The mighty one calls
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The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks, and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
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Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines out.
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Our God comes, and does not keep silent. A fire devours before him. It is very stormy 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, 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 livestock 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 meat 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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since 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 frames 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 silent. You thought that I 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 into pieces, and there be no one 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.”