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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Dreams Mean Nothing
1 Foolish people are deceived
by vain hopes, and dreams
get them all excited.
2 A person who
pays any attention at all to dreams is
like someone who tries to catch
shadows or chase the wind.
3 What
you see in a dream is no more real
than the reflection of your face in a
mirror.
4 What is unreal can no more
produce something real than what is
-- --
dirty can produce something clean.
5 Dreams, divination, and omens are
all nonsense. You see in them only
what you want to see. note
6 Unless the
Most High has sent you the dream,
pay no attention to it.
7 Dreams have
misled many people; they put their
faith in them, only to be disappointed.
8 The Law is complete without
such falsehood. Wisdom, as spoken
by the righteous, is also
complete without it. note
Travel
9 A well-traveled note man with wide
experience knows many things and
talks sense.
10 You can't know much
if you haven't experienced much,
but travel can make you more
clever.
11 In my own travels I have
seen many things and learned more
than I can put into words.
12 I have
been in danger of death many times,
but I have always been able to escape
by relying on past experience.
Fear the Lord
13 Those who fear the Lord will
live, because they have put their
trust in the one who can save them.
14 Fear the Lord, and you will have
nothing else to fear. If your trust is
in him, you will never act like a coward.
15 People who fear the Lord are
fortunate, because they know where
they can look for help.
16 The Lord
watches over those who love him; he
is their strong protection and firm
support. He shelters them from the
heat, shades them from the noonday
sun, and keeps them from stumbling
and falling.
17 He makes them cheerful
and puts a sparkle in their eyes.
He blesses them with life and health.
Offering Sacrifices
18 If you offer as a sacrifice an animal
that you have obtained dishonestly,
it is defective and unacceptable.
19 The Most High gets no
pleasure from sacrifices made by ungodly
people; no amount of sacrifices
can make up for their sins.
20 A
man who steals an animal from the
poor to offer as a sacrifice is like a
man who kills a boy before his father's
eyes.
21 Food means life itself
to poor people, and taking it away
from them is murder.
22 It is murder
to deprive someone of his living or
to cheat an employee of his wages.
23 When one man builds and somebody
else tears down, has anything
been accomplished but hard work?
24 When one man blesses and somebody
else curses, which one is the
Lord going to listen to?
25 If you
touch a dead body and then purify
yourself by washing, but then go and
touch it again, what good did the
washing do?
26 If you fast because of
your sins, and then go out and commit
the same sins over again, what
have you gained by going without
food? Who do you think is going to
listen to your prayers?
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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