As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up -- and there were the Egyptians in pursuit of them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to Yahweh for help.
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13Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid! Stand firm, and you will see what Yahweh will do to rescue you today: the Egyptians you see today you willnever see again.14Yahweh will do the fighting for you; all you need to do is to keep calm.'
Yah is my strength and my song, to him I owe my deliverance. He is my God and I shall praise him, my father's God and I shall extol him.
3Yahweh is a warrior; Yahweh is his name.
4Pharaoh's chariots and army he has hurled into the sea the pick of his officers have been drowned in the Sea of Reeds.
5The ocean has closed over them; they have sunk to the bottom like a stone.
6Your right hand, Yahweh, wins glory by its strength, your right hand, Yahweh, shatters your foes,7 and by your great majesty you fell your assailants; you unleash your fury, it consumes them like chaff.
8A blast from your nostrils and the waters piled high; the waves stood firm as a dyke; the bed of the sea became firm ground.
9The enemy said, 'I shall give chase and overtake, 'I shall share out the spoil and glut myself on them, 'I shall draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.'
10You blew with your breath, the sea closed over them; they sank like lead in the terrible waters.
11Yahweh, who is like you, majestic in sanctity, who like you among the holy ones, fearsome of deed, worker of wonders?
12You stretched your right hand out, the earth swallowed them!
If you live according to my laws, if you keep my commandments and put them into practice,
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7You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before your sword; 8five of you pursuing a hundred of them, one hundred pursuing ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before your sword.
Our brothers have discouraged us by saying that the people are stronger and taller than we are, the cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky. And we have seen Anakim there too. 29'And I said to you, "Do not take fright, do not be afraid of them. 30 Yahweh your God goes ahead of you and will be fighting on your side, just as you saw him act in Egypt. 31You have seen him in the desert too: Yahweh your God continued to support you, as a man supports his son, all along the road you followed until you arrived here."
I then gave Joshua this order, "You can see for yourself everything that Yahweh our God has done to these two kings; Yahweh will do the same to all the kingdoms through which you pass. 22Do not be afraid of them: Yahweh your God himself is fighting for you."
He will put their kings at your mercy and you will blot out their names under heaven
Beware of thinking to yourself, "My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me the power to act like this." 18Remember Yahweh your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this, thus keeping then, as today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors.
A people great and tall, these Anakim, as you know; you have heard the saying: Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? 3Know then today that Yahweh your God himself will go ahead of you, destroying them like a devouring fire, and that he himself will subdue them before you so that you can dispossess and quickly make an end of them, as Yahweh has already said.
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you must not be afraid of them; Yahweh your God is with you, he who brought you out of Egypt. 2When you are about to join battle, the priest must come forward and address the people. 3He must say to them, "Listen, Israel: today you are about to join battle with your enemies. Do not be faint hearted. Let there be no fear or trembling or alarm as you face them. 4Yahweh your God is marching with you, to fight your enemies for you and make you victorious.
Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yahweh your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.'
Yahweh is the shield that protects you and the sword that leads you to triumph. Your enemies will try to corrupt you, but you yourself will trample on their backs.
Joshua then said, 'Clear the mouth of the cave and bring the five kings out to me.'23They did so, and brought the five kings out of the cave to take them to him: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon. 24When these kings had been brought out, Joshua assembled all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the warriors who had fought with him, 'Come forward and put your feet on the necks of these kings!' They came forward and put their feet on their necks. 25'Be fearless and undaunted,' Joshua went on, 'be strong and stand firm, for this is how Yahweh will deal with all the enemies you fight.'
You for your part have witnessed all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations for your sake; Yahweh your God himself has fought for you.
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Yahweh has dispossessed great and powerful nations before you, and no one so far has been able to resist you. 10One man of you was able to rout a thousand of them, since Yahweh your God was himself fighting for you, as he had promised you. 11Be very careful, as you value your life, to love Yahweh your God.
Yahweh then said to Gideon, 'There are too many people with you for me to put Midian into their power; Israel might claim the credit for themselves at my expense: they might say, "My own hand has rescued me.”
Yahweh makes poor and rich, he humbles and also exalts. 8He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill to give them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of honor; for to Yahweh belong the pillars of the earth, on these he has poised the world. 9He safeguards the steps of his faithful but the wicked vanish in darkness (for human strength can win no victories).
Yahweh is free to grant deliverance through a few men, just as much as through many.
Yahweh does not give victory by means of sword and spear -- for Yahweh is lord of the battle and he will deliver you into our power.
Next day, Elisha got up early and went out; and there surrounding the town was an armed force with horses and chariots. 'Oh, my lord,' his servant said, 'what are we to do?'16'Do not be afraid,' he replied, 'for there are more on our side than on theirs.' 17And Elisha prayed. 'Yahweh,' he said, 'open his eyes and make him see.' Yahweh opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the mountain covered in fiery horses and chariots surrounding Elisha.
Israelites, do not make war on Yahweh, God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.
'Yahweh, numbers and strength make no difference to you when you give your help. Help us, Yahweh our God, for, relying on you, we are confronting this horde in your name. Yahweh, you are our God. Human strength cannot prevail against you!'
Yahweh says this to you, “Do not be afraid, do not be daunted by this vast horde, for the war is not your affair but God's.”
Be strong and brave; do not be afraid or tremble when you face the king of Assyria and the whole horde he brings with him, for there are more on our side than on his. 8He has only human strength, but we have Yahweh our God to help us and fight our battles.
Prayer with fasting and alms with uprightness are better than riches with iniquity. Better to practice almsgiving than to hoard up gold.
How could anyone claim to be upright before God? 3Anyone trying to argue matters with him, could not give him one answer in a thousand. 4Among the wisest and the hardiest, who then can successfully defy him?
Had I put my trust in gold or called fine gold my security; 25 or had I rejoiced that my wealth was great, or that my hand had acquired abundance
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28 This too would be a crime for condemnation,for I should have denied God above.
Yahweh, how countless are my enemies, how countless those who rise up against me, 2how countless those who say of me, 'No salvation for him from his God!
3But you, Yahweh, the shield at my side, my glory, you hold my head high.
4I cry out to Yahweh; he answers from his holy mountain.
5As for me, if I lie down and sleep, I shall awake, for Yahweh sustains me.
6I have no fear of people in their thousands upon thousands, who range themselves against me wherever I turn.
Now I know the Lord gives victory to his anointed. He will answer him from the holy heavens with a strong arm that brings victory. 8 Some rely on chariots, others on horses, but we on the name of the Lord our God.
9 They collapse and fall,but we stand strong and firm.
Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? Yahweh is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread?
2When the wicked advance against me to eat me up, they, my opponents, my enemies, are the ones who stumble and fall.
3Though an army pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear, though war break out against me, my trust will never be shaken.
A large army will not keep a king safe, nor his strength save a warrior's life;17it is delusion to rely on a horse for safety, for all its power it cannot save.
18But see how Yahweh watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his faithful love, 19to rescue them from death and keep them alive in famine.
20We are waiting for Yahweh; he is our help and our shield, 21for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust.
22Yahweh, let your faithful love rest on us, as our hope has rested in you.
What little the upright possesses outweighs all the wealth of the wicked; 17for the weapons of the wicked shall be shattered, while Yahweh supports the upright.
It was not their own sword that won the land, nor their own arms which made them victorious, but your hand it was and your arm, and the light of your presence, for you loved them.
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6For my trust was not in my bow, my victory was not won by my sword; 7it was you who saved us from our opponents, you who put to shame those who hate us.
I am not afraid in times of danger when I am surrounded by enemies, 6 by evil people who trust in their riches and boast of their great wealth. 7 We can never redeem ourselves;we cannot pay God the price for our lives, 8 because the payment for a human life is too great. What we could pay would never be enough9 to keep us from the grave,to let us live forever. 10 Anyone can see that even the wise die,as well as the foolish and stupid. They all leave their riches to their descendants.
So God will ruin you forever; he will take hold of you and snatch you from your home; he will remove you from the world of the living. 6 Righteous people will see this and be afraid; then they will laugh at you and say, 7 “Look, here is someone who did not depend on God for safety,but trusted instead in great wealthand looked for security in being wicked.” 8 But I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God; I trust in his constant love forever and ever.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I put my trust and have no fear, what power has human strength over me?
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10In God whose word I praise, in Yahweh whose word I praise,11in God I put my trust and have no fear; what can mortal man do to me?
Even if your riches increase, don't depend on them. 11 More than once I have heard God say that power belongs to him.
He cuts short the breath of princes, strikes terror in earthly kings.
Bring us help in our time of crisis, any human assistance is worthless.
13With God we shall do deeds of valor, he will trample down our enemies.
At your right hand, Lord, he shatters kings when his anger breaks out.
With Yahweh on my side I fear nothing; what can human beings do to me?
7With Yahweh on my side as my help, I gloat over my enemies.
8It is better to take refuge in Yahweh than to rely on human beings;
9better to take refuge in Yahweh than to rely on princes.
10Nations were swarming around me, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down;11they swarmed around me, pressing upon me, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down.
12They swarmed around me like bees, they flared up like a brushwood fire, in the name of Yahweh I cut them down.
13I was pushed hard, to make me fall, but Yahweh came to my help.
14Yahweh is my strength and my song, he has been my Savior.
Sublime as he is, Yahweh looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.7Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life -- to my enemies' fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me
Do not put your trust in princes, in any child of Adam, who has no power to save. 4When his spirit goes forth he returns to the earth, on that very day all his plans come to nothing.
He takes no delight in the power of horses, no pleasure in human sturdiness; 11his pleasure is in those who fear him, in those who hope in his faithful love.12Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God.
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
Confidence placed in riches comes to nothing.
Those who trust in their riches will fall,but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
The ransom for life is a person's wealth; but the poor will not hear the reproof.
Better to have little and with it fear of Yahweh than immense wealth and with it anxiety.
17Better a dish of herbs when love is there than a fattened ox and hatred to go with it.
Better have little and with it uprightness than great revenues with injustice.
Better be humble with the poor than share the booty with the proud.
Better a mouthful of dry bread with peace than a house filled with quarrelsome sacrifices.
Better the poor living an honest life than the adept at double-talk who is a fool.
No wisdom, no understanding, no advice is worth anything before Yahweh.
Fit out the cavalry for the day of battle, but the victory is Yahweh's.
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. 5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,for they will surely sprout wingsand fly off to the sky like an eagle.
To be afraid of human beings is a snare, whoever trusts in Yahweh is secure.
Better someone poor living an honest life than someone of devious ways however rich.
keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of food, 9for fear that, surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, 'Yahweh-who is Yahweh?' or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.
Another thing I have observed under the sun: that the race is not won by the speediest, nor the battle by the champions; it is not the wise who get food, nor the intelligent wealth, nor the learned favor: chance and mischance befall them all.
Do not set your heart on your wealth, nor say, “I have enough.”
The Lord has turned mighty princes off their thrones and seated the humble there instead.
15The Lord has plucked up the proud by the roots, and planted the lowly in their place.
16The Lord has overthrown the lands of the nations and destroyed them to the very foundations of the earth.
17Sometimes he has taken them away and destroyed them, and blotted out their memory from the earth.
Do not say, “I have enough, and what calamity could happen to me in the future?”
Human pride will lower its eyes, human arrogance will be humbled, and Yahweh alone will be exalted, on that day. 12That will be a day for Yahweh Sabaoth, for all who are majestic and haughty, for all who are proud, to be brought low,
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17Human pride will be humbled, human arrogance brought low, and Yahweh alone will be exalted, on that day.
Devise plans as you may: they will come to nothing! Make what pronouncements you like; it will not come about! For God is with us!'
See how the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth violently lops off the foliage! The ones standing highest are cut down, the proudest are laid low!
I am going to … humble the haughtiness of despots.
How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn? How did you come to be thrown to the ground, conqueror of nations?13You who used to think to yourself: I shall scale the heavens; higher than the stars of God I shall set my throne. I shall sit on the Mount of Assembly far away to the north.
14I shall climb high above the clouds, I shall rival the Most High." 15Now you have been flung down to Sheol, into the depths of the abyss!
I shall hound you from your office, I shall snatch you from your post
Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, who put their trust in horses, who rely on the quantity of chariots, and on great strength of cavalrymen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult Yahweh.
Through your minions you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest peak, its forest garden.25Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers.
26Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins; 27that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass, were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind.
28But whether you stand up or sit down, whether you go out or come in, I know it (and how you rave against me). 29Because you have raved against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; 24 but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.”
Yahweh says this, 'Accursed be anyone who trusts in human beings, who relies on human strength and whose heart turns from Yahweh. 6Such a person is like scrub in the wastelands: when good comes, it does not affect him since he lives in the parched places of the desert, uninhabited, salt land.
Were Babylon to scale the heavens or reinforce her towering citadel, destroyers would still come to her on my orders, Yahweh declares.
And all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yahweh, am the one who lays the tall tree low and raises the low tree high, who makes the green tree wither and makes the withered bear fruit. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.
I shall take pity on the House of Judah and shall save them, not by bow or sword or force of arms, not by horses or horsemen, but by Yahweh their God.
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, he who was as tall as the cedars, as strong as the oaks; I who destroyed his fruit above ground and his roots below.
Flight will be cut off for the swift, the strong will have no chance to exert his strength nor the warrior be able to save his life;15the archer will not stand his ground, the swift of foot will not escape, nor will the horseman save his life; 16even the bravest of warriors will jettison his arms and run away, that day! -declares Yahweh!
Should they burrow into Sheol, my hand will haul them out; should they climb to heaven, I shall bring them down.
Though you soar like an eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, I shall bring you down from there!-declares Yahweh.
When that day comes- declares Yahweh- I shall tear your horses away from you, I shall destroy your chariots; 10I shall tear the cities from your country, I shall overthrow all your fortresses
He will raise his hand against the north and bring Assyria down in ruins; he will make Nineveh a waste, as dry as a desert.14Flocks will rest inside there, so will wild animals; pelican and porcupine will nest round her cornices at night; the owl will hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down. 15This is what the city will be like, once living happy and carefree and thinking to itself, 'I have no rival -- not I!' And what will it be now? A ruin, a lair for wild beasts to rest in, and everyone who passes by will whistle and throw up his hands.
I shall overturn the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kings of the nations. I shall overthrow the chariots and their crews; horses and their riders will fall, every one to the sword of his comrade.
When they fight, because Yahweh is with them, they will put mounted men to rout.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rustconsume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rustconsumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. See alsoLuke 12:4-5
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
The Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name, 50and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him. 51He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart. 52He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you; for on him has God the Father set his seal.”
If God is for us, who can be against us?
As for me, I am full of joy in the Lord, now that at last your consideration for me has blossomed again; though I recognize that you really did have consideration before, but had no opportunity to show it.11I do not say this because I have lacked anything; I have learnt to manage with whatever I have.12I know how to live modestly, and I know how to live luxuriously too: in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty.13There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me.
And now, you rich people, listen to me! Weep and wail over the miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches have rotted away, and your clothes have been eaten by moths. 3 Your gold and silver are covered with rust, and this rust will be a witness against you and will eat up your flesh like fire. You have piled up riches in these last days. 4 You have not paid any wages to those who work in your fields. Listen to their complaints! The cries of those who gather in your crops have reached the ears of God, the Lord Almighty. 5 Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered innocent people, and they do not resist you.
You say to yourself: I am rich, I have made a fortune and have everything I want, never realizing that you are wretchedly and pitiably poor, and blind and naked too. 18I warn you, buy from me the gold that has been tested in the fire to make you truly rich, and white robes to clothe you and hide your shameful nakedness, and ointment to put on your eyes to enable you to see.
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