| I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king. | I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded. |
| We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. | Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. |
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| I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. | As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should! |
| I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. | I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. |
| The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. | The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving. |
| And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. | And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! |
| For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. | You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. |
| But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. | But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. |
| In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.” | In that wonderful day you will sing: “Thank the Lord! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!” |
| You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. | Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. |
| The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. | The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. |
| I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. | No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. |
| If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. | But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! |
| Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. | Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. |
| I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. | Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. |
| So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. | And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. |
| I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. | The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” |
| Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. | 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. |
| You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. | You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. |
| But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. | But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! |
| A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. | So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. |
| But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. | But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. |
| So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. | So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. |
| Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. | What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. |
| Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. | Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. |
