their cursing and lying, they will be made known


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at the consummation, in the fury of the consummation, and so they will be no more. And they will know that God will rule over Jacob, even to the ends of the earth.


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They will be dispersed in order to gnaw, and truly, when they will not have been satisfied, they will murmur.


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But I will sing your strength, and I will extol your mercy, in the morning. For you have been my supporter and my refuge in the day of my tribulation.


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Unto the end. For those who will be changed, with the inscription of a title, of David himself, for instruction:


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when he set fire to Mesopotamia of Syria and Sobal, and Joab turned back and struck Idumea, in the valley of the salt pits, twelve thousand men.


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O God, you have rejected us, and you have ruined us. You became angry, and yet you have been merciful to us.


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You have given a warning sign to those who fear you, so that they may flee from before the face of the bow, so that your beloved may be delivered.


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God has spoken in his holy place: I will rejoice, and I will divide Shechem, and I will measure the steep valley of the tabernacles.


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Moab is the cooking pot of my hope. Into Idumea, I will extend my shoe. To me, the foreigners have been made subject.


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I cried out to you from the ends of the earth. When my heart was in anguish, you exalted me on a rock. You have led me,


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For you, my God, have listened to my prayer. You have granted an inheritance to those who fear your name.


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You will add days to the days of the king, to his years, even to the time of generation after generation.


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So I will compose a psalm to your name, forever and ever, so that I may repay my vows from day to day.


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How is it that you rush against a man? Every one of you puts to death, as if you were pulling down a ruined wall, leaning over and falling apart.


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So, truly, they intended to reject my price. I ran in thirst. They blessed with their mouth and cursed with their heart.


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All peoples gathered together: trust in him. Pour out your hearts in his sight. God is our helper for eternity.


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So, truly, the sons of men are untrustworthy. The sons of men are liars in the scales, so that, by emptiness, they may deceive among themselves.


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Do not trust in iniquity, and do not desire plunder. If riches flow toward you, do not be willing to set your heart on them.


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O God, my God: to you, I keep vigil until first light. For you, my soul has thirsted, to you my body, in so many ways.


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By a deserted land, both inaccessible and waterless, so I have appeared in the sanctuary before you, in order to behold your virtue and your glory.


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Let my soul be filled, as if with marrow and fatness; and my mouth will give praise with exultant lips.


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Truly, the king will rejoice in God: all those who swear by him will be praised, because the mouth of those who speak iniquity has been blocked.


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They will suddenly shoot arrows at him, and they will not be afraid. They are resolute in their wicked talk. They have discussed hidden snares. They have said, “Who will see them?”


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They have been searching carefully for iniquities. Their exhaustive search has failed. Man will approach with a deep heart,


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The just will rejoice in the Lord, and they will hope in him. And all the upright of heart will be praised.


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Unto the end. A Psalm of David. A Canticle of Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the people of the captivity, when they began to go into exile.


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Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up. He will dwell in your courts. We will be filled with the good things of your house. Holy is your temple:


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wonderful in equity. Hear us, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of a sea far away.


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and those who dwell at the limits will be afraid, before your signs. You will make the passing of morning and evening enjoyable.


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You have visited the earth, and you have saturated it. You have enriched it in so many ways. The river of God has been filled with water. You have prepared their food. For thus is its preparation.


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You will bless the crown of the year with your kindness, and your fields will be filled with abundance.


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The rams of the sheep have been clothed, and the valleys will abound with grain. They will cry out; yes, they will even utter a hymn.


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Exclaim to God, “How terrible are your works, O Lord!” According to the fullness of your virtue, your enemies will speak lies about you.


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He converts the sea into dry land. They will cross the river on foot. There, we will rejoice in him.


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He rules by his virtue for eternity. His eyes gaze upon the nations. May those who exasperate him, not be exalted in themselves.


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You have set men over our heads. We have crossed through fire and water. And you have led us out to refreshment.


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I will offer to you holocausts full of marrow, with the burnt offerings of rams. I will offer to you bulls as well as goats.


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Draw near and listen, all you who fear God, and I will describe to you how much he has done for my soul.


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May God have mercy on us and bless us. May he shine his countenance upon us, and may he have mercy on us.


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May the nations rejoice and exult. For you judge the peoples with equity, and you direct the nations on earth.


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May God rise up, and may his enemies be scattered, and may those who hate him flee from before his face.


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Just as smoke vanishes, so may they vanish. Just as wax flows away before the face of fire, so may sinners pass away before the face of God.


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Sing to God, sing a psalm to his name. Make a path for him, who ascends over the west. The Lord is his name. Exult in his sight; they will be stirred up before his face,


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It is God who makes men dwell in a house under one custom. He leads out those who are strongly bound, and similarly, those who exasperate, who dwell in sepulchers.


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the earth was moved, for the heavens rained down before the face of the God of Sinai, before the face of the God of Israel.


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You will set aside for your inheritance, O God, a willing rain. And though it was weak, truly, you have made it perfect.


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If you take your rest in the midst of the clergy, you will be like a dove whose wings are covered with fine silver and edged with pale gold.


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So then, why are you distrustful of dense mountains? The mountain on which God is well pleased to dwell, even there, the Lord will dwell until the end.


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The chariot of God is ten thousand fold: thousands rejoice. The Lord is with them in Sinai, in the holy place.


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You have ascended on high; you have taken captivity captive. You have accepted gifts among men. For even those who do not believe dwell with the Lord God.


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Our God is the God who will bring about our salvation, and our Lord is the Lord who has brought an end to death.


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So then, truly, God will break the heads of his enemies, the hairy skull of those who wander around in their offenses.


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so that your feet may be soaked in the blood of your enemies, so that the tongue of your dogs may be soaked with the same.


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The leaders went ahead, united with the singers of psalms, in the midst of girls playing on timbrels.


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In that place, Benjamin is a youth in ecstasy of mind. The leaders of Judah are their governors: the leaders of Zebulun, the leaders of Naphtali.


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Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, a congregation of bulls with the cows of the people, for they seek to exclude those who have been tested like silver. Scatter the nations that are pleased by wars.


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He ascends, up to the heaven of the heavens, toward the east. Behold, he will utter his voice, the voice of virtue.


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God is wonderful in his saints. The God of Israel himself will give virtue and strength to his people. Blessed is God.


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I have become stuck in a deep quagmire, and there is no firm footing. I have arrived at the height of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me.


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I have endured hardships, while crying out. My jaws have become hoarse; my eyes have failed. Meanwhile, I hope in my God.


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Those who hate me without cause have been multiplied beyond the hairs of my head. My enemies, who persecuted me unjustly, have been strengthened. Then I was required to pay for what I did not take.


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Let those who wait for you, O Lord, the Lord of hosts, not be shamed in me. Let those who seek you, O God of Israel, not be confounded over me.


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For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me.


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But as for me, truly, my prayer is to you, O Lord. This time has pleased you well, O God. In the multitude of your mercy, in the truth of your salvation, hear me.


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Rescue me from the quagmire, so that I may not become trapped. Free me from those who hate me and from deep waters.


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Do not allow the tempest of water to submerge me, nor the deep to absorb me. And do not allow the well to close in on me.


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Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind. Look upon me, according to the fullness of your compassion.


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All those who trouble me are in your sight; my heart has anticipated reproach and misery. And I sought for one who might grieve together with me, but there was no one, and for one who might console me, and I found no one.


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For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judah will be built up. And they will dwell there, and they will acquire it by inheritance.


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May those who wish evils upon me be turned back and blush with shame. May they be turned away immediately, blushing with shame, who say to me: “Well, well.”


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Let all who seek you exult and rejoice in you, and let those who love your salvation forever say: “The Lord be magnified.”


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I am truly destitute and poor. O God, assist me. You are my helper and my deliverer. O Lord, do not delay.


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A Psalm of David. Of the sons of Jonadab and the former captives. In you, O Lord, I have hoped; do not let me be brought to ruin forever.


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Be a God of protection and a place of strength for me, so that you may accomplish my salvation. For you are my firmament and my refuge.


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Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the sinner, and from the hand of the unjust and those who act against the law.


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In you, I have been confirmed from conception. From my mother’s womb, you are my protector. In you, I will sing forever.


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May they be confounded, and may they fail, who drag down my soul. Let them be covered with confusion and shame, who seek evils for me.


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even in old age and with grey hairs. Do not abandon me, O God, while I announce your arm to every future generation: your power


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and your justice, O God, even to the highest great things that you have done. O God, who is like you?


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How great is the tribulation that you have revealed to me: very great and evil. And so, turning back, you have brought me to life, and you have led me back again from the abyss of the earth.


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Therefore, I will confess your truth to you, with the instruments of the Psalter. O God, I will sing psalms to you with stringed instruments, O Holy One of Israel.


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And even my tongue will meditate on your justice all day long, when those who seek evils for me have been confounded and set in awe.


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Give your judgment, O God, to the king, and your justice to the king’s son, to judge your people with justice and your poor with judgment.


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He will judge the poor of the people, and he will bring salvation to the sons of the poor. And he will humble the false accuser.


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The kings of Tarshish and the islands will offer gifts. The kings of Arabia and of Seba will bring gifts.


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He will redeem their souls from usuries and from iniquity, and their names shall be honorable in his sight.


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And he will live, and to him will be given from the gold of Arabia, and by him they will always adore. They will bless him all day long.


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And there will be a firmament on earth, at the summits of mountains: its fruits will be extolled above Lebanon, and those of the city will flourish like the grass of the earth.


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May his name be blessed forever; may his name remain before the sun. And all the tribes of the earth will be blessed in him. All nations will magnify him.


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And blessed is the name of his majesty in eternity. And all the earth will be filled with his majesty. Amen. Amen.


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And I said: So then, it is without purpose that I have justified my heart and washed my hands among the innocent.


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So, because of deceitfulness, truly, you have placed it before them. While they were being lifted up, you were casting them down.


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How have they been brought to desolation? They have suddenly failed. They have perished because of their iniquity.


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You have held my right hand. And in your will, you have conducted me, and with your glory, you have taken me up.


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For behold, those who put themselves far from you will perish. You have perished all those who fornicate away from you.


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But it is good for me to adhere to God, to put my hope in the Lord God, so that I may announce all your prophecies, at the gates of the daughter of Zion.


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The understanding of Asaph. O God, why have you rejected us to the end. Why has your fury become enraged over the sheep of your pasture?


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Be mindful of your congregation, which you have possessed from the beginning. You redeemed the scepter of your inheritance, mount Zion, in which you have dwelt.


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Lift up your hands against their arrogance in the end. How great the malice of the enemy has been in the sanctuary!


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And those who hate you have been glorified, in the midst of your solemnity. They have set up their own signs as a proof,


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They have said in their heart, the whole group of them together: “Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.


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You have broken the heads of the serpent. You have given him as food for the people of the Ethiopians.


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Be mindful of this: the enemy placed blame against the Lord, and a foolish people has incited against your name.


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Do not hand over to beasts the souls that confess to you; and do not forget the souls of your poor until the end.


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Consider your covenant. For those who have been darkened upon the earth have been filled by the iniquity of the houses.


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Do not allow the humble to be turned away in confusion. The poor and the needy will praise your name.


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Rise up, O God, judge your own case. Call to mind the accusations against you, which are made by the foolish all day long.


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Do not forget the voices of your adversaries. The arrogance of those who hate you rises up continually.


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We will confess to you, O God. We will confess, and we will call upon your name. We will describe your wonders.


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For, in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup of undiluted wine, full of consternation. And he has tipped it from here to there. So, truly, its dregs have not been emptied. All the sinners of the earth will drink.


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All the foolish of heart have been disturbed. They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands.


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For the thinking of man will confess to you, and the legacy of his thinking will keep a feast day to you.


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Make vows and pay them to the Lord, your God. All you who surround him bring gifts: to him who is terrible,


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even to him who takes away the spirit of leaders, to him who is terrible with the kings of the earth.


