11
They came to her, and she said to them, "Listen to me, rulers of the people of Bethulia! What you have said to the people today is not right; you have even sworn and pronounced this oath between God and you, promising to surrender the city to our enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days.
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Who are you, that have put God to the test this day, and are setting yourselves up in the place of God among the sons of men?
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You are putting the Lord Almighty to the test -- but you will never know anything!
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You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God, who made all these things, and find out his mind or comprehend his thought? No, my brethren, do not provoke the Lord our God to anger.
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For if he does not choose to help us within these five days, he has power to protect us within any time he pleases, or even to destroy us in the presence of our enemies.
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Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God; for God is not like man, to be threatened, nor like a human being, to be won over by pleading.
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Therefore, while we wait for his deliverance, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our voice, if it pleases him.
18
"For never in our generation, nor in these present days, has there been any tribe or family or people or city of ours which worshiped gods made with hands, as was done in days gone by --
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and that was why our fathers were handed over to the sword, and to be plundered, and so they suffered a great catastrophe before our enemies.
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But we know no other god but him, and therefore we hope that he will not disdain us or any of our nation.
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For if we are captured all Judea will be captured and our sanctuary will be plundered; and he will exact of us the penalty for its desecration.