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166 lines
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Plaintext
166 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
\s5
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\c 5
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\q1
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\v 1 Yahweh said to the people of Jerusalem, "Go up and down every street.
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\q2 Search in the marketplaces to find people who do what is fair,
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\q2 who try to be faithful to me.
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\q1 If you find even one person like that,
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\q2 I will forgive the people of Jerusalem and not destroy their city.
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\q1
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\v 2 But when the people there swear an official oath by Yahweh's life,
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\q1 they are lying."
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\b
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\q1
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\v 3 So I prayed, "Yahweh, you are certainly searching for people who are faithful to you.
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\q2 You punished your people, but they did not pay any attention.
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\q1 You crushed them, but they ignored what you were telling them to do.
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\q1 They were extremely stubborn
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\q2 and refused to return to you."
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 4 Then I thought, "We cannot expect these people to act righteously, because they are poor;
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\q2 they do not have any sense.
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\q1 They do not know the way Yahweh wants them to conduct their lives;
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\q2 they do not know what God requires them to do.
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\q1
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\v 5 So, I will go and talk to their leaders,
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\q2 because they surely know how God wants them to conduct their lives."
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\q1 But they also have stopped obeying Yahweh,
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\q2 and they will not allow him to lead them.
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\q1
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\v 6 Because of that, lions will come out of the forests and kill them;
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\q2 wolves from the desert will attack them;
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\q2 leopards that lurk outside their cities will maul anyone who walks outside the cities.
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\q1 Those things will happen because the people have sinned very much against God
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\q2 and have turned away from him very frequently.
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\b
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 7 Yahweh says, "I cannot forgive these people;
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\q2 even their children have abandoned me.
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\q1 When they solemnly declare something, they ask their gods to show that what they say is true.
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\q1 I gave my people everything that they needed,
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\q2 but they often went to the high places on the hills, where they worshiped their idols and committed adultery there.
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\q1
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\v 8 Just like well fed male horses neigh, wanting to mate with female horses,
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\q2 each of the men desires to sleep with his neighbor's wife.
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\q1
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\v 9 Should I not punish them for this?
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\q2 I will certainly get revenge on this nation whose people behave like that!
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\b
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 10 The people of Judah and Israel are like a vineyard.
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\q1 Go along the rows in their vineyards
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\q1 and get rid of most of the people,
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\q2 but do not kill all of them.
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\q1 These people do not belong to me,
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\q1 so get rid of them,
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\q2 like a gardener lops off branches from a vine.
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\q1
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\v 11 The people of Israel and Judah have turned away from me completely.
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\q1
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\v 12 They have lied about me and said,
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\q2 'He is not even real!
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\q2 He will not punish us!
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\q2 He will not send disasters on us!
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\q2 We will not experience wars or famines!
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\q1
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\v 13 What God's prophets say is nothing but wind!
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\q2 They do not have messages from God!
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\q2 And because they have not believed me, all of these things will happen to them!'"
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\b
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\s5
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\p
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\v 14 So, this is what Yahweh, the commander of the armies of angels in heaven, has said to me,
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\q1 "Because my people are saying those things,
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\q2 I will give you a message to tell them that will be like a fire,
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\q2 and these people will be like wood that the fire will burn up completely!
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\q1
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\v 15 Listen to Yahweh's declaration, you people of Israel:
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\q1 I will bring the army of a distant nation to attack you.
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\q2 It is a very powerful nation that has existed for a long time.
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\q1 They speak a language that you do not know,
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\q2 and which you will not be able to understand.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 16 Their soldiers are all very strong,
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\q2 and the arrows from their quivers will send many Judean men to their graves.
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\q1
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\v 17 They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields,
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\q2 even though it should be your own children who eat your bread.
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\q1 They will kill your flocks of sheep and herds of cattle.
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\q2 They will eat your grapes and your figs.
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\q1 They will also destroy your cities that have high walls around them
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\q2 and kill the people with their swords.
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\s5
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\p
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\v 18 But even when those things happen, I will not get rid of all of you.
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\q1
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\v 19 And when the people ask, 'Why is Yahweh doing this to us?'
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\q2 you will tell them, 'You rejected him and worshiped foreign gods in your own land,
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\q2 so now you will become slaves of foreigners in a land that is not your land.'"
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\b
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 20 Yahweh instructed me to proclaim this message to the people of Israel and Judah,
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\q1
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\v 21 "Listen to this, you people who are foolish and who do not have any sense:
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\q2 You have eyes, but it is as though you cannot see;
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\q2 you have ears, but it is as though you cannot hear.
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\q1
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\v 22 Why do you not have any awesome respect for me?
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\q2 You should tremble when you are in my presence!
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\q1 I, Yahweh, am the one who put a barrier along the shores
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\q2 so that the waters of the ocean cannot cross it and flood the land.
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\q1 The waves roll and roar, but they cannot go past that barrier.
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 23 But you people are not like the waves that obey me.
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\q2 You people are very stubborn and rebellious,
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\q2 and have constantly turned away from me.
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\q1
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\v 24 You do not say to yourselves,
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\q2 'Let us have an awesome respect for Yahweh our God,
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\q2 the one who sends us rain at the times that we need it,
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\q2 the one who causes the grain to become ripe at the harvest season.'
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\q1
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\v 25 It is because of the wrong things that you have done, that those good things have not happened;
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\q2 It is because of the sins that you have committed that you have been prevented from receiving those blessings.
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\b
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 26 Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush people
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\q2 like men who hunt birds put nets to catch them.
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\q1
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\v 27 Like a hunter has a cage full of birds that he has captured,
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\q2 their homes are full of things that they have gotten by deceiving others
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\q1 so now they are very rich and powerful.
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\q1
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\v 28 They are big and fat
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\q2 because they eat rich food, and there is no limit to the evil deeds that they have done.
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\q2 In court, they do not help ordinary people get judges to decide fairly for them, and they do not try to defend orphans.
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\q2 They do not even want to listen to them in court.
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\q1
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\v 29 So I will certainly punish them for doing those things.
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\q2 I, Yahweh, declare that I will certainly get revenge on their nation.
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\b
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\s5
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\q1
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\v 30 Very appalling things are happening in this country:
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\q1
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\v 31 Prophets speak only lies
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\q1 and priests rule by their own authority,
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\q2 yet you people like that!
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\q1 But when you start to experience disasters, what will you do?
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