New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock. O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory
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Listen, Shepherd, Israel's Shepherd - get all your Joseph sheep together. Throw beams of light from your dazzling throne
2 to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Show us your mighty power. Come to rescue us!
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So Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh can see where they're going. Get out of bed - you've slept long enough! Come on the run before it's too late.
3 Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.
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God, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
4 O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?
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God, God of the angel armies, how long will you smolder like a sleeping volcano while your people call for fire and brimstone?
5 You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful.
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You put us on a diet of tears, bucket after bucket of salty tears to drink.
6 You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations. Our enemies treat us as a joke.
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You make us look ridiculous to our friends; our enemies poke fun day after day.
7 Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.
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God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
8 You brought us from Egypt like a grapevine; you drove away the pagan nations and transplanted us into your land.
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Remember how you brought a young vine from Egypt, cleared out the brambles and briers and planted your very own vineyard?
9 You cleared the ground for us, and we took root and filled the land.
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You prepared the good earth, you planted her roots deep; the vineyard filled the land.
10 Our shade covered the mountains; our branches covered the mighty cedars.
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Your vine soared high and shaded the mountains, even dwarfing the giant cedars.
11 We spread our branches west to the Mediterranean Sea; our shoots spread east to the Euphrates River.
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Your vine ranged west to the Sea, east to the River.
12 But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?
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So why do you no longer protect your vine? Trespassers pick its grapes at will;
13 The wild boar from the forest devours it, and the wild animals feed on it.
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Wild pigs crash through and crush it, and the mice nibble away at what's left.
14 Come back, we beg you, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Look down from heaven and see our plight. Take care of this grapevine
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God of the angel armies, turn our way! Take a good look at what's happened and attend to this vine.
15 that you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself.
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Care for what you once tenderly planted - the vine you raised from a shoot.
16 For we are chopped up and burned by our enemies. May they perish at the sight of your frown.
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And those who dared to set it on fire - give them a look that will kill!
17 Strengthen the man you love, the son of your choice.
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Then take the hand of your once-favorite child, the child you raised to adulthood.
18 Then we will never abandon you again. Revive us so we can call on your name once more.
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We will never turn our back on you; breathe life into our lungs so we can shout your name!
19 Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.
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God, God of the angel armies, come back! Smile your blessing smile: That will be our salvation.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.