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93 lines
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Plaintext
93 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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\s5
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\c 12
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\q1
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\v 1 Yahweh, whenever I tell you that I am unhappy about what is happening to me,
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\q2 you always act justly.
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\q1 So now allow me to ask about one more thing that I do not understand:
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\q2 Why are wicked people often very prosperous?
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\q2 Why do things go very well for dishonest people?
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\q1
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\v 2 You allow them to prosper
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\q2 like trees that grow tall and bear a lot of fruit.
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\q1 They always say good things about you,
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\q2 but in their inner beings, they are really far from you.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 3 But Yahweh, you know me very well.
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\q2 You see what I do and you are able to know what I am thinking.
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\q1 Set them apart like we separate the sheep out of the herd so
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\q2 that on the day of slaughter they will be butchered.
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\q1
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\v 4 This land is becoming very dry and even the grass is withering.
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\q1 Even the wild animals and the birds have all died
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\q2 because the people who live in this land are very wicked.
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\q1 All this has happened because the people have said,
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\q2 "Yahweh does not know what has happened to us!"
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\s5
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\p
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\v 5 Then to show me that I needed to be prepared to endure even greater difficulties, Yahweh said to me,
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\q1 "It is as though you have become exhausted from racing against men;
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\q2 so how will you be able to race against horses?
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\q1 If you only prepare to run on open ground,
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\q2 what will happen to you when you are running through the thick foliage near the Jordan River?
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\q1
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\v 6 Already your brothers and other members of your own family oppose you.
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\q2 They plot against you and they say bad things about you.
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\q2 So even if they say nice things about you,
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\q1 do not trust them!
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 7 I have abandoned my Israelite people,
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\q2 the people whom I chose to belong to me.
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\q1 I have allowed their enemies to conquer the people whom I love.
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\q1
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\v 8 My people have become to me like a lion in the forest.
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\q2 It is as though they roar at me like a lion,
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\q2 so now I hate them.
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\q1
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\v 9 My chosen people have become like speckled birds
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\q2 that are surrounded by vultures waiting to eat their flesh.
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\q1 Tell all the wild animals to come
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\q2 and eat the flesh until they are full.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 10 Many rulers from other countries have come with their armies and devastated my people
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\q2 whom I care for like a farmer takes care of his vineyard.
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\q1 They have caused my beautiful land to become a barren desert where no one lives.
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\q1
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\v 11 They have caused it to become completely empty;
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\q2 So now it is as though I am mourning the death of a loved one.
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\q1 The whole land is desolate,
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\q2 and no one worries about it.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 12 The soldiers of our enemies have marched across all the barren hilltops.
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\q1 But I, Yahweh, am using those armies to punish your land from one end to the other,
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\q2 and no one will escape.
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\q1
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\v 13 It is as though my people planted wheat,
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\q2 but now they are harvesting thorns.
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\q1 They have become very tired because of much hard work,
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\q2 but they have gained nothing from all that work.
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\q1 They will be very disappointed because their harvests will be very small,
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\q2 and that will happen because I, Yahweh, am extremely angry with them."
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\s5
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\p
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\v 14 This is also what Yahweh said to me: "I will punish the evil nearby nations that have been trying to take away the land that I gave to my Israelite people. I will force them to leave their own lands. But I will throw the people of Judah out of their lands, also.
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\v 15 But later I will act mercifully toward those nations again, and I will bring them back to their own lands again. Each clan will come back to its own land.
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\s5
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\v 16 And if the people of the other nations whose armies have invaded Israel learn the religious customs of my people, and if they learn that I am listening when they solemnly promise that they will do something, like they taught my people to believe that their god Baal was listening when they made solemn promises, I will cause them to become prosperous, and they also will be my people.
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\v 17 But I will expel any nation whose people refuse to obey me, and I will destroy that nation and its people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it."
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