The Living Bible (188 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
O God, your land has been conquered by the heathen nations. Your Temple is defiled, and Jerusalem is a heap of ruins.
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The bodies of your people lie exposed—food for birds and animals.
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The enemy has butchered the entire population of Jerusalem; blood has flowed like water. No one is left even to bury them.
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The nations all around us scoff. They heap contempt on us.
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O Jehovah, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? Will your jealousy burn till every hope is gone?
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Pour out your wrath upon the godless nations—not on us—on kingdoms that refuse to pray, that will not call upon your name!
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For they have destroyed your people Israel, invading every home.
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Oh, do not hold us guilty for our former sins! Let your tenderhearted mercies meet our needs, for we are brought low to the dust.
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Help us, God of our salvation! Help us for the honor of your name. Oh, save us and forgive our sins.
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Why should the heathen nations be allowed to scoff, “Where is their God?” Publicly avenge this slaughter of your people!
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Listen to the sighing of the prisoners and those condemned to die. Demonstrate the greatness of your power by saving them.
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O Lord, take sevenfold vengeance on these nations scorning you.
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Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and forever, praising your greatness from generation to generation.
O Shepherd of Israel who leads Israel like a flock; O God enthroned above the Guardian Angels, bend down your ear and listen as I plead. Display your power and radiant glory.
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Let Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh see you rouse yourself and use your mighty power to rescue us.
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Turn us again to yourself, O God. Look down on us in joy and love;
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only then shall we be saved.
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O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, how long will you be angry and reject our prayers?
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You have fed us with sorrow and tears
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and have made us the scorn of the neighboring nations. They laugh among themselves.
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Turn us again to yourself, O God of Hosts. Look down on us in joy and love;
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only then shall we be saved.
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You brought us from Egypt as though we were a tender vine and drove away the heathen from your land and planted us.
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You cleared the ground and tilled the soil, and we took root and filled the land.
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The mountains were covered with our shadow; we were like the mighty cedar trees,
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covering the entire land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River.
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But now you have broken down our walls, leaving us without protection.
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The boar from the forest roots around us, and the wild animals feed on us.
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Come back, we beg of you, O God of the armies of heaven, and bless us. Look down from heaven and see our plight and care for this your vine!
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Protect what you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.
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For we are chopped and burned by our enemies. May they perish at your frown.
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Strengthen the man you love,
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the son of your choice,
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and we will never forsake you again. Revive us to trust in you.
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Turn us again to yourself, O God of the armies of heaven. Look down on us, your face aglow with joy and love—only then shall we be saved.
The Lord makes us strong! Sing praises! Sing to Israel’s God!
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Sing, accompanied by drums; pluck the sweet lyre and harp.
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Sound the trumpet! Come to the joyous celebrations at full moon, new moon, and all the other holidays.
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For God has given us these times of joy; they are scheduled in the laws of Israel.
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He gave them as reminders of his war against Egypt where we were slaves on foreign soil.
I heard an unknown voice that said,
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“Now I will relieve your shoulder of its burden; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.”
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He said, “You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you; I answered from Mount Sinai
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where the thunder hides. I tested your faith at Meribah, when you complained there was no water.
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Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings. O Israel, if you will only listen!
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You must never worship any other god, nor ever have an idol in your home.
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For it was I, Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Only test me!
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Open your mouth wide and see if I won’t fill it. You will receive every blessing you can use!
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“But no, my people won’t listen. Israel doesn’t want me around.
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So I am letting them go their blind and stubborn way, living according to their own desires.
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“But oh, that my people would listen to me! Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
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How quickly then I would subdue her enemies! How soon my hands would be upon her foes!
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Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; their desolation would last forever.
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But he would feed you with the choicest foods. He would satisfy you with honey for the taking.”
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God stands up to open heaven’s court. He pronounces judgment on the judges.
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How long will you judges refuse to listen to the evidence? How long will you shower special favors on the wicked?
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Give fair judgment to the poor man, the afflicted, the fatherless, the destitute.
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Rescue the poor and helpless from the grasp of evil men.
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But you are so foolish and so ignorant! Because you are in darkness, all the foundations of society
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are shaken to the core.
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I have called you all “gods” and “sons of the Most High.”
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But in death you are mere men. You will fall as any prince—for all must die.
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Stand up, O God, and judge the earth. For all of it belongs to you. All nations are in your hands.
O God, don’t sit idly by, silent and inactive when we pray. Answer us! Deliver us!
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Don’t you hear the tumult and commotion of your enemies? Don’t you see what they are doing, these proud men who hate the Lord?
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They are full of craftiness and plot against your people, laying plans to slay your precious ones.
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“Come,” they say, “and let us wipe out Israel as a nation—we will destroy the very memory of her existence.”
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This was their unanimous decision at their summit conference—they signed a treaty to ally themselves against Almighty God—
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these Ishmaelites and Edomites and Moabites and Hagrites;
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people from the lands of Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia and Tyre;
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Assyria has joined them too, and is allied with the descendants of Lot.
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Do to them as once you did to Midian, or as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
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and as you did to your enemies at Endor, whose decaying corpses fertilized the soil.
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Make their mighty nobles die as Oreb did, and Zeeb;
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let all their princes die like Zebah and Zalmunna,
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who said, “Let us seize for our own use these pasturelands of God!”
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O my God, blow them away like dust; like chaff before the wind—
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as a forest fire that roars across a mountain.
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Chase them with your fiery storms, tempests, and tornados.
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Utterly disgrace them until they recognize your power and name, O Lord.
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Make them failures in everything they do; let them be ashamed and terrified
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until they learn that you alone, Jehovah, are the God above all gods in supreme charge of all the earth.