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In the days of my tribulation, I sought God, with my hands opposite him in the night, and I was not deceived. My soul refused to be consoled.


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The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, and they were afraid, and the depths were stirred up.


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The voice of your thunder is like a wheel. Your flashes have illuminated the whole world. The earth has quaked and trembled.


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Your way is through the sea, and your paths are through many waters. And your traces will not be known.


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The understanding of Asaph. O my people, attend to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.


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These things have not been hidden from their sons in any generation: declaring the praises of the Lord, and his virtues, and the wonders that he has done.


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And he has received testimony with Jacob, and he has set a law within Israel. Such great things, he has commanded our fathers, so as to make these things known to their sons,


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so that another generation might know them, and so that the sons, who will be born and who will grow up, shall describe them to their sons.


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So then, may they put their hope in God, and may they not forget the works of God, and may they seek his commandments.


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May they not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation: a generation that does not straighten their heart and whose spirit is not trustworthy with God.


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And yet, they continued to sin against him. In a waterless place, they provoked the Most High with resentment.


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He struck the rock, and so waters flowed and the torrents flooded, but would even he be able to provide bread, or provide a table, for his people?”


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Therefore, the Lord heard, and he was dismayed, and a fire was kindled within Jacob, and an anger ascended into Israel.


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And he rained down flesh upon them, as if it were dust, and feathered birds, as if they were the sand of the sea.


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and then the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones among them, and he impeded the elect of Israel.


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When he slew them, then they sought him. And they returned, and they drew near to him in the early morning.


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Yet he is merciful, and he will pardon their sins. And he will not destroy them. And he has abundantly turned aside his own wrath. And he did not enflame his wrath entirely.


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They did not remember his hand, in the day that he redeemed them from the hand of the one troubling them.


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And he sent the wrath of his indignation among them: indignation and wrath and tribulation, sent forth by evil angels.


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He made way for the path of his anger. He did not spare their souls from death. And he enclosed their beasts of burden in death.


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And he struck all the first-born in the land of Egypt: the first-fruits of all their labor in the tabernacles of Ham.


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And he led them to the mountain of his sanctification: the mountain that his right hand had acquired. And he cast out the Gentiles before their face. And he divided their land by lot to them, with a line of distribution.


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And they turned themselves aside, and they did not serve the covenant. In the same manner as their fathers, they were turned backwards, like a crooked bow.


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They impelled him to anger on their hills, and they provoked him to rivalry with their graven images.


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And he built up his sanctuary, like a single-horned beast, in the land that he founded for all ages.


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And he chose his servant David, and he took him from the flocks of the sheep: he received him from following the ewes with their young,


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And he fed them with the innocence of his heart. And he led them with the understanding of his hands.


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A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the Gentiles have entered into your inheritance; they have polluted your holy temple. They have set Jerusalem as a place to tend fruit trees.


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They have placed the dead bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints for the beasts of the earth.


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They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one who would bury them.


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We have become a disgrace to our neighbors, an object of ridicule and mockery to those who are around us.


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Pour out your wrath among the Gentiles, who have not known you, and upon the kingdoms that have not invoked your name.


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Do not remember our iniquities of the past. May your mercies quickly intercept us, for we have become exceedingly poor.


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Help us, O God, our Savior. And free us, Lord, for the glory of your name. And forgive us our sins for the sake of your name.


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Let them not say among the Gentiles, “Where is their God?” And may your name become known among the nations before our eyes. For the retribution of your servants’ blood, which has been poured out:


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may the groans of the shackled enter before you. According to the greatness of your arm, take possession of the sons of those who have been killed.


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And repay our neighbors sevenfold within their sinews. It is the reproach of the same ones who brought reproach against you, O Lord.


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But we are your people and the sheep of your pasture: we will give thanks to you in all ages. From generation to generation, we will announce your praise.


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The One who reigns over Israel: Be attentive. For you lead Joseph like a sheep. The One who sits upon the cherubim: Shine forth


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in the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Awaken your power and draw near, so as to accomplish our salvation.


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and complete what your right hand has planted, and look upon the son of man, whom you have confirmed for yourself.


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Let your hand be over the man on your right, and over the son of man, whom you have confirmed for yourself.


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He set it as a testimony with Joseph, when he went out of the land of Egypt. He heard a tongue that he did not know.


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You called upon me in tribulation, and I freed you. I heard you within the hidden tempest. I tested you with waters of contradiction.


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For I am the Lord your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt. Widen your mouth, and I will fill it.


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And so, I sent them away, according to the desires of their heart. They will go forth according to their own inventions.


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I would have humbled their enemies, as if it were nothing, and I would have sent my hand upon those who troubled them.


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A Psalm of Asaph. God has stood in the synagogue of gods, but, in their midst, he decides between gods.


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They did not know and did not understand. They wander in darkness. All the foundations of the earth will be moved.


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They have acted with malice in counsel over your people, and they have plotted against your holy ones.


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They have said, “Come, let us scatter them from the nations and not allow the name of Israel to be remembered any longer.”


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My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God.


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For even the sparrow has found a home for himself, and the turtle-dove a nest for herself, where she may lay her young: your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.


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For even the lawgiver will provide a blessing; they will go from virtue to virtue. The God of gods will be seen in Zion.


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For one day in your courts is better than thousands elsewhere. I have chosen to be lowly in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.


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He will not withhold good things from those who walk in innocence. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in you.


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I will listen to what the Lord God may be saying to me. For he will speak peace to his people, and to his saints, and to those who are being converted to the heart.


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All the nations, which you have made, will draw near and adore in your presence, O Lord. And they will glorify your name.


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Lead me, O Lord, in your way, and I will walk in your truth. May my heart rejoice, so that it will fear your name.


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I will confess to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart. And I will glorify your name in eternity.


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O God, the iniquitous have risen up against me, and the synagogue of the powerful have sought my soul, and they have not placed you in their sight.


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Look down upon me and have mercy on me. Grant your authority to your servant, and bring salvation to the son of your handmaid.


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Make me a sign of what is good, so that those who hate me, may look and be confounded. For you, O Lord, have helped me and consoled me.


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I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold, the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians: these have been there.


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Will not Zion say that this man and that man were born in her? And the Most High himself has founded her.


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A Canticle Psalm to the sons of Korah. Unto the end. For Mahalath, to answer the understanding of Heman the Ezrahite.


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I am considered to be among those who will descend into the pit. I have become like a man without assistance,


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idle among the dead. I am like the wounded sleeping in sepulchers, whom you no longer remember, and who have been repelled by your hand.


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You have sent my acquaintances far from me. They have set me as an abomination to themselves. I was handed over, yet I did not depart.


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My eyes languished before destitution. All day long, I cried out to you, O Lord. I stretched out my hands to you.


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I am poor, and I have been amid hardships from my youth. And, though I have been exalted, I am humbled and disturbed.


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I will sing the mercies of the Lord in eternity. I will announce your truth with my mouth, from generation to generation.


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For you have said: Mercy will be built in the heavens, unto eternity. Your truth will be prepared there.


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I will prepare your offspring, even in eternity. And I will build up your throne, from generation to generation.


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God is glorified by the counsel of the saints. He is great and terrible above all those who are around him.


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You have humbled the arrogant one, like one who has been wounded. You have scattered your enemies with the arm of your strength.


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Blessed is the people that knows jubilation. They will walk in the light of your countenance, O Lord,


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Then you spoke in a vision to your holy ones, and you said: I have stationed help with the powerful one, and I have exalted the elect one from my people.


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Who is the man that will live, and yet not see death? Who will rescue his own soul from the hand of the underworld?


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Be mindful, O Lord, of the disgrace of your servants (which I have sustained in my sinews) among many nations.


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With these, your enemies have reproached you, O Lord; with these, they have reproached the commutation of your Christ.


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Before the mountains became, or the land was formed along with the world: from ages past, even to all ages, you are God.


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For a thousand years before your eyes are like the days of yesterday, which have passed by, and they are like a watch of the night,


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In the morning, he may pass away like grass; in the morning, he may flower and pass away. In the evening, he will fall, and harden, and become dry.


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For all our days have faded away, and at your wrath, we have fainted. Our years will be considered to be like a spider’s web.


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The days of our years in them are seventy years. But in the powerful, they are eighty years, and more of these are with hardship and sorrow. For mildness has overwhelmed us, and we shall be corrected.


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We have been rejoicing, because of the days in which you humbled us, because of the years in which we saw evils.


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And may the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us. And so, direct the works of our hands over us; direct even the work of our hands.


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The Praise of a Canticle, of David. Whoever dwells with the assistance of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven.


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before the arrow flying in the day, before the troubles that wander in the darkness, nor of invasion and the midday demon.


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A thousand will fall before your side and ten thousand before your right hand. Yet it will not draw near you.


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He will cry out to me, and I will heed him. I am with him in tribulation. I will rescue him, and I will glorify him.


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when sinners will have risen up like grass, and when all those who work iniquity will have appeared, that they shall pass away, age after age.


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For behold your enemies, O Lord, for behold your enemies will perish, and all those who work iniquity will be dispersed.


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And my horn will be exalted like that of the single-horned beast, and my old age will be exalted in fruitful mercy.


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And my eye has looked down upon my enemies, and my ear will hear of the malignant rising up against me.


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The Praise of a Canticle, of David himself. In the time before the Sabbath, when the earth was founded.


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The Lord has been clothed with strength, and he has girded himself. Yet he has also confirmed the world, which will not be moved.


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Your testimonies have been made exceedingly trustworthy. Sanctity befits your house, O Lord, with length of days.


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A Psalm of David himself. The Fourth Sabbath. The Lord is the God of retribution. The God of retribution acts in order to deliver.


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even until the time when justice is being converted into judgment, and when those who are close to justice are all those who are upright of heart.


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Who will rise up with me against the malignant? Or who will stand with me against the workers of iniquity?


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And he will repay them their iniquity, and he will destroy them in their malice. The Lord our God will utterly destroy them.


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The Praise of a Canticle, of David himself. Come, let us exult in the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to God, our Savior.


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as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me, though they had seen my works.


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A Canticle of David himself, when the house was built after the captivity. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth.


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Say among the Gentiles: The Lord has reigned. For he has even corrected the whole world, which will not be shaken. He will judge the peoples with fairness.


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The fields and all the things that are in them will be glad. Then all the trees of the forest will rejoice


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before the face of the Lord: for he arrives. For he arrives to judge the earth. He will judge the whole world with fairness and the peoples with his truth.


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This is to David, when his land was restored to him. The Lord has reigned, let the earth exult. Let the many islands rejoice.


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The mountains flowed like wax before the face of the Lord, before the face of the Lord of all the earth.


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May all those who adore graven images be confounded, along with those who glory in their false images. All you his Angels: Adore him.


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You who love the Lord: hate evil. The Lord watches over the souls of his holy ones. He will free them from the hand of the sinner.


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A Psalm of David himself. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has performed wonders. His right hand has accomplished salvation for him, with his holy arm.


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He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.


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with subtle wind instruments and the voice of woodwinds. Make a joyful noise before the Lord our king.


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before the presence of the Lord. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the whole world with justice, and the peoples with fairness.


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A Psalm of David himself. The Lord has reigned: let the peoples be angry. He sits upon the cherubim: let the earth be moved.


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And the honor of the king loves judgment. You have prepared guidance. You have accomplished judgment and justice in Jacob.


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Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and Samuel is among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heeded them.


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He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud. They kept his testimonies and the precept that he gave them.


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You heeded them, O Lord our God. You were a forgiving God to them, though taking vengeance on all their inventions.


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Shout joyfully to God, all the earth. Serve the Lord with rejoicing. Enter into his sight in exultation.


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Know that the Lord himself is God. He made us, and we ourselves did not. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.


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And I will have understanding within the immaculate way, when you will draw near to me. I wandered about in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house.


