Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me? There is no other sheltering rock; I know of none.

你们不要恐惧，也不要害怕。我岂不是从上古就说明指示你们吗？并且你们是我的见证！除我以外，岂有真神吗？诚然没有磐石，我不知道一个！”

你们不要恐惧，也不要害怕。我岂不是从上古就告诉并指示你们了吗？你们是我的见证人！除我以外，岂有上帝呢？诚然没有磐石，就我所知，一个也没有！”

你们不要恐惧，也不要害怕。我岂不是从上古就告诉并指示你们了吗？你们是我的见证人！除我以外，岂有神呢？诚然没有磐石，就我所知，一个也没有！”

不要恐惧，不要害怕，我不是早已告诉过你们吗？你们是我的证人。除我以外还有真神吗？没有，没有别的磐石，一个也没有。’”

你们不要惊惶，也不要惧怕。我不是老早就说了给你们听，告诉了你们吗？你们就是我的见证人。除我以外，还有真神吗？没有别的磐石；我一个也不知道。”

你们不要惧怕，也不要害怕！难道我从前不就告知了你们、向你们宣告了吗？你们是我的见证人！除我以外，难道还有神吗？没有别的磐石！我知道没有！”

你們不要恐懼，也不要害怕。我豈不是從上古就說明指示你們嗎？並且你們是我的見證！除我以外，豈有真神嗎？誠然沒有磐石，我不知道一個！

你們不要恐懼，也不要害怕。我豈不是從上古就告訴並指示你們了嗎？你們是我的見證人！除我以外，豈有上帝呢？誠然沒有磐石，就我所知，一個也沒有！」

你們不要恐懼，也不要害怕。我豈不是從上古就告訴並指示你們了嗎？你們是我的見證人！除我以外，豈有神呢？誠然沒有磐石，就我所知，一個也沒有！」

不要恐懼，不要害怕，我不是早已告訴過你們嗎？你們是我的證人。除我以外還有真神嗎？沒有，沒有別的磐石，一個也沒有。』」

你們不要驚惶，也不要懼怕。我不是老早就說了給你們聽，告訴了你們嗎？你們就是我的見證人。除我以外，還有真神嗎？沒有別的磐石；我一個也不知道。”

你們不要恐懼，不要懼怕我不是從上古就說給你聽，就告訴了你了麼？你們就是我的見證！我以外哪有真神呢？實在沒有磐石；我不知道有啊。』

你們不要懼怕，也不要害怕！難道我從前不就告知了你們、向你們宣告了嗎？你們是我的見證人！除我以外，難道還有神嗎？沒有別的磐石！我知道沒有！」

爾勿畏葸、勿驚惶、我豈非自古宣示爾乎、爾為我證、我外豈有上帝乎、無有磐石、我不知其他也、

爾毋畏葸、在昔我有預言、已告乎爾、爾可為證。我乃全能上帝、外此我弗知之矣。

爾勿畏懼、勿驚惶、我豈未自始已示爾告爾乎、爾曹可為我作證、在我之外豈有天主、我之外實無可賴之主、我不知有誰也、

Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

Do not tremble with fear. Do not be afraid. Didn’t I announce everything that has happened? Didn’t I tell you about it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any other God but me? No! There is no other Rock. I do not know even one.”

Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago? You are my witnesses— is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock— not one!”

Do not be startled or afraid. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me? There is no other Rock; I do not know any.

Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’ ”

Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’”

Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have I not declared unto thee of old, and showed it? and ye are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no Rock; I know not any.

Do not be startled or afraid. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I do not know any.

Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared[ it]? ye[ are] even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea,[ there is] no God; I know not[ any].

Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”

You are my witnesses,” says the LORD,“ my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may consider and believe in me, and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and none will outlive me.

You have been taught that the LORD alone is God– there is no other besides him.

No one is holy like the LORD! There is no one other than you! There is no rock like our God!

Today realize and carefully consider that the LORD is God in heaven above and on earth below– there is no other!

The Father and I are one.”

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.

Indeed, who is God besides the LORD? Who is a protector besides our God?

Indeed, who is God besides the LORD? Who is a protector besides our God?

“ See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the LORD,“ and there is no other god besides me. I kill and give life, I smash and I heal, and none can resist my power.

