Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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1 O Lord, my Father and Master
of my life, do not leave me
at the mercy of my own words; don't
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let them cause my downfall.
2 I wish
I could be whipped for my thoughts,
so that Wisdom could discipline my
mind. I would not want to be spared
when I am wrong; I would not want
a single sin to be overlooked!
3 Then
I would not keep on sinning, making
one mistake after another. I could
not fall to my enemies and be humiliated
by them.
4 O Lord, my Father, God of my
life, keep me from being arrogant;
5 protect me from evil desires.
6 Keep
me from being overcome by greed or
lust; do not leave me at the mercy of
these shameless passions.
Taking Oaths
7 My children, listen to what I
have to say about proper speech; do
as I teach you and you will never get
trapped.
8 Sinners are caught by
their own arrogant, insulting words.
9 Don't fall into the habit of taking
oaths, and don't use God's holy
name too freely. note
10 A slave who is
constantly beaten will never be free
of bruises; someone who is always
taking an oath by the Holy Name
will never be free of sin.
11 A man
who takes oaths all the time is sinful
to the core, and punishment is never
far away from his household. If he
fails to fulfill his oath, he is guilty. If
he ignores his oath, he is twice as
guilty. If his oath was insincere in
the first place, he cannot be pardoned
and will have a house full of
trouble.
Filthy Talk
12 There is one way of speaking
that is like death itself—may no Israelite
ever be guilty of it! Devout
people do not wallow in such sin,
and they will keep away from such
behavior.
13 Don't fall into the habit
of coarse, profane talk; it is sinful.
14 You might forget yourself while in
the company of important people
and make a fool of yourself with
some foul word that comes to you
naturally. Think how your parents
would feel! You would curse the day
you were born and wish you were
dead!
15 If you fall into the habit of
using offensive language, you will
never break yourself of it as long as
you live.
Sexual Sins
16 There are any number of ways
to sin and bring down the Lord's anger,
but sexual passion is a hot, blazing
fire that cannot be put out at
will; it can only burn itself out. A
man who lives for nothing but sexual
enjoyment will keep on until that
fire destroys him.
17 To such a man
all women are desirable, and he can
never get enough as long as he lives.
18 The man who is unfaithful to his
wife thinks to himself, “No one will
ever know. It's dark in here, and no
one sees me. I have nothing to worry
about. As for the Most High, he
won't even notice.”
19 This man is
only afraid of other people. He
doesn't realize that the eyes of the
Lord are 10,000 times brighter than
the sun, that he sees everything we
do, even when we try to hide it.
20 He
knew everything before he created
the world, as well as after.
21 That
sinful man will be caught when he
least expects it, and punished publicly.
22 The same is true of a woman
who is unfaithful to her husband and
presents him with a child by another
man.
23 In the first place, she has
broken the Law of the Most High. In
the second place, she has wronged
her husband. And in the third place,
she has made a whore of herself by
committing adultery and bearing the
child of a man not her husband.
24
25 The children will suffer for her
sin. They will not be able to find a
place in society or establish families.
She herself will be brought before
the assembly
26 and permanently disgraced.
There will be a curse on her
memory. After she is gone,
27 everyone
will realize that nothing is better
than fearing the Lord, nothing is
sweeter than keeping his commands.
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Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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