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The perverse heart did not adhere to me. And the malignant, who turned away before me, I would not recognize.


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The one who secretly detracted his neighbor, this one I pursued. The one with an arrogant eye and an insatiable heart, with that one I would not eat.


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My eyes looked toward the faithful of the earth, to sit with me. The one walking in the immaculate way, this one ministered to me.


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He who has acted arrogantly will not dwell in the midst of my house. He who has spoken iniquity was not guided with the sight of my eyes.


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In the morning, I executed all the sinners of the earth, so that I might scatter all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.


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The prayer of the pauper, when he was anxious, and so he poured out his petition in the sight of the Lord.


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Do not turn your face away from me. In whatever day that I am in trouble, incline your ear to me. In whatever day that I will call upon you, heed me quickly.


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Let these things be written in another generation, and the people who will be created will praise the Lord.


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They will perish, but you remain. And all will grow old like a garment. And, like a blanket, you will change them, and they will be changed.


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He has not dealt with us according to our sins, and he has not repaid us according to our iniquities.


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For according to the height of the heavens above the earth, so has he reinforced his mercy toward those who fear him.


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But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, and even unto eternity, upon those who fear him. And his justice is with the sons of the sons,


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Bless the Lord, all you his Angels: powerful in virtue, doing his word, in order to heed the voice of his discourse.


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To David himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are exceedingly great. You have clothed yourself with confession and beauty;


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You cover its heights with water. You set the clouds as your stairs. You walk upon the wings of the winds.


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You spring forth fountains in steep valleys. The waters will cross through the midst of the mountains.


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Above them, the flying things of the air will dwell. From the midst of the rocks, they will utter voices.


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You irrigate the mountains from your heights. The earth will be satiated from the fruit of your works,


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and wine, in order to cheer the heart of man. Then he may gladden his face with oil, and bread will confirm the heart of man.


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You appointed darkness, and it has become night; all the beasts of the forest will cross through it.


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How great are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom. The earth has been filled with your possessions.


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This sea is great and its hands are spacious. There are creeping things without number: the small animals with the great.


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What you give to them, they will gather. When you open your hand, they will all be filled with goodness.


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But if you turn your face away, they will be disturbed. You will take away their breath, and they will fail, and they will return to their dust.


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You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.


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Let sinners fade away from the earth, along with the unjust, so that they may not be. Bless the Lord, O my soul.


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so that we may see the goodness of your elect, so that we may rejoice in the joy of your nation, so that you may be praised along with your inheritance.


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Our fathers did not understand your miracles in Egypt. They did not remember the multitude of your mercies. And they provoked you, while going up to the sea, even the Red Sea.


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And he saved them from the hand of those who hated them. And he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.


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And he said that he would destroy them, yet Moses, his elect, stood firm before him in the breach, in order to avert his wrath, lest he destroy them.


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And they shed innocent blood: the blood of their sons and of their daughters, which they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan. And the land was infected with bloodshed,


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And he delivered them into the hands of the nations. And those who hated them became rulers over them.


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Many times, he delivered them. Yet they provoked him with their counsel, and they were brought low by their iniquities.


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Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, so that we may confess your holy name and glory in your praise.


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Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, from ages past, even to all ages. And let all the people say: Amen. Amen.


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Let those who have been redeemed by the Lord say so: those whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered from the regions,


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They wandered into solitude in a waterless place. They did not find the way of the city to be their dwelling place.


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And their heart was brought low with hardships. They were weakened, and there was no one to help them.


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He has taken them up, from the way of their iniquity. For they were brought low, because of their injustices.


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And let them offer sacrifice with the sacrifice of praise, and let them announce his works in exultation.


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They ascend even to the heavens, and they descend even to the abyss. Their soul will waste away in distress.


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He has placed a desert in the midst of pools of waters, and a land without water in the midst of sources of water.


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And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly. And he did not diminish their beasts of burden.


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Contempt was poured over their leaders, and he caused them to wander in an impassable place, and not on the way.


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My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared. I will sing songs, and I will sing psalms in my glory.


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God has spoken in his holiness. I will exult, and I will divide Shechem, and I will divide by measure the steep valley of tabernacles.


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Moab is the cooking pot of my hope. I will extend my shoe in Idumea; the foreigners have become my friends.


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O God, do not be silent toward my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful one have been opened against me.


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They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues, and they have surrounded me with hateful words, and they fought against me over nothing.


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May his sons be carried by those who walk unsteadily, and may they go begging. And may they be cast out of their dwelling places.


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May the iniquity of his fathers return in memory before the sight of the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be wiped away.


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And so the destitute man was pursued, with the beggar and the remorseful in heart, so as to be put to death.


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And he loved a curse, and it came to him. And he was unwilling to have a blessing, and it went far from him. And he clothed himself with curses like a garment, and it entered his inner self like water, and it entered his bones like oil.


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They will curse, and you will bless. May those who rise up against me be confounded. But your servant will rejoice.


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May those who detract me be clothed with shame, and may they be covered with their confusion, as if with a double cloak.


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I will confess exceedingly to the Lord with my mouth. And I will praise him in the midst of the multitude.


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A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”


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It is with you from the beginning, in the day of your virtue, in the splendor of the saints. From conception, before the light-bearer, I begot you.


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The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”


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He will judge between the nations; he will fill up ruination. He will shatter heads in the land of the many.


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Alleluia. I will confess to you, O Lord, with my whole heart, in the council of the just and in the congregation.


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so that he may give them the inheritance of the nations. The works of his hands are truth and judgment.


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He has sent redemption upon his people. He has commanded his covenant for all eternity. Holy and terrible is his name.


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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding is for all who do it. His praise remains from age to age.


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Alleluia. Of the return of Haggai and Zachariah. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. He will prefer his commandments exceedingly.


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The just one will be an everlasting memorial. He will not fear a report of disasters. His heart is prepared to hope in the Lord.


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He has distributed, he has given to the poor. His justice shall remain from age to age. His horn shall be exalted in glory.


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The sinner will see and become angry. He will gnash his teeth and waste away. The desire of sinners will perish.


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What happened to you, O sea, so that you fled, and to you, O Jordan, so that you were turned back again?


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What happened to you, O mountains, so that you exulted like rams, and to you, O hills, so that you exulted like lambs among the sheep?


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They have hands, and do not feel; they have feet, and do not walk. Neither will they cry out with their throat.


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The Lord has been mindful of us, and he has blessed us. He has blessed the house of Israel. He has blessed the house of Aaron.


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The sorrows of death have surrounded me, and the perils of Hell have found me. I have found tribulation and sorrow.


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O Lord, because I am your servant, your servant and the son of your handmaid, you have broken my bonds.


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They surrounded me like a swarm, and they burned like fire among the thorns. And, in the name of the Lord, I have been avenged over them.


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The right hand of the Lord has wrought virtue. The right hand of the Lord has exalted me. The right hand of the Lord has wrought virtue.


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The Lord is God, and he has enlightened us. Establish a solemn day amid a dense crowd, even to the horn of the altar.


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You are my God, and I will confess to you. You are my God, and I will exalt you. I will confess to you, for you have heeded me. And you have become my salvation.


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I will confess to you with honesty of heart. In this way, I have learned the judgments of your justice.


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For even the leaders sat and spoke against me. But your servant has been trained in your justifications.


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HE. O Lord, place the law before me, the way of your justifications, and I will always inquire into it.


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And do not utterly take away the word of truth from my mouth. For in your judgments, I have hoped beyond hope.


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And I lifted up my hands to your commandments, which I loved. And I was trained in your justifications.


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The iniquity of the arrogant has been multiplied over me. Yet I will examine your commandments with all my heart.


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IOD. Your hands have created me and formed me. Give me understanding, and I will learn your commandments.


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Let the arrogant be confounded, for unjustly they have done iniquity to me. But I will be trained in your commandments.


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By your commandment, you have made me able to see far, beyond my enemies. For it is with me for eternity.


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I have acquired your testimonies as an inheritance unto eternity, because they are the exultation of my heart.


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Uphold me according to your eloquence, and I will live. And let me not be confounded in my expectation.


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I have considered all the sinners of the earth to be transgressors. Therefore, I have loved your testimonies.


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Because of this, I was directed toward all your commandments. I held hatred for every iniquitous way.


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TAU. O Lord, let my supplication draw near in your sight. Grant understanding to me according to your eloquence.


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I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost. Seek out your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments.


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With those who hated peace, I was peaceful. When I spoke to them, they fought against me without cause.


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A Canticle in steps. I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: “We shall go into the house of the Lord.”


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For to that place, the tribes ascended, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to confess to the name of the Lord.


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Petition for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem, and for abundance for those who love you.


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Behold, as the eyes of the servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so our eyes are upon the Lord our God, until he may be merciful to us.


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For our soul has been greatly filled. We are the disgrace of those who have abundance and the disdain of the arrogant.


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Our soul has been snatched away like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters. The snare has been broken, and we have been freed.


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A Canticle in steps. Those who trust in the Lord will be like the mountain of Zion. He will not be disturbed for eternity, who dwells


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in Jerusalem. Mountains surround it. And the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forward and even forever.


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For the Lord will not allow the rod of sinners to remain over the lot of the just, so that the just may not extend their hands toward iniquity.


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But those who turn away into obligation, the Lord will lead away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel.


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A Canticle in steps. When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became like those who are consoled.


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Then our mouth was filled with gladness and our tongue with exultation. Then they will say among the nations: “The Lord has done great things for them.”


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A Canticle in steps: of Solomon. Unless the Lord has built the house, those who build it have labored in vain. Unless the Lord has guarded the city, he who guards it watches in vain.


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It is in vain that you rise before daylight, that you rise up after you have sat down, you who chew the bread of sorrow. Whereas, to his beloved, he will give sleep.


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Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from these things. He will not be confounded when he speaks to his enemies at the gate.


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Your wife is like an abundant vine on the sides of your house. Your sons are like young olive trees surrounding your table.


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May the Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the good things of Jerusalem, all the days of your life.


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And those who were passing by have not said to them: “The blessing of the Lord be upon you. We have blessed you in the name of the Lord.”


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For with you, there is forgiveness, and because of your law, I persevered with you, Lord. My soul has persevered in his word.


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A Canticle in steps: of David. O Lord, my heart has not been exalted, and my eyes have not been raised up. Neither have I walked in greatness, nor in wonders beyond me.


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When I was not humble in thought, then I lifted up my soul. Like one who has been weaned from his mother, so was I recompensed in my soul.


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The Lord has sworn the truth to David, and he will not disappoint: I will set upon your throne from the fruit of your lineage.


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If your sons will keep my covenant and these, my testimonies, which I will teach to them, then their sons will sit upon your throne even forever.


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A Canticle in steps: of David. Behold, how good and how pleasing it is for brothers to dwell in unity.


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It is like the ointment on the head that descended to the beard, the beard of Aaron, which descended to the hem of his garment.


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It is like the dew of Hermon, which descended from mount Zion. For in that place, the Lord has commanded a blessing, and life, even unto eternity.


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A Canticle in steps. Behold, bless the Lord now, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.


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All things whatsoever that he willed, the Lord did: in heaven, on earth, in the sea, and in all the deep places.


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He leads clouds from the ends of the earth. He has created lightnings in the rain. He has produced winds from his storehouses.


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A Psalm of David: to Jeremiah. Above the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, while we remembered Zion.


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For, in that place, those who led us into captivity questioned us about the words of the songs. And those who carried us away said: “Sing us a hymn from the songs of Zion.”


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May my tongue adhere to my jaws, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem first, as the beginning of my joy.


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O Lord, call to mind the sons of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem, who say: “Despoil it, despoil it, even to its foundation.”


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O daughter of Babylon, have pity. Blessed is he who will repay you with your payment, which you have paid to us.


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Of David himself. O Lord, I will confess to you with my whole heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth. I will sing psalms to you in the sight of the Angels.