This is what the LORD, Israel’s king, says, their protector, the LORD who commands armies:“ I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me.

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say,‘ My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.”

You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel. I am the LORD your God; there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the times to come. The dream and the visions you had while lying on your bed are as follows.

“ Thus says King Cyrus of Persia:“‘ The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has instructed me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

You will sing as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival. You will be happy like one who plays a flute as he goes to the mountain of the LORD, the Rock who shelters Israel.

Then the LORD said to Abram,“ Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions.But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.That day the LORD made a covenant with Abram:“ To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River–the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

“‘ You must not make for yourselves idols, so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before it, for I am the LORD your God.You must keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD.“‘ If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments,I will give you your rains in their time so that the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit.Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, and you will live securely in your land.I will grant peace in the land so that you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword of war will pass through your land.You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword.Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain my covenant with you.You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new.“‘ I will put my tabernacle in your midst and I will not abhor you.I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people.I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright.“‘ If, however, you do not obey me and keep all these commandments–if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep all my commandments and you break my covenant–I for my part will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.“‘ If, in spite of all these things, you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins.I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze.Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land will not produce their fruit.“‘ If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins.I will send the wild animals against you and they will bereave you of your children, annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population so that your roads will become deserted.“‘ If in spite of these things you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me,I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you seven times on account of your sins.I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. Although you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.When I break off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.“‘ If in spite of this you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me,I will walk in hostile rage against you and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. I will abhor you.I will lay your cities waste and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled.I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.“‘ Then the land will make up for its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.“‘ As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer.They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand for you before your enemies.You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.“‘ As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ iniquities which are with them.However, when they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, by which they also walked in hostility against me( and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for their iniquity,I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.The land will be abandoned by them in order that it may make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them, and they will make up for their iniquity because they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred my statutes.In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God.I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.’”These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the LORD established between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through Moses.

For our enemies’ rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.

Jesus said,“ Have the people sit down.”( Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar,“ We do not need to give you a reply concerning this.If our God whom we are serving exists, he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well.But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.He ordered strong soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire.So those men were tied up while still wearing their cloaks, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, and were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire.But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed by the leaping flames.But those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell into the furnace of blazing fire while still securely bound.Then King Nebuchadnezzar was startled and quickly got up. He said to his ministers,“ Wasn’t it three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied to the king,“ For sure, O king.”He answered,“ But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!”Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire. He called out,“ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego emerged from the fire.Once the satraps, prefects, governors, and ministers of the king had gathered around, they saw that those men were physically unharmed by the fire. The hair of their heads was not singed, nor were their trousers damaged. Not even the smell of fire was to be found on them!Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed,“ Praised be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent forth his angel and has rescued his servants who trusted in him, ignoring the edict of the king and giving up their bodies rather than serve or pay homage to any god other than their God!

“ If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the LORD your God:You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.The LORD will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions.The LORD will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do– yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you.The LORD will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments and obey him.Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the LORD, and they will respect you.The LORD will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you.The LORD will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do.But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.“ But if you ignore the LORD your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.“ The LORD will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.The LORD will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess.He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron.The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.“ The LORD will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off.The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed.The LORD will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind.You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you.You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it.Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you.Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it.As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.You will go insane from seeing all this.The LORD will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils– from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.The LORD will force you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the LORD will drive you.“ You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it.You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them.You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe.You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity.Whirring locusts will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil.The foreigners who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower.They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given you.These curses will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants.“ Because you have not served the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have,instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.The LORD will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand,a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young.They will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, or lambs of your flocks until they have destroyed you.They will besiege all of your villages until all of your high and fortified walls collapse– those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the LORD your God has given you.You will then eat your own offspring, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege by which your enemies will constrict you.The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating( since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters,and will secretly eat her afterbirth and her newborn children( since she has nothing else), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.“ If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God,then the LORD will increase your punishments and those of your descendants– great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses.He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you.Moreover, the LORD will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, until you have perished.There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, because you will have disobeyed the LORD your God.This is what will happen: Just as the LORD delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess.The LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone.Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair.Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next.In the morning you will say,‘ If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say,‘ I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see.Then the LORD will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

As for the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. He is a reliable God who is never unjust, he is fair and upright.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you– yes, I help you– yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated; your adversaries will be reduced to nothing and perish.When you will look for your opponents, you will not find them; your enemies will be reduced to absolutely nothing.For I am the LORD your God, the one who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you,‘ Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, men of Israel. I am helping you,” says the LORD, your protector, the Holy One of Israel.

