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In that day 1this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; he sets up 2salvation as walls and bulwarks.
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3Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
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4You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
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Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.
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5For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.
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The foot tramples it, the feet of 6the poor, the steps of 7the needy."
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The path of the righteous is level; 8you make level the way of the righteous.
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In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; 9your name and 10remembrance are the desire of our soul.
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My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. 11For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
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12If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD.
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O LORD, 13your hand is lifted up, but 14they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let 15the fire for your adversaries consume them.
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O LORD, you will ordain 16peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.
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O LORD our God, 17other lords besides you have ruled over us, 18but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
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They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.
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19But you have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; 20you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
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O LORD, 21in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.
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22Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O LORD;
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23we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
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24Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For 25your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
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Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves 26for a little while until the fury has passed by.
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27For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of 28the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.