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I will adore before your holy temple, and I will confess your name: it is above your mercy and your truth. For you have magnified your holy name above all.


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May all the kings of the earth confess to you, O Lord. For they have heard all the words of your mouth.


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For the Lord is exalted, and he looks with favor on the humble. But the lofty he knows from a distance.


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If I wander into the midst of tribulation, you will revive me. For you extended your hand against the wrath of my enemies. And your right hand has accomplished my salvation.


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The Lord will provide retribution on my behalf. O Lord, your mercy is forever. Do not disdain the works of your hands.


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Behold, O Lord, you have known all things: the newest and the very old. You have formed me, and you have placed your hand over me.


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Your knowledge has become a wonder to me. It has been reinforced, and I am not able to prevail against it.


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And I said: Perhaps darkness will overwhelm me, and the night will be my illumination, to my delight.


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But darkness will not be impenetrable to you, and night will illuminate like the day: for just as its darkness is, so also is its light.


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I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well.


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My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth.


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Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.


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But to me, O God, your friends have been greatly honored. Their first ruler has been exceedingly strengthened.


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I will number them, and they will be more numerous than the sand. I rose up, and I am still with you.


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Preserve me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, and rescue me from men of iniquity. They have decided to supplant my steps.


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The arrogant have hidden a snare for me. And they have stretched out cords for a snare. They have placed a stumbling block for me near the road.


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O Lord, do not hand me over to the sinner by my desire. They have plotted against me. Do not abandon me, lest they should triumph.


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Burning coals will fall upon them. You will cast them down into the fire, into miseries that they will not be able to withstand.


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A talkative man will not be guided aright upon the earth. Evils will drag the unjust man unto utter ruin.


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A Psalm of David. O Lord, I have cried out to you, hear me. Attend to my voice, when I cry out to you.


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Let my prayer be guided like incense in your sight: the lifting up of my hands, like the evening sacrifice.


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Do not turn aside my heart to words of malice, to making excuses for sins, with men who work iniquity; and I will not communicate, even with the best of them.


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The just one will correct me with mercy, and he will rebuke me. But do not allow the oil of the sinner to fatten my head. For my prayer will still be toward their good will.


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Their judges have been engulfed, joined to the rocks. They will hear my words, which have prevailed,


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Protect me from the snare that they have set up for me and from the scandals of those who work iniquity.


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Though my spirit may become faint within me, even then, you have known my paths. Along this way, which I have been walking, they have hidden a snare for me.


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I considered toward the right, and I looked, but there was no one who would know me. Flight has perished before me, and there is no one who has concern for my soul.


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Attend to my supplication. For I have been humbled exceedingly. Free me from my persecutors, for they have been fortified against me.


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Lead my soul out of confinement in order to confess your name. The just are waiting for me, until you repay me.


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A Psalm of David, when his son Absalom was pursuing him. O Lord, hear my prayer. Incline your ear to my supplication in your truth. Heed me according to your justice.


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And do not enter into judgment with your servant. For all the living will not be justified in your sight.


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For the enemy has pursued my soul. He has lowered my life to the earth. He has stationed me in darkness, like the dead of ages past.


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I have called to mind the days of antiquity. I have been meditating on all your works. I have meditated on the workings of your hands.


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O Lord, heed me quickly. My spirit has grown faint. Do not turn your face away from me, lest I become like those who descend into the pit.


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Make me hear your mercy in the morning. For I have hoped in you. Make known to me the way that I should walk. For I have lifted up my soul to you.


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Teach me to do your will. For you are my God. Your good Spirit will lead me into the righteous land.


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For the sake of your name, O Lord, you will revive me in your fairness. You will lead my soul out of tribulation.


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And you will scatter my enemies in your mercy. And you will destroy all those who afflict my soul. For I am your servant.


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A Psalm of David versus Goliath. Blessed is the Lord, my God, who trains my hands for the battle and my fingers for the war.


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My mercy and my refuge, my supporter and my deliverer, my protector and him in whom I have hoped: he subdues my people under me.


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Send a flash of lightning, and you will scatter them. Shoot your arrows, and you will set them in disarray.


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Send forth your hand from on high: rescue me, and free me from many waters, from the hand of the sons of foreigners.


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To you, O God, I will sing a new song. On the psaltery, with an instrument of ten strings, I will sing psalms to you.


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Rescue me, and deliver me from the hand of the sons of foreigners. Their mouth has been speaking vain things, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.


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Their sons are like new plantings in their youth. Their daughters are dressed up: adorned all around like the idols of a temple.


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Their cupboards are full: overflowing from one thing into another. Their sheep bear young, brought forth in abundance.


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They have called the people that has these things: blessed. But blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.


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The Praise of David himself. I will extol you, O God, my king. And I will bless your name, in this time and forever and ever.


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Throughout every single day, I will bless you. And I will praise your name, in this time and forever and ever.


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Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion is with all, from generation to generation. The Lord is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works.


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He will do the will of those who fear him, and he will heed their supplication and accomplish their salvation.


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My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and may all flesh bless his holy name, in this time and forever and ever.


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Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord with my life. I will sing psalms to my God as long as I shall be. Do not trust in the leaders,


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His spirit will depart, and he will return to his earth. In that day, all their thoughts will perish.


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He preserves the truth forever. He executes judgment for those who suffer injury. He provides food for the hungry. The Lord releases those who are bound.


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The Lord enlightens the blind. The Lord sets upright those who have been thrown down. The Lord loves the just.


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The Lord watches over new arrivals. He will support the orphan and the widow. And he will destroy the ways of sinners.


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Alleluia. Praise the Lord, because the psalm is good. Delightful and beautiful praise shall be for our God.


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He covers heaven with clouds, and he prepares rain for the earth. He produces grass on the mountains and herbs for the service of men.


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He will not have good will for the strength of the horse, nor will he be well pleased with the legs of a man.


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He will send forth his word, and it will melt them. His Spirit will breathe out, and the waters will flow.


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He has not done so much for every nation, and he has not made his judgments manifest to them. Alleluia.


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He has stationed them in eternity, and for age after age. He has established a precept, and it will not pass away.


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Confession of him is beyond heaven and earth, and he has exalted the horn of his people. A hymn to all his holy ones, to the sons of Israel, to a people close to him. Alleluia.


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to understand words of prudence, and to accept the instruction of doctrine, justice and judgment, and equity,


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He shall turn his soul to a parable and to its interpretation, to the words of the wise and their enigmas.


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If they should say: “Come with us. We will lie in wait for blood. We will lay traps against the innocent, without cause.


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Likewise, they lie in ambush against their own blood, and they undertake deceits against their own souls.


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She cries out at the head of crowds; at the entrance of the gates of the city, she offers her words, saying:


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“Little ones, how long will you choose to be childish, and how long will the foolish desire what is harmful to themselves, and how long will the imprudent hate knowledge?


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Be converted by my correction. Lo, I will offer my spirit to you, and I will reveal my words to you.


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Similarly, I will ridicule you at your demise, and I will mock you, when that which you feared shall overcome you.


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When sudden calamity rushes upon you, and your demise advances like a tempest, when tribulation and anguish overcome you,


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Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way, and they shall have their fill of their own counsels.


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The loathing of the little ones shall destroy them, and the prosperity of the foolish shall perish them.


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But whoever will listen to me shall rest without terror, and shall have full enjoyment of abundance, without fear of evils.”


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and who has forgotten the covenant of her God. For her household inclines toward death, and her paths toward Hell.


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Yet truly, the impious shall perish from the earth, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.


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Let not mercy and truth abandon you: encircle them around your throat, and inscribe them on the tablets of your heart.


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My son, do not discard the discipline of the Lord, and do not fall away when you are corrected by him.


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Her acquisition is better than trading in silver, and her fruit is better than the first and purest gold.


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She is more precious than all riches, and all that can be desired cannot prevail in comparison to her.


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Do not say to your friend: “Go away, and then return. Tomorrow I will give to you.” When you are able to do so, give in the present.


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Destitution in the house of the impious is from the Lord. But the habitations of the just shall be blessed.


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And he taught me, and he also said: “Let your heart accept my words. Keep my precepts, and you shall live.


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When you have entered by these, your steps will not be constrained, and when running, you will have no obstacle.


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For they do not sleep, unless they have done evil. And their sleep is quickly taken away from them, unless they have overthrown.


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But the path of the just is like a shining light: it advances and increases, even to the day of completion.


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Turn aside, neither to the right, nor to the left; yet turn your foot away from evil. For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right, and truly, those that are on the left are perverse. But he himself will make your courses straight. Then your journey will advance in peace.


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so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.


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and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:


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And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?


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a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.


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He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.


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My son, if you have taken a pledge on behalf of your friend, then you have bound your hand to an outsider,


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Therefore, my son, do what I say, and free yourself, for you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor. Run, hurry, awaken your friend.


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and then destitution will meet with you, like a traveler, and poverty, like an armed man. Yet truly, if you would be diligent, then your harvest will arrive like a fountain, and destitution will flee far from you.


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To this one, his perdition will arrive promptly, and he shall be crushed suddenly: he will no longer have any remedy.


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When you walk, let them keep step with you. When you sleep, let them guard you. And when you keep watch, speak with them.


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nor will he agree to the pleadings of anyone, nor will he accept, as repayment, a multitude of gifts.


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So may she guard you from the woman who is an outsider, and from the stranger who sweetens her words.


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And behold, a woman meets him, dressed like a harlot, prepared to captivate souls: chattering and rambling,


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Come, let us be inebriated in abundance, and let us delight in the embraces of desire, until the day begins to dawn.


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Immediately, he follows her, like an ox being led to the sacrifice, and like a lamb acting lasciviously, and not knowing that he is being drawn foolishly into chains,


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until the arrow pierces his liver. It is just as if a bird were to hurry into the snare. And he does not know that his actions endanger his own soul.


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For she has tossed aside many wounded, and some of those who were very strong have been slain by her.


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Listen, for I will speak about great things, and my lips will be opened, so as to foretell what is right.


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For wisdom is better than all that is most precious, and everything that is desirable cannot compare to her.


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The fear of the Lord hates evil. I detest arrogance, and pride, and every wicked way, and a mouth with a double tongue.


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The abyss did not yet exist, and I was already conceived; neither had the fountains of waters yet erupted.


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The mountains, with their great mass, had not yet been established. Before the hills, I was brought forth.


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I was already present: when he prepared the heavens; when, with a certain law and a circuit, he fortified the abyss;


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when he encompassed the sea within its limits, and laid down a law for the waters, lest they transgress their limits; when he weighed the foundations of the earth.


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I was with him in composing all things. And I was delighted, throughout every day, by playing in his sight at all times,


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Blessed is the man who listens to me, and who stands watch at my gates everyday, and who observes at the posts of my doors.


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Whoever teaches a mocker causes injury to himself. And whoever argues with the impious produces a blemish on himself.


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Do not be willing to argue with a mocker, lest he hate you. Dispute with the wise, and he will love you.


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Present an opportunity to the wise, and wisdom shall be added to him. Teach the just, and he will hurry to receive it.


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If you would be wise, you will be so for yourself. But if you would be one who ridicules, you alone shall carry the evil.


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The Lord will not afflict with famine the soul of the just, and he will overthrow the treacheries of the impious.


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The neglectful hand has wrought destitution. But the hand of the steadfast prepares riches. He who advances by lies, this one feeds on the wind. For he is the same as one who runs after flying birds.


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The way of life is for those who observe discipline. But whoever abandons correction wanders astray.


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Like a passing tempest, so the impious one will be no more. But the just one is like an everlasting foundation.


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The lips of the just consider what is acceptable. And the mouth of the impious considers perversities.


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The simplicity of the just shall direct them, and the rebellion of the perverse will devastate them.


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The justice of the upright shall free them. And the iniquitous will be seized by their own treachery.


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When the impious man is dead, there will no longer be any hope. And the expectation of the anxious will perish.