But his father refused and said,“ I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude of nations.”

The king replied to Daniel,“ Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

and the LORD stood at its top. He said,“ I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the ground you are lying on.Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name and that of your descendants.I am with you! I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, because you deserve to be revered. For there is no one like you among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings.

“ Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.

You will be driven from human society, and you will live with the wild animals. You will be fed grass like oxen, and you will become damp with the dew of the sky. Seven periods of time will pass by for you, before you understand that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms and gives them to whomever he wishes.

I decreed and delivered and proclaimed, and there was no other god among you. You are my witnesses,” says the LORD,“ that I am God.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,

I am the LORD, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me.I do this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the LORD, I have no peer.

After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the LORD your God that enrage him,I invoke heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that you will surely and swiftly be removed from the very land you are about to cross the Jordan to possess. You will not last long there because you will surely be annihilated.Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you among the nations where the LORD will drive you.There you will worship gods made by human hands– wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.But if you seek the LORD your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul.In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, if you return to the LORD your God and obey him( for he is a merciful God), he will not let you down or destroy you, for he cannot forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.

He said,“ I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

Jacob called for his sons and said,“ Gather together so I can tell you what will happen to you in the future.“ Assemble and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to Israel, your father.Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.You are destructive like water and will not excel, for you got on your father’s bed, then you defiled it– he got on my couch!Simeon and Levi are brothers, weapons of violence are their knives!O my soul, do not come into their council, do not be united to their assembly, my heart, for in their anger they have killed men, and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their fury, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel!Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons will bow down before you.You are a lion’s cub, Judah, from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches and lies down like a lion; like a lioness– who will rouse him?The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.Binding his foal to the vine, and his colt to the choicest vine, he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.His eyes will be dark from wine, and his teeth white from milk.Zebulun will live by the haven of the sea and become a haven for ships; his border will extend to Sidon.Issachar is a strong-boned donkey lying down between two saddlebags.When he sees a good resting place, and the pleasant land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and become a slave laborer.Dan will judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward.I wait for your deliverance, O LORD.Gad will be raided by marauding bands, but he will attack them at their heels.Asher’s food will be rich, and he will provide delicacies to royalty.Naphtali is a free running doe, he speaks delightful words.Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough near a spring whose branches climb over the wall.The archers will attack him, they will shoot at him and oppose him.But his bow will remain steady, and his hands will be skillful; because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,because of the God of your father, who will help you, because of the sovereign God, who will bless you with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb.The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the eternal mountains or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers.Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning devouring the prey, and in the evening dividing the plunder.”These are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing.

and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us).

Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; now I announce new events. Before they begin to occur, I reveal them to you.”

Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone– gods that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control your very breath and all your ways!Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.“ This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEQEL, and PHARSIN.This is the interpretation of the words: As for mene– God has numbered your kingdom’s days and brought it to an end.As for teqel– you are weighed on the balances and found to be lacking.As for peres– your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”Then, on Belshazzar’s orders, Daniel was clothed in purple, a golden collar was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed third ruler in the kingdom.And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, was killed.

My God sent his angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before him. Nor have I done any harm to you, O king.”

For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:‘ To an unknown god.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it, this I proclaim to you.The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands,nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone.From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said,‘ For we too are his offspring.’So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination.Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent,because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

I was embarrassed to request soldiers and horsemen from the king to protect us from the enemy along the way, because we had said to the king,“ The good hand of our God is on everyone who is seeking him, but his great anger is against everyone who forsakes him.”

This is what the LORD, the one who made you, says– the one who formed you in the womb and helps you:“ Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen!

You will not be afraid of sudden disaster, or when destruction overtakes the wicked;for the LORD will be the source of your confidence, and he will guard your foot from being caught in a trap.

So I, the LORD, tell you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servants. Do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from a faraway land where you are captives. The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace. They will be secure and no one will terrify them.For I, the LORD, affirm that I will be with you and will rescue you. I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you. But I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.”