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56
God will bless all the nations
1 Yahweh says to all the people of Judah,
“Do the things that are fair and just,
because I will soon come to rescue [DOU] you.
2 I will bless those who faithfully obey my laws about the Sabbath/rest days.
I will bless those who ◄keep sacred/honor► my Sabbath/rest days,
and who do not do any work on those days,
and who refrain from [MTY] doing anything that is evil.
3 And foreigners who have believed in me should not say,
‘Yahweh will surely not allow me to belong to his people.’
And eunuchs should not say,
‘Because I am unable to have children, I cannot belong to Yahweh;
I am like [MET] a tree that has completely withered.’
4 They should not say that, because I, Yahweh, say this to the eunuchs
who obey my laws about the Sabbath,
and who choose to do the things that please me,
and who obey all the other laws of the agreement that I made with the Israeli people:
5 I will cause to be put inside the walls of my temple a monument [DOU] to them;
because of that monument, they will be honored more than they would have if they had children;
they will be honored forever.
6 I will also bless those who are not Israelis,
who ◄join themselves to/believe in► me,
and who serve me and worship and love me,
and who obey my laws about the Sabbath,
and who faithfully obey all the other laws of the agreement that I made with the Israeli people.
7 I will bring them to my sacred hill in Jerusalem,
I will cause them to be very joyful in my temple where people pray to me,
and I will accept the sacrifices that they completely burn on my altar and other sacrifices that they offer.
I will do those things for them because I want my temple to be a building where people of all nations pray to me.
8 I, Yahweh, the Lord, the one who will bring back the people of Israel who have been ◄forced to go/exiled► to other countries, say this:
'I will bring from other countries many more people to join those Israelis whom I have brought back.' ”
God promised to punish the Israeli leaders
9 “You surrounding nations have armies that are like [MET] animals in the forest;
come and attack/destroy Israel!
10 The Israeli leaders should be like watchdogs to protect the people,
but it is as though they are blind.
They are stupid.
They are all like [MET] dogs that cannot bark.
Good watchdogs bark when strangers approach,
but the Israeli leaders do not warn the people that their enemies are coming.
Instead, they just want to lie down and sleep and dream.
11 And they are like greedy dogs;
they never get all that they want.
They are supposed to lead the people, like good shepherds lead their flocks,
but they are ignorant,
and they each do whatever they want to do.
12 They say to each other, ‘Come, let’s go and get some wine and other alcoholic/strong drinks,
and let’s become drunk!
And tomorrow we will enjoy drinking even more!’ ”

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.