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In the good of the just, the city shall exult. And in the perdition of the impious, there shall be praise.


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By the blessing of the just, the city shall be exalted. And by the mouth of the impious, it will be subverted.


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Whoever walks dishonestly reveals secrets. But whoever is of a faithful soul conceals what is confided by a friend.


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Where there is no governor, the people shall fall. But where there is much counsel, well-being shall be.


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He will be afflicted with evil, who provides a guarantee for an outsider. But whoever is wary of traps shall be secure.


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The impious does work with inconstancy. But for the sower of justice, there is the reward of faithfulness.


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Some distribute their own goods, and they become wealthier. Others seize what is not their own, and they are always in need.


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The soul that blesses shall be made fat. And whoever inebriates will likewise be inebriated himself.


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Whoever hides away grain shall be cursed among the people. But a blessing is upon the head of those who sell it.


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He does well to rise early, who seeks what is good. But whoever is a seeker of evils shall be oppressed by them.


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Whoever is good shall draw grace from the Lord. But whoever trusts in his own thoughts acts impiously.


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A diligent woman is a crown to her husband. And she who acts with confusion as to which things are worthy is decay to his bones.


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Whoever works his land shall be satisfied with bread. But whoever continually pursues leisure is most foolish. Whoever is soothed by lingering over wine leaves behind contempt in his strongholds.


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The desire of the impious is the fortification of what is most wicked. But the root of the just shall prosper.


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By the fruit of his own mouth, each one shall be filled with good things, and according to the works of his own hands, it will be distributed to him.


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He who makes promises is also jabbed, as if with a sword, in conscience. But the tongue of the wise is reasonable.


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Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evils. But gladness follows those who take up counsels of peace.


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Whatever may befall the just, it will not discourage him. But the impious will be filled with disasters.


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He who ignores a loss for the sake of a friend is just. But the way of the impious will deceive them.


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From the fruit of his own month, a man shall be satisfied with good things. But the soul of betrayers is iniquity.


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Whoever guards his mouth guards his soul. But whoever gives no consideration to his speech shall experience misfortunes.


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One is like the rich, though he has nothing. And another is like the poor, though he has many riches.


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Among the arrogant, there are always conflicts. But those who do everything with counsel are ruled by wisdom.


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Substance obtained in haste will be diminished. But what is collected by hand, little by little, shall be multiplied.


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Whoever denounces something obligates himself for the future. But whoever fears a lesson shall turn away in peace. Deceitful souls wander into sins. The just are merciful and compassionate.


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Destitution and disgrace are for those who abandon discipline. But whoever agrees with a reproof shall be glorified.


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The good leave behind heirs: children and grandchildren. And the substance of the sinner is preserved for the just.


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Much nourishment is in the fallow land of the fathers. But for others, it is gathered without judgment.


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A wise woman builds up her household. But a foolish one will pull down with her own hands what has been built up.


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One who walks on a virtuous journey, and who fears God, is despised by him who advances along a disreputable way.


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Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is empty. But where there are many crops, there the strength of the ox is manifest.


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The wisdom of a discerning man is to understand his way. And the imprudence of the foolish is to be wandering astray.


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The house of the impious will be wiped away. Yet truly, the tabernacles of the just shall spring forth.


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The innocent trust every word. The astute one considers his own steps. Nothing good will be for the deceitful son. But the wise servant shall act prosperously and his way will be set in order.


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The evil will fall down before the good. And the impious will fall down before the gates of the just.


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Whoever despises his neighbor, sins. But whoever pities the poor shall be blessed. Whoever trusts in the Lord loves mercy.


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In a multitude of people, there is dignity for the king. And in a paucity of people, there is disgrace for the prince.


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Whoever slanders the indigent argues against his Maker. But he who has compassion on the poor honors his Maker.


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A fool laughs at the discipline of his father. But whoever preserves rebukes will become astute. In abundant justice, there is very great virtue. But the intentions of the impious will be eradicated.


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Intentions dissipate where there is no counsel. Yet truly, they are confirmed where there are many counselors.


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Evil intentions are an abomination to the Lord. And pure conversation, most beautiful, shall be confirmed by him.


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Whoever pursues avarice disturbs his own house. But whoever hates bribes shall live. Through mercy and faith, sins are purged. But through the fear of the Lord, each one turns aside from evil.


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Whoever rejects discipline despises his own soul. But whoever agrees to correction is a possessor of the heart.


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All the arrogant are an abomination to the Lord. Even if hand will be joined to hand, he is not innocent. The beginning of a good way is to do justice. And this is more acceptable with God than to immolate sacrifices.


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In the cheerfulness of the king’s countenance, there is life. And his clemency is like belated rain.


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Possess wisdom, for it is better than gold. And acquire prudence, for it is more precious than silver.


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Whoever is wise in heart shall be called prudent. And whoever is sweet in eloquence shall attain to what is greater.


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A patient man is better than a strong one. And whoever rules his soul is better than one who assaults cities.


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Just as silver is tested by fire, and gold is tested in the furnace, so also does the Lord test hearts.


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Whoever despises the poor rebukes his Maker. And whoever rejoices in the ruin of another will not go unpunished.


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The expectation of those who stand ready is a most pleasing jewel. Whichever way he turns himself, he understands prudently.


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Whoever conceals an offense seeks friendships. Whoever repeats the words of another separates allies.


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It is more expedient to meet a bear robbed of her young, than the foolish trusting in his own folly.


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Whoever releases the water is the head of the conflict. And just before he suffers contempt, he abandons judgment.


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What does it profit the foolish to have riches, when he is not able to buy wisdom? Whoever makes his house high seeks ruin. And whoever shuns learning shall fall into evils.


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Whoever is of a perverse heart shall not find good. And whoever turns his tongue shall fall into evil.


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A foolish one is born into his own disgrace. But his father will not rejoice in one who is senseless.


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If he would remain silent, even the foolish would be considered wise, and if he closes his lips, intelligent.


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The impious, when he has arrived within the depths of sin, thinks little of it. But ill repute and disgrace follow him.


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The words of the double-tongued seem simple. And they reach even to the interior of the gut. Fear casts down the lazy, but the souls of the effeminate shall go hungry.


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The substance of the wealthy is the city of his strength, and it is like a strong wall encircling him.


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A brother who is helped by a brother is like a reinforced city, and judgments are like the bars of cities.


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From the fruit of a man’s mouth shall his belly be filled. And the harvest of his own lips shall satisfy him.


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He who has found a good wife has found goodness, and he shall draw contentment from the Lord. He who expels a good wife expels goodness. But he who holds on to an adulteress is foolish and impious.


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Where there is no knowledge of the soul, there is no good. And whoever hurries with his feet will stumble.


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The brothers of the poor man hate him. Moreover, even his friends have withdrawn far from him. Whoever pursues only words shall have nothing.


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But whoever possesses reason loves his own soul. And one who guards prudence shall discover good things.


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Like the roaring of a lion, so also is the wrath of a king. And his cheerfulness is like the dew upon the grass.


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A foolish son is the grief of his father. And an argumentative wife is like a roof that is continually leaking.


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The fear of the Lord is unto life. And he shall linger in plentitude, without being visited by disaster.


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When the pestilent are scourged, the foolish will become wiser. But if you chastise the wise, he will understand discipline.


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Judgments are prepared for those who ridicule. And striking hammers are prepared for the bodies of the foolish.


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It is a luxurious thing, wine, and inebriation is tumultuous. Anyone who is delighted by this will not be wise.


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Just like the roaring of a lion, so also is the dread of a king. Whoever provokes him sins in his own soul.


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Honor is for the man who separates himself from contentions. But all the foolish meddle in altercations.


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Because of the cold, the lazy one was not willing to plough. Therefore, in the summer, he will beg, and it will not be given to him.


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Take away the vestments of him who stands up to vouch for a stranger, and take a pledge from him instead of from outsiders.


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Do not become involved with him who reveals mysteries, and who walks deceitfully, and who enlarges his lips.


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The bruise of a wound, as well as scourges, shall wipe away evils in the more secret places of the inner self.


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Just as with the dividing of the waters, so also is the heart of the king in the hand of the Lord. He shall bend it whichever way he wills.


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The intentions of the robust continually bring forth abundance. But all the lazy are continually in need.


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Whoever gathers treasures by a lying tongue is vain and heartless. And he will stumble into the snares of death.


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When the pestilent is punished, a little one will become wiser. And if he pursues what is wise, he will receive knowledge.


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The just thinks carefully about the house of the impious, so that he may draw the impious away from evil.


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Whoever blocks his ears to the outcry of the poor shall also cry out himself, and he will not be heeded.


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A surprise gift extinguishes anger. And a gift concealed in the bosom extinguishes the greatest indignation.


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The impious is given over instead of the just, and the iniquitous is given over in place of the upright.


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There is desirable treasure, as well as oil, in the habitations of the just. And the imprudent man will waste it.


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Weapons and swords are on the way of the perverse. But he who guards his own soul withdraws far from them.


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Whoever is inclined to mercy shall be blessed, for from his bread he has given to the poor. Whoever gives gifts will acquire victory and honor. But he carries away the soul of the receiver.


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Cast out the one who ridicules, and conflict will go out with him, and accusations and insults will cease.


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Whoever loves cleanness of heart, because of the grace of his lips, will have the king as his friend.


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Whoever slanders the poor, so as to augment his own riches, will give it away to one who is richer, and will be in need.


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It shall be beautiful to you, if you preserve it in your inner self, and it shall overflow from your lips,


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so that I might reveal to you, firmly and with words of truth, in order to respond about these things to those who sent you.


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Do not act with violence toward the pauper because he is poor. And do not weary the needy at the gate.


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Do not be willing to be with those who certify with their hands, and who offer themselves as a guarantee against debts.


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For if you do not have the means to restore, what reason should there be for him to take the covering from your bed?


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Have you seen a man swift in his work? He shall stand in the sight of kings, and not before those who are disreputable.


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Do not raise your eyes toward wealth that you are not able to have. For they will make themselves wings, like those of an eagle, and they will fly in the sky.


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For, like a seer and an interpreter of dreams, he presumes what he does not know. “Eat and drink,” he will say to you; and his mind is not with you.


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Do not be willing to take away discipline from a child. For if you strike him with the rod, he will not die.


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Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh.


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For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.


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She lies in wait along the way like a robber. And the incautious one whom she sees, she will put to death.


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Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes?


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Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly,


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And you will be like someone sleeping in the middle of the sea, and like a pilot, fast asleep, who has lost his hold on the helm.


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And you will say: “They have beaten me, but I did not feel pain. They have dragged me, and I did not realize it. When will I awaken and find more wine?”


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By doctrine, the storerooms shall be filled with every substance that is precious and most beautiful.


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Rescue those who are led away to death. And do not cease from delivering those who are dragged away to a violent death.


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If you would say: “I do not have sufficient strength.” He who inspects the heart, the same one understands, and nothing slips past the one who preserves your soul. And he shall repay a man according to his works.


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So, too, is the doctrine of wisdom to your soul. When you have found it, you will have hope in the end, and your hope shall not perish.


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For the just one will fall seven times, and he shall rise again. But the impious will fall into evil.


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Those who say to the impious, “You are just,” shall be cursed by the people, and the tribes shall detest them.


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Prepare your outdoor work, and diligently cultivate your field, so that afterward, you may build your house.


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and behold, it was entirely filled with nettles, and thorns had covered its surface, and the stonewall was destroyed.


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You will sleep a little,” I said. “You will slumber briefly. You will fold your hands a little, so as to rest.


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For it is better that it should be said to you, “Ascend to here,” than that you should be humbled before the prince.


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The things that your eyes have seen, do not offer hastily in a quarrel, lest afterward you may not be able to make amends, when you have dishonored your friend.


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lest perhaps he may insult you, when he has heard it, and he might not cease to reproach you. Grace and friendship free a man; preserve these for yourself, lest you fall under reproach.


