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For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance.
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"He found him in a desert land And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.
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As an eagle stirs up its nest, Hovers over its young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying them on its wings,
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So the Lord alone led him, And there was no foreign god with him.
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"He made him ride in the heights of the earth, That he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock;
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Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs; And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.
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"But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
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They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
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They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
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Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who fathered you.
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"And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
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And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith.
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They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.
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For a fire is kindled by my anger, And shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, And set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
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'I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them.
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They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, With the poison of serpents of the dust.
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The sword shall destroy outside; There shall be terror within For the young man and virgin, The nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
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I would have said, "I will dash them in pieces, I will make the memory of them to cease from among men,"
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Had I not feared the wrath of the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand, Lest they should say, "Our hand is high; And it is not the Lord who has done all this." '
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"For they are a nation void of counsel, Nor is there any understanding in them.
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Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would consider their latter end!
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How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had surrendered them?
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For their rock is not like our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.
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For their vine is of the vine of Sodom And of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.
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Their wine is the poison of serpents, And the cruel venom of cobras.
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'Is this not laid up in store with Me, Sealed up among My treasures?
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Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.'
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"For the Lord will judge His people And have compassion on His servants, When He sees that their power is gone, And there is no one remaining, bond or free.
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He will say: 'Where are their gods, The rock in which they sought refuge?
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Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise and help you, And be your refuge.
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'Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; Nor is there any who can deliver from My hand.