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.”

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 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 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.

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,” declares the Lord,“ and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

“ There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

I and the Father are one.”

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

For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?

For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?

“ See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.

“ This is what the Lord says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say,‘ My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.

but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:

“ This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:“‘ The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.

And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.

Then the Lord said to him,“ Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said,“ To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

“‘ Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the Lord your God.“‘ Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.“‘ If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands,I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.“‘ I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.“‘ I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.“‘ But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,then I will do this to you: I will bring on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and sap your strength. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.“‘ If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of your land yield their fruit.“‘ If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.“‘ If in spite of these things you do not accept my correction but continue to be hostile toward me,I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over.And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands.When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.“‘ If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me,then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you.I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.“‘ As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their ancestors’ sins they will waste away.“‘ But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors— their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me,which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies— then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the Lord established at Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.

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

Jesus said,“ Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down( about five thousand men were there).

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him,“ King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usualand commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace.So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers,“ Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied,“ Certainly, Your Majesty.”He said,“ Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted,“ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire,and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.Then Nebuchadnezzar said,“ Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity— in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground— in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and 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 curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind.At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them.Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days.The sights you see will drive you mad.The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone.You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you.Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.The most gentle and sensitive woman among you— so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot— will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughterthe afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name— the Lord your God—the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God.Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods— gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.In the morning you will say,“ If only it were evening!” and in the evening,“ If only it were morning!”— because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.“ All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish.Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

But his father refused and said,“ I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”

The king said to Daniel,“ Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

There above it stood the Lord, and he said:“ I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Who should not fear you, King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

“ Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.

I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,“ that I am God.

Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time— if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger,I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

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

Then Jacob called for his sons and said:“ Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.“ Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel.“ Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.“ Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence.Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse 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 to you.You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness— who dares to rouse him?The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.“ Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon.“ Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens.When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.“ Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel.Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.“ I look for your deliverance, Lord.“ Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.“ Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king.“ Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.“ Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.“ Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.”All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”

Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.“ This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin“ Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,

My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”

For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship— and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.“ The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.‘ For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said,‘ We are his offspring.’“ Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone— an image made by human design and skill.In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king,“ The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.”

This is what the Lord says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

“‘ So do not be afraid, Jacob my servant; do not be dismayed, Israel,’ declares the Lord.‘ I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid.I am with you and will save you,’ declares the Lord.‘ Though I completely destroy all the nations among which I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you but only in due measure; I will not let you go entirely unpunished.’