50
Yahweh’s power
1 This is also what Yahweh says:
“You Israeli children, do not think [RHQ] that I forced your parents to be exiled/taken to Babylonia [MET]
like some men send away their wives
after giving them a paper
on which they state that they were divorcing them!
I certainly did not [RHQ] get rid of you like a man who sells his children to get money to pay what he owes.
No, the reason that I forced you to be exiled
was to punish you because of the sins that you have committed [DOU].
2 When I came to you to rescue you,
why did no one answer when I called out to you [RHQ]?
Was there no one there [RHQ]?
Or, did you think that I do not have the power [MTY] to rescue you [DOU]?
Think about this:
I can speak to a sea and cause it to become dry!
I can cause rivers to become deserts,
with the result that the fish in the rivers die from thirst and they rot.
3 I cause the sky to become dark,
as though [MET] it was wearing black clothes because it was mourning because someone had died.”
4 Yahweh our God has given me his wise message [MTY]
in order that I may encourage those who are weary.
Each morning he awakens me,
in order that I [SYN] may listen to what he teaches [SIM] me.
5 Yahweh our God has spoken to me [IDM],
and I have not rejected what he told me;
I have accepted [LIT] it.
6 I allowed people to beat me on my back
and to pull out the whiskers in my beard because they hated me.
I did not turn away [MTY] from them
when they made fun of me and spat on me.
7 But, because the Lord our God helps me,
I will never be humiliated.
Therefore, I am strongly determined [IDM] to face/endure difficulties,
and I know that nothing will cause me to be ashamed.
8 God, the one who vindicates me, is near to me;
so if anyone [RHQ] stands in front of me and accuses me in a court,
he will not be able to show that I have done anything that is wrong.
9 The Lord our God defends me in court,
so no one [RHQ] will be able to ◄condemn me/declare that I am guilty►.
All those who accuse me will disappear
like [SIM] old clothes that have been eaten by ◄larvae of moths/cockroaches►.
10 If you revere Yahweh
and do what his servant tells you to do,
even if you are ◄walking in darkness/enduring suffering►, and it seems that [MET] there is no light,
trust in Yahweh your God [DOU] to help you.
11 But you people who oppose me,
who would like to throw me into a blazing fire,
walk in your own fires
and burn yourselves with your own torches!
This is what Yahweh will cause to happen to you: