Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The One Year Bible TLB (251 page)
November 28Belshazzar the king invited a thousand of his officers to a great feast where the wine flowed freely.
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While Belshazzar was drinking, he was reminded of the gold and silver cups taken long before from the Temple in Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign and brought to Babylon. Belshazzar ordered that these sacred cups be brought in to the feast, and when they arrived, he and his princes, wives, and concubines drank toasts from them to their idols made of gold and silver, brass and iron, wood and stone.
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Suddenly, as they were drinking from these cups, they saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing on the plaster of the wall opposite the lampstand. The king himself saw the fingers as they wrote.
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His face blanched with fear, and such terror gripped him that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way beneath him.
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“Bring the magicians and astrologers!” he screamed. “Bring the Chaldeans! Whoever reads that writing on the wall and tells me what it means will be dressed in purple robes of royal honor, with a gold chain around his neck, and he will become the third ruler in the kingdom!”
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But when they came, none of them could understand the writing or tell him what it meant.
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The king grew more and more hysterical; his face reflected the terror he felt, and his officers too were shaken.
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But when the queen mother heard what was happening, she rushed to the banquet hall and said to Belshazzar, “Calm yourself, Your Majesty, don’t be so pale and frightened over this.
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For there is a man in your kingdom who has within him the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father this man was found to be as full of wisdom and understanding as though he were himself a god. And in the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar,
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he was made chief of all the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers of Babylon.
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Call for this man, Daniel—or Belteshazzar, as the king called him—for his mind is filled with divine knowledge and understanding. He can interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve knotty problems. He will tell you what the writing means.”
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So Daniel was rushed in to see the king. The king asked him, “Are you the Daniel brought from Israel as a captive by King Nebuchadnezzar?
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I have heard that you have the spirit of the gods within you and that you are filled with enlightenment and wisdom.
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My wise men and astrologers have tried to read that writing on the wall and tell me what it means, but they can’t.
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I am told you can solve all kinds of mysteries. If you can tell me the meaning of those words, I will clothe you in purple robes, with a gold chain around your neck, and make you the third ruler in the kingdom.”
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Daniel answered, “Keep your gifts or give them to someone else, but I will tell you what the writing means.
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Your Majesty, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, who long ago preceded you, a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor.
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He gave him such majesty that all the nations of the world trembled before him in fear. He killed any who offended him and spared any he liked. At his whim they rose or fell.
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But when his heart and mind were hardened in pride, God removed him from his royal throne and took away his glory.
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He was chased out of his palace into the fields. His thoughts and feelings became those of an animal, and he lived among the wild donkeys; he ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until at last he knew that the Most High overrules the kingdoms of men and appoints anyone he desires to reign over them.
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“And you, his successor, O Belshazzar—you knew all this, yet you have not been humble.
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For you have defied the Lord of Heaven and brought here these cups from his Temple; and you and your officers and wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not praised the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
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And so God sent those fingers to write this message:
‘Mene,’ ‘Mene,’ ‘Tekel,’ ‘Parsin.’
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“This is what it means:
“Mene
means ‘numbered’—God has numbered the days of your reign, and they are ended.
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“Tekel
means ‘weighed’—you have been weighed in God’s balances and have failed the test.
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“Parsin
means ‘divided’—your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
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Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was robed in purple, a gold chain was hung around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.
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That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed,
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and Darius the Mede
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entered the city and began reigning at the age of sixty-two.
But there were false prophets, too, in those days, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who bought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end.
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Many will follow their evil teaching that there is nothing wrong with sexual sin. And because of them Christ and his way will be scoffed at.
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These teachers in their greed will tell you anything to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago and their destruction is on the way.
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For God did not spare even the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, chained in gloomy caves and darkness until the judgment day.
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And he did not spare any of the people who lived in ancient times before the flood except Noah, the one man who spoke up for God, and his family of seven. At that time God completely destroyed the whole world of ungodly men with the vast flood.
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Later, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into heaps of ashes and blotted them off the face of the earth, making them an example for all the ungodly in the future to look back upon and fear.
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But at the same time the Lord rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a good man, sick of the terrible wickedness he saw everywhere around him day after day.
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So also the Lord can rescue you and me from the temptations that surround us, and continue to punish the ungodly until the day of final judgment comes.
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He is especially hard on those who follow their own evil, lustful thoughts, and those who are proud and willful, daring even to scoff at the Glorious Ones
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without so much as trembling,
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although the angels in heaven who stand in the very presence of the Lord, and are far greater in power and strength than these false teachers, never speak out disrespectfully against these evil Mighty Ones.
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But false teachers are fools—no better than animals. They do whatever they feel like; born only to be caught and killed, they laugh at the terrifying powers of the underworld which they know so little about;
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and they will be destroyed along with all the demons and powers of hell.
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That is the pay these teachers will have for their sin. For they live in evil pleasures day after day. They are a disgrace and a stain among you, deceiving you by living in foul sin on the side while they join your love feasts as though they were honest men.
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No woman can escape their sinful stare, and of adultery they never have enough. They make a game of luring unstable women. They train themselves to be greedy; and are doomed and cursed.
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They have gone off the road and become lost like Balaam, the son of Beor, who fell in love with the money he could make by doing wrong;
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but Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey spoke to him with a human voice, scolding and rebuking him.
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These men are as useless as dried-up springs of water, promising much and delivering nothing; they are as unstable as clouds driven by the storm winds. They are doomed to the eternal pits of darkness.
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They proudly boast about their sins and conquests, and, using lust as their bait, they lure back into sin those who have just escaped from such wicked living.
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“You aren’t saved by being good,” they say, “so you might as well be bad. Do what you like; be free.”
But these very teachers who offer this “freedom” from law are themselves slaves to sin and destruction. For a man is a slave to whatever controls him.
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And when a person has escaped from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then gets tangled up with sin and becomes its slave again, he is worse off than he was before.
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It would be better if he had never known about Christ at all than to learn of him and then afterwards turn his back on the holy commandments that were given to him.
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There is an old saying that “A dog comes back to what he has vomited, and a pig is washed only to come back and wallow in the mud again.” That is the way it is with those who turn again to their sin.
I hate those who are undecided whether or not to obey you; but my choice is clear—I love your law.
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You are my refuge and my shield, and your promises are my only source of hope.
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Begone, you evil-minded men! Don’t try to stop me from obeying God’s commands.
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Lord, you promised to let me live! Never let it be said that God failed me.
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Hold me safe above the heads of all my enemies; then I can continue to obey your laws.
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But you have rejected all who reject your laws. They are only fooling themselves.
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The wicked are the scum you skim off and throw away; no wonder I love to obey your laws!
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I tremble in fear of you; I fear your punishments.
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Don’t leave me to the mercy of my enemies, for I have done what is right; I’ve been perfectly fair.
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Commit yourself to bless me! Don’t let the proud oppress me!
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My eyes grow dim with longing for you to fulfill your wonderful promise to rescue me.
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Lord, deal with me in loving-kindness, and teach me, your servant, to obey;
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for I am your servant; therefore give me common sense to apply your rules to everything I do.
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Lord, it is time for you to act. For these evil men have violated your laws,
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while I love your commandments more than the finest gold.
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Every law of God is right, whatever it concerns. I hate every other way.
Hard work brings prosperity; playing around brings poverty.
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The man who wants to do right will get a rich reward. But the man who wants to get rich quick will quickly fail.
November 29Darius divided the kingdom into 120 provinces, each under a governor.
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The governors were accountable to three presidents (Daniel was one of them) so the king could administer the kingdom efficiently.
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Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other presidents and governors, for he had great ability, and the king began to think of placing him over the entire empire as his administrative officer.
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This made the other presidents and governors very jealous, and they began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs so that they could complain to the king about him. But they couldn’t find anything to criticize! He was faithful and honest and made no mistakes.
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So they concluded, “Our only chance is his religion!”
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They decided to go to the king and say, “King Darius, live forever!
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We presidents, governors, counselors, and deputies have unanimously decided that you should make a law, irrevocable under any circumstance, that for the next thirty days anyone who asks a favor of God or man—except from you, Your Majesty—shall be thrown to the lions.
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Your Majesty, we request your signature on this law; sign it so that it cannot be canceled or changed; it will be a ‘law of the Medes and Persians’ that cannot be revoked.”
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So King Darius signed the law.
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But though Daniel knew about it, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs bedroom, with its windows open toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times a day, just as he always had, giving thanks to his God.
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Then the men thronged to Daniel’s house and found him praying there, asking favors of his God.
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They rushed back to the king and reminded him about his law. “Haven’t you signed a decree,” they demanded, “that permits no petitions to any God or man—except you—for thirty days? And anyone disobeying will be thrown to the lions?”
“Yes,” the king replied, “it is ‘a law of the Medes and Persians,’ that cannot be altered or revoked.”
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Then they told the king, “That fellow Daniel, one of the Jewish captives, is paying no attention to you or your law. He is asking favors of his God three times a day.”
