Chapter 50

  The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, And calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.  

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  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.  

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  Our God comes, and does not keep silence. A fire devours before him. It is very tempestuous around him.  

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  He calls to the heavens above, To the earth, that he may judge his people:  

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  'Gather my saints together to me, Those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.'  

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  The heavens shall declare his righteousness, For God himself is judge. Selah.  

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  'Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.  

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  I don't rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.  

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  I have no need for a bull from your stall, Nor male goats from your pens.  

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  For every animal of the forest is mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.  

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  I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.  

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  If I were hungry, I would not tell you, For the world is mine, and all that is in it.  

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  Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?  

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  Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.  

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  Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.'  

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  But to the wicked God says, 'What right do you have to declare my statutes, That you have taken my covenant on your lips,  

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  Seeing you hate instruction, And throw my words behind you?  

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  When you saw a thief, you consented with him, And have participated with adulterers.  

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  'You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue harnesses deceit.  

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  You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.  

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  You have done these things, and I kept silence. You thought that the 'I AM' was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.  

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  'Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.  

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  Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, And prepares his way so that I will show God's salvation to him.' Psalm 51 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.  

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