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Just like the cold of snow in a time of harvest, so also is a faithful messenger to him who sent him: he causes his soul to rest.


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A man who boasts and does not fulfill his promises is like clouds and wind, when rain does not follow.


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You have discovered honey; eat what is sufficient for you, lest perhaps, being filled up, you may vomit it.


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Withdraw your feet from the house of your neighbor, lest, when he has had his fill, he may hate you.


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and like one who loosens his garment in cold weather. Whoever sings verses to a wicked heart is like vinegar on baking soda. Just like a moth to a garment, and a worm to wood, so too does the sadness of a man do harm to the heart.


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It is better to sit in a corner of the attic, than with an argumentative woman and in a shared house.


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The just falling down before the impious is like a fountain stirred up by feet and like a corrupted spring.


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Just as whoever eats too much honey, it is not good for him, so also whoever is an investigator of what is majestic will be overwhelmed by glory.


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Just like a city lying in the open and without surrounding walls, so also is a man who is unable to restrain his own spirit in speaking.


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In the manner of snow in the summer, and rain at the harvest, so also is glory unfit for the foolish.


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Like a bird flying away to another place, and like a sparrow that hurries away freely, so also a curse uttered against someone without cause will pass away.


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In the manner of a lame man who has beautiful legs to no purpose, so also is a parable unfit for the mouth of the foolish.


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Just like one who casts a stone into the pile of Mercury, so also is he who gives honor to the foolish.


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In the manner of a thorn, if it were to spring up from the hand of a drunkard, so also is a parable in the mouth of the foolish.


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Have you seen a man who seems wise to himself? There will be greater hope held for the unwise than for him.


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Just like one who takes hold of a dog by the ears, so also is he who crosses impatiently and meddles in the quarrels of another.


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so also is the man who harms his friend by deceitfulness. And when he has been apprehended, he says, “I did it jokingly.”


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When the wood fails, the fire will be extinguished. And when the gossiper is taken away, conflicts will be quelled.


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Just as charcoals are to burning coals, and wood is to fire, so also is an angry man who stirs up quarrels.


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In the same manner as an earthen vessel, if it were adorned with impure silver, conceited lips are allied with a wicked heart.


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Anger holds no mercy, nor does fury when it erupts. And who can bear the assault of one who has been provoked?


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A sated soul will trample the honeycomb. And a hungry soul will accept even bitter in place of sweet.


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Ointment and various perfumes delight the heart. And the good advice of a friend is sweet to the soul.


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Do not dismiss your friend or your father’s friend. And do not enter your brother’s house in the day of your affliction. A close neighbor is better than a distant brother.


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My son, study wisdom, and rejoice my heart, so that you may be able to respond to the one who reproaches.


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Take away the garment of him who has vouched for an outsider. And take a pledge from him on behalf of foreigners.


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He who would restrain her, he is like one who would grasp the wind, or who would gather together oil with his right hand.


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Whoever maintains the fig tree shall eat its fruit. And whoever is the keeper of his master shall be glorified.


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In the manner of faces looking into shining water, so are the hearts of men made manifest to the prudent.


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In the manner of silver being tested in the refinery, and gold in the furnace, so also is a man tested by the mouth of one who praises. The heart of the iniquitous inquires after evils, but the heart of the righteous inquires after knowledge.


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Even if you were to crush the foolish with a mortar, as when a pestle strikes over pearled barley, his foolishness would not be taken from him.


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for you will not always hold this power. But a crown shall be awarded from generation to generation.


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The meadows are open, and the green plants have appeared, and the hay has been collected from the mountains.


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Let the milk of goats be sufficient for your food, and for the necessities of your household, and for the provisions of your handmaids.


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The impious flees, though no one pursues. But the just, like a confident lion, shall be without dread.


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Because of the sins of the land, it has many princes. And because of the wisdom of a man, and the knowledge of those things that are said, the life of the leader shall be prolonged.


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Evil men do not intend judgment. But those who inquire after the Lord turn their souls toward all things.


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Whoever deceives the just in a malicious way will fall into his own perdition. And the simple shall possess his goods.


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In the exultation of the just, there is great glory. When the impious reign, men are brought to ruin.


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Whoever hides his crimes will not be guided. But whoever will have confessed and abandoned them shall overtake mercy.


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A leader destitute of prudence will oppress many through false accusations. But whoever hates avarice shall prolong his days.


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Whoever works his land shall be satisfied with bread. But whoever pursues leisure will be filled with need.


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Whoever shows favoritism in judgment does not do well; even if it is for a morsel of bread, he forsakes the truth.


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A man who hurries to become rich, and who envies others, does not know that destitution will overwhelm him.


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Whoever corrects a man, afterward he shall find favor with him, more so than he who deceives him with a flattering tongue.


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Whoever takes away anything from his father or mother, and who says, “This is not a sin,” is the associate of a murderer.


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Whoever boasts and enlarges himself stirs up conflicts. Yet truly, whoever trusts in the Lord will be healed.


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The man who, with a stiff neck, treats the one who corrects him with contempt will be suddenly overwhelmed to his own destruction, and reason shall not follow him.


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When just men are multiplied, the common people shall rejoice. When the impious take up the leadership, the people shall mourn.


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The man who loves wisdom rejoices his father. But whoever nurtures promiscuous women will lose his substance.


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A wise man, if he were to contend with the foolish, whether in anger or in laughter, would find no rest.


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The rod and its correction distribute wisdom. But the child who is left to his own will brings shame to his mother.


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A servant cannot be taught by words, because he understands what you say, but he disdains to respond.


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Whoever participates with a thief hates his own soul; for he listens to his oath and does not denounce him.


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The just abhor an impious man. And the impious abhor those who are on the right way. By keeping the word, the son shall be free from perdition.


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The words of the Gatherer, the son of the Vomiter. The vision that the man spoke. God is with him, and he, being strengthened by God and abiding with him, said:


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Who has ascended to heaven and also descended? Who has grasped the wind in his hands? Who has tied the waters together, as with a garment? Who has raised all the limits of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son, if you know?


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Remove, far from me, vanity and lying words. Give me neither begging, nor wealth. Apportion to me only the necessities of my life,


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lest perhaps, being filled, I might be enticed into denial, and say: ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or, being compelled by destitution, I might steal, and then perjure myself in the name of my God.


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There is a generation which seems pure to themselves, and yet they are not even washed from their filthiness.


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There is a generation which has swords in place of teeth, and which commands their molars to devour the indigent from the earth and the poor from among men.


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The leech has two daughters, who say, ‘Bring, bring.’ Three things are insatiable, and a fourth never says ‘Enough’:


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Hell, and the mouth of the womb, and a land that is not filled with water. And truly, fire never says, ‘Enough.’


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The eye of one who mocks his father and who despises the childbearing of his mother, let the ravens of the torrent tear it out, and let the sons of the eagles consume it.


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the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man in adolescence.


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Such is the way also of an adulterous woman, who eats, and wiping her mouth, says: “I have done no evil.”


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by a hateful woman when she has been taken in matrimony, and by a handmaid when she has been heir to her mistress.


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There is one who has appeared foolish, after he was lifted up on high; for if he had understood, he would have placed his hand over his mouth.


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But whoever strongly squeezes the udder to bring out the milk, presses out butter. And whoever violently blows his nose, brings out blood. And whoever provokes wrath, brings forth discord.”


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She has considered a field and bought it. From the fruit of her own hands, she has planted a vineyard.


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She shall not fear, in the cold of snow, for her household. For all those of her household have been clothed two-fold.


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it circles through the south, and arcs toward the north. The spirit continues on, illuminating everything in its circuit, and turning again in its cycle.


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All rivers enter into the sea, and the sea does not overflow. To the place from which the rivers go out, they return, so that they may flow again.


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Such things are difficult; man is not able to explain them with words. The eye is not satisfied by seeing, nor is the ear fulfilled by hearing.


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What is it that has existed? The same shall exist in the future. What is it that has been done? The same shall continue to be done.


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There is nothing new under the sun. Neither is anyone able to say: “Behold, this is new!” For it has already been brought forth in the ages that were before us.


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There is no remembrance of the former things. Indeed, neither shall there be any record of past things in the future, for those who will exist at the very end.


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And I was determined in my mind to seek and to investigate wisely, concerning all that is done under the sun. God has given this very difficult task to the sons of men, so that they may be occupied by it.


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I have seen all that is done under the sun, and behold: all is emptiness and an affliction of the spirit.


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I have spoken in my heart, saying: “Behold, I have achieved greatness, and I have surpassed all the wise who were before me in Jerusalem.” And my mind has contemplated many things wisely, and I have learned.


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And I have dedicated my heart, so that I may know prudence and doctrine, and also error and foolishness. Yet I recognize that, in these things also, there is hardship, and affliction of the spirit.


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Because of this, with much wisdom there is also much anger. And whoever adds knowledge, also adds hardship.


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I said in my heart: “I will go forth and overflow with delights, and I will enjoy good things.” And I saw that this, too, is emptiness.


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Laughter, I considered an error. And to rejoicing, I said: “Why are you being deceived, to no purpose?”


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I decided in my heart to withdraw my flesh from wine, so that I might bring my mind to wisdom, and turn away from foolishness, until I see what is useful for the sons of men, and what they ought to do under the sun, during the number of the days of their life.


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I obtained men and women servants, and I had a great family, as well as herds of cattle and great flocks of sheep, beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem.


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I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings and governors. I chose men and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, bowls and pitchers for the purpose of pouring wine.


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And all that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. Neither did I prohibit my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and from amusing itself in the things that I had prepared. And I regarded this as my share, as if I were making use of my own labors.


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But when I turned myself toward all the works that my hands had made, and to the labors in which I had perspired to no purpose, I saw emptiness and affliction of the soul in all things, and that nothing is permanent under the sun.


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I continued on, so as to contemplate wisdom, as well as error and foolishness. “What is man,” I said, “that he would be able to follow his Maker, the King?”


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And I saw that wisdom surpasses foolishness, so much so that they differ as much as light from darkness.


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The eyes of a wise man are in his head. A foolish man walks in darkness. Yet I learned that one would pass away like the other.


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And I said in my heart: “If the death of both the foolish and myself will be one, how does it benefit me, if I have given myself more thoroughly to the work of wisdom?” And as I was speaking within my own mind, I perceived that this, too, is emptiness.


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For there will not be a remembrance in perpetuity of the wise, nor of the foolish. And the future times will cover everything together, with oblivion. The learned die in a manner similar to the unlearned.


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And, because of this, my life wearied me, since I saw that everything under the sun is evil, and everything is empty and an affliction of the spirit.


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Again, I detested all my efforts, by which I had earnestly labored under the sun, to be taken up by an heir after me,


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though I know not whether he will be wise or foolish. And yet he will have power over my labors, in which I have toiled and been anxious. And is there anything else so empty?


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For when someone labors in wisdom, and doctrine, and prudence, he leaves behind what he has obtained to one who is idle. So this, too, is emptiness and a great burden.


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For how can a man benefit from all his labor and affliction of spirit, by which he has been tormented under the sun?


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All his days have been filled with sorrows and hardships; neither does he rest his mind, even in the night. And is this not emptiness?


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Is it not better to eat and drink, and to show his soul the good things of his labors? And this is from the hand of God.


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God has given, to the man who is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and rejoicing. But to the sinner, he has given affliction and needless worrying, so as to add, and to gather, and to deliver, to him who has pleased God. But this, too, is emptiness and a hollow worrying of the mind.


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A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.


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I have seen the affliction that God has given to the sons of men, in order that they may be occupied by it.


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He has made all things good in their time, and he has handed over the world to their disputes, so that man may not discover the work which God made from the beginning, even until the end.


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I have learned that all the works which God has made continue on, in perpetuity. We are not able to add anything, nor to take anything away, from those things which God has made in order that he may be feared.