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Hearing this, the king was very angry with himself for signing the law and determined to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day trying to think of some way to get Daniel out of this predicament.
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In the evening the men came again to the king and said, “Your Majesty, there is nothing you can do. You signed the law, and it cannot be changed.”
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So at last the king gave the order for Daniel’s arrest, and he was taken to the den of lions. The king said to him, “May your God, whom you worship continually, deliver you.” And then they threw him in.
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A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with that of his government, so that no one could rescue Daniel from the lions.
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Then the king returned to his palace and went to bed without dinner. He refused his usual entertainment and didn’t sleep all night.
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Very early the next morning he hurried out to the lions’ den
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and called out in anguish, “O Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your God, whom you worship continually, able to deliver you from the lions?”
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Then he heard a voice! “Your Majesty, live forever!” It was Daniel!
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“My God has sent his angel,” he said, “to shut the lions’ mouths so that they can’t touch me, for I am innocent before God; nor, sir, have I wronged you.”
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The king was beside himself with joy and ordered Daniel lifted from the den. And not a scratch was found on him because he believed in his God.
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Then the king issued a command to bring the men who had accused Daniel and throw them into the den along with their children and wives, and the lions leaped upon them and tore them apart before they even hit the bottom of the den.
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Afterward King Darius wrote this message addressed to everyone in his empire:
“Greetings! I decree that everyone shall tremble and fear before the God of Daniel in every part of my kingdom. For his God is the living, unchanging God whose kingdom shall never be destroyed and whose power shall never end.
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He delivers his people, preserving them from harm; he does great miracles in heaven and earth; it is he who delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”
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So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
This is my second letter to you, dear brothers, and in both of them I have tried to remind you—if you will let me—about facts you already know: facts you learned from the holy prophets and from us apostles who brought you the words of our Lord and Savior.
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First, I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will do every wrong they can think of and laugh at the truth.
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This will be their line of argument: “So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He’ll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation.”
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They deliberately forget this fact: that God did destroy the world with a mighty flood long after he had made the heavens by the word of his command and had used the waters to form the earth and surround it.
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And God has commanded that the earth and the heavens be stored away for a great bonfire at the judgment day, when all ungodly men will perish.
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But don’t forget this, dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord.
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He isn’t really being slow about his promised return, even though it sometimes seems that way. But he is waiting, for the good reason that he is not willing that any should perish, and he is giving more time for sinners to repent.
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The day of the Lord is surely coming, as unexpectedly as a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the heavenly bodies will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be burned up.
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And so since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives we should be living!
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You should look forward to that day and hurry it along—the day when God will set the heavens on fire, and the heavenly bodies will melt and disappear in flames.
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But we are looking forward to God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth afterwards, where there will be only goodness.
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Dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen and for him to come, try hard to live without sinning; and be at peace with everyone so that he will be pleased with you when he returns.
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And remember why he is waiting. He is giving us time to get his message of salvation out to others. Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation—they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture—and the result is disaster for them.
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I am warning you ahead of time, dear brothers, so that you can watch out and not be carried away by the mistakes of these wicked men, lest you yourselves become mixed up too.
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But grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be all glory and splendid honor, both now and forevermore. Good-bye.
Peter
Your laws are wonderful; no wonder I obey them.
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As your plan unfolds, even the simple can understand it.
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No wonder I wait expectantly for each of your commands.
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Come and have mercy on me as is your way with those who love you.
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Guide me with your laws so that I will not be overcome by evil.
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Rescue me from the oppression of evil men; then I can obey you.
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Look down in love upon me and teach me all your laws.
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I weep because your laws are disobeyed.
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O Lord, you are just and your punishments are fair.
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Your demands are just and right.
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I am indignant and angry because of the way my enemies have disregarded your laws.
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I have thoroughly tested your promises, and that is why I love them so much.
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I am worthless and despised, but I don’t despise your laws.
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Your justice is eternal for your laws are perfectly fair.
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In my distress and anguish your commandments comfort me.
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Your laws are always fair; help me to understand them, and I shall live.
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I am praying with great earnestness; answer me, O Lord, and I will obey your laws.
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“Save me,” I cry, “for I am obeying.”
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Early in the morning before the sun is up, I am praying and pointing out how much I trust in you.
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I stay awake through the night to think about your promises.
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Because you are so loving and kind, listen to me and make me well again.
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Here come these lawless men to attack me,
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but you are near, O Lord; all your commandments are based on truth.
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I have known from earliest days that your will never changes.
Giving preferred treatment to rich people is a clear case of selling one’s soul for a piece of bread.
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Trying to get rich quick is evil and leads to poverty.