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Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good, and his love is eternal.
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Let the people of Israel say, "His love is eternal."
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Let the priests of God say, "His love is eternal."
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Let all who worship him say, "His love is eternal."
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In my distress I called to the LORD; he answered me and set me free.
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The LORD is with me, I will not be afraid; what can anyone do to me?
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It is the LORD who helps me, and I will see my enemies defeated.
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It is better to trust in the LORD than to depend on people.
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It is better to trust in the LORD than to depend on human leaders.
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Many enemies were around me; but I destroyed them by the power of the LORD!
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They were around me on every side; but I destroyed them by the power of the LORD!
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They swarmed around me like bees, but they burned out as quickly as a brush fire; by the power of the LORD I destroyed them.
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I was fiercely attacked and was being defeated, but the LORD helped me.
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The LORD makes me powerful and strong; he has saved me.
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Listen to the glad shouts of victory in the tents of God's people: "The LORD's mighty power has done it!
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His power has brought us victory--- his mighty power in battle!"
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I will not die; instead, I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.
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He has punished me severely, but he has not let me die.
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Open to me the gates of the Temple; I will go in and give thanks to the LORD!
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This is the gate of the LORD; only the righteous can come in.
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I praise you, LORD, because you heard me, because you have given me victory.
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The stone which the builders rejected as worthless turned out to be the most important of all.
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This was done by the LORD; what a wonderful sight it is!
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This is the day of the LORD's victory; let us be happy, let us celebrate!
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Save us, LORD, save us! Give us success, O LORD!
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May God bless the one who comes in the name of the LORD! From the Temple of the LORD we bless you.
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The LORD is God; he has been good to us. With branches in your hands, start the festival and march around the altar.
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You are my God, and I give you thanks; I will proclaim your greatness.
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Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good, and his love is eternal.
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King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:
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"Please speak to the LORD for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the LORD will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat."
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Then the LORD spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me
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to tell Zedekiah that the LORD, the God of Israel, had said, "Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.
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I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.
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I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.
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But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease---I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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Then the LORD told me to say to the people, "Listen! I, the LORD, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.
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Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.
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I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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The LORD told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: "Listen to what I, the LORD, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don't, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.
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You, Jerusalem, are sitting high above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.
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But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the LORD, have spoken."
1
The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple. (This was after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had taken away Jehoiakim's son, King Jehoiachin of Judah, as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylonia, together with the leaders of Judah, the craftworkers, and the skilled workers.)
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The first basket contained good figs, those that ripen early; the other one contained bad figs, too bad to eat.
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Then the LORD said to me, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" I answered, "Figs. The good ones are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, too bad to eat."
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So the LORD said to me,
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"I, the LORD, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness.
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I will watch over them and bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pull them up.
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I will give them the desire to know that I am the LORD. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.
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"As for King Zedekiah of Judah, the politicians around him, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who have stayed in this land or moved to Egypt---I, the LORD, will treat them all like these figs that are too bad to be eaten.
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I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun of them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.
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I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors."
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Soon after Josiah's son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the LORD told me
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to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck.
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Then the LORD told me to send a message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah.
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The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the LORD had said:
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"By my great power and strength I created the world, human beings, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose.
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I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him.
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All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.
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"But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely.
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Do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim they can predict the future, either by dreams or by calling up the spirits of the dead or by magic. They all tell you not to submit to the king of Babylonia.
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They are deceiving you and will cause you to be taken far away from your country. I will drive you out, and you will be destroyed.
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But if any nation submits to the king of Babylonia and serves him, then I will let it stay on in its own land, to farm it and live there. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, "Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live.
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Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the LORD has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia.
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Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you.
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The LORD himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies."
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Then I told the priests and the people that the LORD had said: "Do not listen to the prophets who say that the Temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you.
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Don't listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins?
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If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the LORD Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia."
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(When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other Temple treasures.)
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"Listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem:
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They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf---Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
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And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.
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If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him.
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If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us.
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But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:
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if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.
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My dear friends, this command I am writing you is not new; it is the old command, the one you have had from the very beginne add self-control; to your selfage you have already heard.
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However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.
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If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour.
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If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin.
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But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.
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I write to you, my children, because your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ.
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I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you have defeated the Evil One.
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I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.
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Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.
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Everything that belongs to the world---what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of---none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.
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The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.
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My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near.
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These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.
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But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth.
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I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.
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Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ---they reject both the Father and the Son.
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For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.
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Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father.
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And this is what Christ himself promised to give us---eternal life.
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I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
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But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit's teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.
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Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes.
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You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then, that everyone who does what is right is God's child.
