From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. | Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions. |
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. | But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. |
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Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. | Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. |
First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. | Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me. |
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe. | In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, for you alone, Yahweh, make me live in safety. |
The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! | When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? |
May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. | Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus. |
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. | We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds. |
So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help. | Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. |
Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval. | Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand. |
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. | I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever. |
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” | Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.” |
Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. | Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this: he will make your righteousness shine out like light, and your justice as the noon day sun. |
The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.” | I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. |
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? | But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? |
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. | Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope. |
For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. | For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established; that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. |
Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. | Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. |
Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? | Or do you think that I couldn’t ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels? |
For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. | For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them. |
You must not exploit a widow or an orphan. If you exploit them in any way and they cry out to me, then I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will blaze against you, and I will kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless. | You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. |