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What has been made, the same continues. What is in the future, has already existed. And God restores what has passed away.


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And I said in my heart: “God will judge the just and the impious, and then the time for each matter shall be.”


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I said in my heart, about the sons of men, that God would test them, and reveal them to be like wild animals.


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For this reason, the passing away of man and of beasts is one, and the condition of both is equal. For as a man dies, so also do they die. All things breathe similarly, and man has nothing more than beast; for all these are subject to vanity.


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And all things continue on to one place; for from the earth they were made, and unto the earth they shall return together.


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Who knows if the spirit of the sons of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?


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And I have discovered nothing to be better than for a man to rejoice in his work: for this is his portion. And who shall add to him, so that he may know the things that will occur after him?


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I turned myself to other things, and I saw the false accusations which are carried out under the sun, and the tears of the innocent, and that there was no one to console them; and that they were not able to withstand their violence, being destitute of all help.


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And happier than both of these, I judged him to be, who has not yet been born, and who has not yet seen the evils which are done under the sun.


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Again, I was contemplating all the labors of men. And I took notice that their endeavors are open to the envy of their neighbor. And so, in this, too, there is emptiness and superfluous anxiety.


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He is one, and he does not have a second: no son, no brother. And yet he does not cease to labor, nor are his eyes satisfied with wealth, nor does he reflect, saying: “For whom do I labor and cheat my soul of good things?” In this, too, is emptiness and a most burdensome affliction.


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Therefore, it is better for two to be together, than for one to be alone. For they have the advantage of their companionship.


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If one falls, he shall be supported by the other. Woe to one who is alone. For when he falls, he has no one to lift him up.


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And if a man can prevail against one, two may withstand him, and a threefold cord is broken with difficulty.


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Better is a boy, poor and wise, than a king, old and foolish, who does not know to look ahead for the sake of posterity.


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For sometimes, one goes forth from prison and chains, to a kingdom, while another, born to kingly power, is consumed by need.


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I saw all the living who are walking under the sun, and I saw the next generation, who shall rise up in their places.


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The number of people, out of all who existed before these, is boundless. And those who will exist afterwards shall not rejoice in them. But this, too, is emptiness and an affliction of the spirit.


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Guard your foot, when you step into the house of God, and draw near, so that you may listen. For obedience is much better than the sacrifices of the foolish, who do not know the evil that they are doing.


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You should not speak anything rashly, nor should your heart be hasty to present a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. For this reason, let your words be few.


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If you have vowed anything to God, you should not delay to repay it. And whatever you have vowed, render it. But an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases him.


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You should not use your mouth so as to cause your flesh to sin. And you should not say, in the sight of an Angel, “There is no Providence.” For God, being angry at your words, may scatter all the works of your hands.


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Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities and innumerable words. Yet truly, you must fear God.


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If you see false accusations against the indigent, and violent judgments, and subverted justice in the government, do not be surprised over this situation. For those in high places have others who are higher, and there are still others, more eminent, over these.


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A greedy man will not be satisfied by money. And whoever loves wealth will reap no fruit from it. Therefore, this, too, is emptiness.


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Where there are many riches, there will also be many to consume these things. And how does it benefit the one who possesses, except that he discerns the wealth with his own eyes?


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Sleep is sweet to one who works, whether he consumes little or much. But the satiation of a wealthy man will not permit him to sleep.


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There is even another most burdensome infirmity, which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept to the harm of the owner.


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For they are lost in a most grievous affliction. He has produced a son, who will be in the utmost destitution.


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Just as he went forth naked from his mother's womb, so shall he return, and he shall take nothing with him from his labors.


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It is an utterly miserable infirmity that, in the same manner as he has arrived, so shall he return. How then does it benefit him, since he has labored for the wind?


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All the days of his life he consumes: in darkness, and with many worries, and in distress as well as sadness.


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And so, this has seemed good to me: that a person should eat and drink, and should enjoy the fruits of his labor, in which he has toiled under the sun, for the number of the days of his life that God has given him. For this is his portion.


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And this is a gift from God: that every man to whom God has given wealth and resources, and to whom he has granted the ability to consume these, may enjoy his portion, and may find joy in his labors.


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And then he will not fully remember the days of his life, because God occupies his heart with delights.


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It is a man to whom God has given wealth, and resources, and honor; and out of all that he desires, nothing is lacking to his life; yet God does not grant him the ability to consume these things, but instead a man who is a stranger will devour them. This is emptiness and a great misfortune.


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If a man were to produce one hundred children, and to live for many years, and to attain to an age of many days, and if his soul were to make no use of the goods of his resources, and if he were lacking even a burial: concerning such a man, I declare that a miscarried child is better than he.


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For he arrives without a purpose and he continues on into darkness, and his name shall be wiped away, into oblivion.


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Even if he were to live for two thousand years, and yet not thoroughly enjoy what is good, does not each one hurry on to the same place?


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What do the wise have which is more than the foolish? And what does the pauper have, except to continue on to that place, where there is life?


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It is better to see what you desire, than to desire what you cannot know. But this, too, is emptiness and a presumption of spirit.


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Whoever shall be in the future, his name has already been called. And it is known that he is a man and that he is not able to contend in judgment against one who is stronger than himself.


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Why is it necessary for a man to seek things that are greater than himself, when he does not know what is advantageous for himself in his life, during the number of the days of his sojourn, and while time passes by like a shadow? Or who will be able to tell him what will be in the future after him under the sun?


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It is better to go to a house of mourning, than to a house of feasting. For in the former, we are admonished about the end of all things, so that the living consider what may be in the future.


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Anger is better than laughter. For through the sadness of the countenance, the soul of one who offends may be corrected.


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For, like the crackling of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughter of the foolish. But this, too, is emptiness.


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You should not say: “What do you think is the reason that the former times were better than they are now?” For this type of question is foolish.


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For as wisdom protects, so also does money protect. But learning and wisdom have this much more: that they grant life to one who possesses them.


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In good times, enjoy good things, but beware of an evil time. For just as God has establish the one, so also the other, in order that man may not find any just complaint against him.


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I also saw this, in the days of my vanity: a just man perishing in his justice, and an impious man living a long time in his malice.


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Do not try to be overly just, and do not try to be more wise than is necessary, lest you become stupid.


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It is good for you to support a just man. Furthermore, you should not withdraw your hand from him, for whoever fears God, neglects nothing.


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So then, do not attach your heart to every word that is spoken, lest perhaps you may hear your servant speaking ill of you.


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I have tested everything in wisdom. I have said: “I will be wise.” And wisdom withdrew farther from me,


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I have examined all things in my soul, so that I may know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason, and so that I may recognize the impiety of the foolish, and the error of the imprudent.


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And I have discovered a woman more bitter than death: she who is like the snare of a hunter, and whose heart is like a net, and whose hands are like chains. Whoever pleases God shall flee from her. But whoever is a sinner shall be seized by her.


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Behold, Ecclesiastes said, I have discovered these things, one after another, in order that I might discover the explanation


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which my soul still seeks and has not found. One man among a thousand, I have found; a woman among them all, I have not found.


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This alone have I discovered: that God made man righteous, and yet he has adulterated himself with innumerable questions. Who is so great as the wise? And who has understood the meaning of the word?


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The wisdom of a man shines in his countenance, and even the expression of a most powerful man will change.


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You should not hastily withdraw from his presence, nor should you remain in an evil work. For all that pleases him, he will do.


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And his word is filled with authority. Neither is anyone able to say to him: “Why are you acting this way?”


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Whoever keeps the commandment will not experience evil. The heart of a wise man understands the time to respond.


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For he is ignorant of the past, and he is able to know nothing of the future by means of a messenger.


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It is not in the power of a man to prohibit the spirit, nor does he have authority over the day of death, nor is he permitted to rest when war breaks out, and neither will impiety save the impious.


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I have considered all these things, and I have applied my heart to all the works which are being done under the sun. Sometimes one man rules over another to his own harm.


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I have seen the impious buried. These same, while they were still living, were in the holy place, and they were praised in the city as workers of justice. But this, too, is emptiness.


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For the sons of men perpetrate evils without any fear, because judgment is not pronounced quickly against the evil.


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But although a sinner may do evil of himself one hundred times, and by patience still endure, I realize that it will be well with those who fear God, who revere his face.


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So, may it not go well with the impious, and may his days not be prolonged. And let those who do not fear the face of the Lord pass away like a shadow.


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There is also another vanity, which is done upon the earth. There are the just, to whom evils happen, as though they had done the works of the impious. And there are the impious, who are very secure, as though they possess the deeds of the just. But this, too, I judge to be a very great vanity.


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And so, I praised rejoicing, because there was no good for a man under the sun, except to eat and drink, and to be cheerful, and because he may take nothing with him from his labor in the days of his life, which God has given to him under the sun.


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And I applied my heart, so that I might know wisdom, and so that I might understand a disturbance that turns upon the earth: it is a man, who takes no sleep with his eyes, day and night.


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And I understood that man is able to find no explanation for all those works of God which are done under the sun. And so, the more that he labors to seek, so much the less does he find. Yes, even if a wise man were to claim that he knows, he would not be able to discover it.


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I have drawn all these things through my heart, so that I might carefully understand. There are just men as well as wise men, and their works are in the hand of God. And yet a man does not know so much as whether he is worthy of love or of hatred.


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But all things in the future remain uncertain, because all things happen equally to the just and to the impious, to the good and to the bad, to the pure and to the impure, to those who offer sacrifices and to those who despise sacrifices. As the good are, so also are sinners. As those who commit perjury are, so also are those who swear to the truth.


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This is a very great burden among all things that are done under the sun: that the same things happen to everyone. And when the hearts of the sons of men are filled with malice and contempt in their lives, afterwards they shall be dragged down to hell.


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There is no one who lives forever, or who even has confidence in this regard. A living dog is better than a dead lion.


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For the living know that they themselves will die, yet truly the dead know nothing anymore, nor do they have any recompense. For the memory of them is forgotten.


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Likewise, love and hatred and envy have all perished together, nor have they any place in this age and in the work which is done under the sun.


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So then, go and eat your bread with rejoicing, and drink your wine with gladness. For your works are pleasing to God.


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Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your uncertain life which have been given to you under the sun, during all the time of your vanity. For this is your portion in life and in your labor, with which you labor under the sun.


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Whatever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly. For neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge will exist in death, toward which you are hurrying.


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I turned myself toward another thing, and I saw that under the sun, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor wealth to the learned, nor grace to the skilful: but there is a time and an end for all these things.


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Man does not know his own end. But, just as fish are caught with a hook, and birds are captured with a snare, so are men seized in the evil time, when it will suddenly overwhelm them.


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There was a small city, with a few men in it. There came against it a great king, who surrounded it, and built fortifications all around it, and the blockade was completed.


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And there was found within it, a poor and wise man, and he freed the city through his wisdom, and nothing was recorded afterward of that poor man.


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And so, I declared that wisdom is better than strength. But how is it, then, that the wisdom of the poor man is treated with contempt, and his words are not heeded?


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Wisdom is better than weapons of war. And whoever offends in one thing, shall lose many good things.


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Dying flies ruin the sweetness of the ointment. Wisdom and glory is more precious than a brief and limited foolishness.


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Moreover, as a foolish man is walking along the way, even though he himself is unwise, he considers everyone to be foolish.


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If the spirit of one who holds authority rises over you, do not leave your place, because attentiveness will cause the greatest sins to cease.


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There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, proceeding from the presence of a prince, as if by mistake:


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Whoever carries away stones will be harmed by them. And whoever cuts down trees will be wounded by them.


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If the iron is dull, and if it was not that way before, but has been made dull by much labor, then it will be sharpened. And wisdom will follow after diligence.


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Words from the mouth of a wise man are graceful, but the lips of a foolish man will throw him down with violence.


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The fool multiplies his words. A man does not know what has been before him, and who is able to reveal to him what will be in the future after him?


