If you obey all the decrees and commands I am giving you today, all will be well with you and your children. I am giving you these instructions so you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time. | Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time. |
Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever. | If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! |
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So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way. | Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. |
And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. | So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. |
God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. | Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. |
But I will be merciful only if you stop your evil thoughts and deeds and start treating each other with justice; only if you stop exploiting foreigners, orphans, and widows; only if you stop your murdering; and only if you stop harming yourselves by worshiping idols. Then I will let you stay in this land that I gave to your ancestors to keep forever. | For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. |
When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways. | When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways. |
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” | God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” |
And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day. | Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. |
This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ | But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.” |
God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. | Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. |