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Blessed is the land whose king is noble, and whose princes eat at the proper time, for refreshment and not for self-indulgence.


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By laziness, a framework shall be brought down, and by the weakness of hands, a house shall collapse through.


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While laughing, they make bread and wine, so that the living may feast. And all things are obedient to money.


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You should not slander the king, even in your thoughts, and you should not speak evil of a wealthy man, even in your private chamber. For even the birds of the air will carry your voice, and whatever has wings will announce your opinion.


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Give a portion to seven, and indeed even to eight. For you do not know what evil may be upon the earth in the future.


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If the clouds have been filled, they will pour forth rain upon the earth. If a tree falls to the south, or to the north, or to whatever direction it may fall, there it shall remain.


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In the same manner that you do not know the way of the spirit, nor the way that bones are joined together in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, who is the Maker of all.


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In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, do not let your hand cease. For you do not know which of these may rise up, the one or the other. But if both rise up together, so much the better.


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If a man lives for many years, and if he has rejoiced in all of these, he must remember the many days of the dark times, which, when they will have arrived, will accuse the past of vanity.


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So then, rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart remain in what is good during the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart, and with the perception of your eyes. And know that, concerning all these things, God will bring you to judgment.


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Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the time of affliction arrives and the years draw near, about which you will say, “These do not please me.”


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Before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,


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when the guardians of the house will tremble, and the strongest men will waver, and those who grind grain will be idle, except for a small number, and those who look through the keyholes will be darkened.


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And they will close the doors to the street, when the voice of he who grinds the grain will be humbled, and they will be disturbed at the sound of a flying thing, and all the daughters of song shall become deaf.


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Likewise, they will fear the things above them, and they will dread the way. The almond tree will flourish; the locust will be fattened; and the caper plant will scattered, because man shall go into the house of his eternity, and the mourners shall wander around in the street.


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Before the silver cord is broken, and the golden band pulls away, and the pitcher is crushed over the fountain, and the wheel is broken above the cistern,


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and the dust returns to its earth, from which it was, and the spirit returns to God, who granted it.


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And since Ecclesiastes was very wise, he taught the people, and he described what he had accomplished. And while searching, he composed many parables.


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The words of the wise are like a goad, and like nails deeply fastened, which, through the counsel of teachers, are set forth by one pastor.


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You should require no more than this, my son. For there is no end to the making of many books. And excessive study is an affliction to the flesh.


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Let us all listen together to the end of the discourse. Fear God, and observe his commandments. This is everything for man.


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And so, for all that is done and for each error, God will bring judgment: whether it was good or evil.


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Bride to Groom: "Your name is oil that has been poured out; therefore, the maidens have loved you. Draw me forward."


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Bride to Chorus: "O daughters of Jerusalem: I am black, but shapely, like the tabernacles of Kedar, like the tents of Solomon."


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"The sons of my mother have fought against me. They have made me the keeper of the vineyards. My own vineyard I have not kept."


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Bride to Groom: "Reveal to me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you recline at midday, lest I begin to wander after the flocks of your companions."


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Groom to Bride: "If you yourself do not know, O most beautiful among women, then go out and follow after the steps of the flocks, and pasture your young goats beside the tabernacles of the shepherds."


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Bride to Chorus: "Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat beneath the shadow of the one whom I desired, and his fruit was sweet to my palate."


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Groom to Chorus: "I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the does and the stags of the open field, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, even for as long as she wills."


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Bride to Chorus: "The voice of my beloved! Behold, he arrives leaping along the mountains, jumping across the hills."


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"The flowers have appeared in our land; the time for pruning has arrived. The voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land."


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"The fig tree has brought forth its green figs; the flowering vines bestow their odor. Rise up, my love, my brilliant one, and advance."


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"My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollows of the wall, reveal to me your face. Let your voice sound in my ears. For your voice is sweet, and your face is graceful."


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Bride to Groom: "Return, O my beloved. Be like a doe and like a young stag upon the mountains of Bether."


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Bride: "On my bed, throughout the night, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him."


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"I will rise up, and I will circle through the city. Through the side streets and thoroughfares, I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, and did not find him."


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"When I had passed by them a little, I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not release him, until I would bring him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who bore me."


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Groom to Chorus: "I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the does and the stags of the open field, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills."


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Chorus to Groom: "Who is she, who ascends through the desert, like a staff of smoke from the aromatics of myrrh, and frankincense, and every powder of the perfumer?"


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Chorus to Bride: "Lo, sixty strong ones, out of all the strongest in Israel, stand watch at the bed of Solomon,"


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"all holding swords and well-trained in warfare, each one’s weapon upon his thigh, because of fears in the night."


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"He made its columns of silver, the reclining place of gold, the ascent of purple; the middle he covered well, out of charity for the daughters of Jerusalem."


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"O daughters of Zion, go forth and see king Solomon with the diadem with which his mother crowned him, on the day of his espousal, on the day of the rejoicing of his heart."


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Groom to Bride: "How beautiful you are, my love, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are those of a dove, except for what is hidden within. Your hair is like flocks of goats, which ascend along the mountain of Gilead."


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"Your teeth are like flocks of shorn sheep, which ascend from the washing, each one with its identical twin, and not one among them is barren."


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"Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon, and your eloquence is sweetness. Like a piece of pomegranate, so are your cheeks, except for what is hidden within."


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"Your neck is like the tower of David, which was built with ramparts: a thousand shields are hanging from it, all the armor of the strong."


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"Until the day rises and the shadows decline, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense."


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"Advance from Lebanon, my spouse, advance from Lebanon, advance. You shall be crowned at the head of Amana, near the summit of Senir and Hermon, by the dens of lions, by the mountains of leopards."


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"You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse. You have wounded my heart with one look of your eyes, and with one lock of hair on your neck."


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"How beautiful are your breasts, my sister, my spouse! Your breasts are more beautiful than wine, and the fragrance of your ointments is above all aromatic oils."


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"Your lips, my spouse, are a dripping honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue. And the fragrance of your garments is like the odor of frankincense."


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"You send forth a paradise of pomegranates along with the fruits of the orchard: Cypress grapes, with aromatic oil;"


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"aromatic oil and saffron; sweet cane and cinnamon, with all the trees of Lebanon; myrrh and aloe, with all the best ointments."


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"Rise up, north wind, and advance, south wind. Send a breeze through my garden, and carry its aromatic scents."


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Groom to Bride: "I have arrived in my garden, O my sister, my spouse. I have harvested my myrrh, with my aromatic oils. I have eaten the honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, O most beloved."


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Groom to Bride: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my immaculate one. For my head is full of dew, and the locks of my hair are full of the drops of the night."


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Bride: "I have taken off my tunic; how shall I be clothed in it? I have washed my feet; how shall I spoil them?"


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"I rose up in order to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the finest myrrh."


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"I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved. But he had turned aside and had gone away. My soul melted when he spoke. I sought him, and did not find him. I called, and he did not answer me."


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"The keepers who circulate through the city found me. They struck me, and wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away from me."


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"I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, announce to him that I languish through love."


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Chorus to Bride: "What kind of beloved is your beloved, O most beautiful among women? What kind of beloved is your beloved, so that you would bind us by oath?"


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"His head is like the finest gold. His locks are like the heights of palm trees, and as black as a raven."


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"His eyes are like doves, which have been washed with milk over rivulets of waters, and which reside near plentiful streams."


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"His cheeks are like a courtyard of aromatic plants, sown by perfumers. His lips are like lilies, dripping with the best myrrh."


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Chorus to Bride: "Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? To where has your beloved turned aside, so that we may seek him with you?"


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Bride: "My beloved has descended to his garden, to the courtyard of aromatic plants, in order to pasture in the gardens and gather the lilies."


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Groom to Bride: "My love, you are beautiful: sweet and graceful, like Jerusalem; terrible, like an army in battle array."


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"Avert your eyes from me, for they have caused me fly away. Your hair is like a flock of goats, which have appeared out of Gilead."


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"Your teeth are like a flock of sheep, which have ascended from the washing, each one with its identical twin, and not one among them is barren."


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"One is my dove, my perfect one. One is her mother; elect is she who bore her. The daughters saw her, and they proclaimed her most blessed. The queens and concubines saw her, and they praised her."


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Chorus to Groom: "Who is she, who advances like the rising dawn, as beautiful as the moon, as elect as the sun, as terrible as an army in battle array?"


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Bride: "I descended to the garden of nuts, in order to see the fruits of the steep valleys, and to examine whether the vineyard had flourished and the pomegranates had produced buds."


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Chorus to Bride: "How beautiful are your footsteps in shoes, O daughter of a ruler! The joints of your thighs are like jewels, which have been fabricated by the hand of an artist."


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"Your navel is a round bowl, never lacking in curvature. Your abdomen is like a bundle of wheat, surrounded with lilies."


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"Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes like the fish ponds at Heshbon, which are at the entrance to the daughter of the multitude. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, which looks out toward Damascus."


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"Your head is like Carmel, and the hairs of your head are like the purple of the king, bound into pleats."


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Groom: "I said, I will ascend to the palm tree, and take hold of its fruit. And your breasts will be like clusters of grapes on the vine. And the fragrance of your mouth will be like apples."


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Bride: "Your throat is like the finest wine: wine worthy for my beloved to drink, and for his lips and teeth to contemplate."


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"The mandrakes yield their fragrance. At our gates is every fruit. The new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for you."


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Bride to Groom: "Who will give you to me as my brother, feeding from the breasts of my mother, so that I may discover you outside, and may kiss you, and so that now no one may despise me?"


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"I will take hold of you and lead you into my mother’s house. There you will teach me, and I will give you a cup of spiced wine, and of new wine from my pomegranates."


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Groom to Chorus: "I bind you by oath, O daughters of Jerusalem, not to disturb or awaken the beloved, until she wills."


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Chorus to Groom: "Who is she, who ascends from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"


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Groom to Bride: "Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was corrupted. There she who bore you was violated."


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"Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong, like death, and envy is enduring, like hell: their lamps are made of fire and flames."


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"A multitude of waters cannot extinguish love, nor can a river overwhelm it. If a man were to give all the substance of his house in exchange for love, he would despise it as nothing."


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Chorus: "Our sister is little and has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is called upon?"


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"If she is a wall, let us build a rampart of silver upon it. If she is a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar."


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Bride to Chorus: "I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers, since, in his presence, I have become like one who has discovered peace."


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"The peaceful one had a vineyard, in that which held the peoples. He handed it on to the caretakers; a man brought, in exchange for its fruit, a thousand pieces of silver."


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Groom: "My vineyard is before me. The thousand is for your peacefulness, and two hundred is for those who care for its fruit."


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"Flee away, my beloved, and become like the doe and the young stag upon the mountains of aromatic plants."


text:
The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Joatham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.


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Listen, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nurtured and raised children, but they have spurned me.


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An ox knows his owner, and a donkey knows the manger of his lord, but Israel has not known me, and my people have not understood.


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Woe to a sinful nation, a people burdened by iniquity, a wicked offspring, accursed children. They have abandoned the Lord. They have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. They been taken away backwards.


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For what reason shall I continue to strike you, as you increase transgressions? The entire head is feeble, and the entire heart is grieving.


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From the sole of the foot, even to the top of the head, there is no soundness within. Wounds and bruises and swelling sores: these are not bandaged, nor treated with medicine, nor soothed with oil.


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Your land is desolate. Your cities have been set ablaze. Foreigners devour your countryside in your sight, and it will become desolate, as if devastated by enemies.


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And the daughter of Zion will be left behind, like an arbor in a vineyard, and like a shelter in a cucumber field, and like a city being laid to waste.


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If the Lord of hosts had not bequeathed us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been comparable to Gomorrah.


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Listen to the Word of the Lord, you leaders of the people of Sodom. Listen closely to the law of our God, O people of Gomorrah.


