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8  The Lord is gracious and merciful, ♦︎
   long-suffering and of great goodness.
9  The Lord is loving to everyone ♦︎
   and his mercy is over all his creatures.
14  The Lord is sure in all his words ♦︎
   and faithful in all his deeds.
15  The Lord upholds all those who fall ♦︎
   and lifts up all those who are bowed down.
16  The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, ♦︎
   and you give them their food in due season.
17  You open wide your hand ♦︎
   and fill all things living with plenty.
18  The Lord is righteous in all his ways ♦︎
   and loving in all his works.
19  The Lord is near to those who call upon him, ♦︎
   to all who call upon him faithfully.
20  He fulfils the desire of those who fear him; ♦︎
   he hears their cry and saves them.
21  The Lord watches over those who love him, ♦︎
   but all the wicked shall he destroy.

¹⁷ Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!
   Stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
   the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
   the bowl of staggering.
¹⁸ There is no one to guide her
   among all the children she has borne;
there is no one to take her by the hand
   among all the children she has brought up.
¹⁹ These two things have befallen you
   —who will grieve with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword—
   who will comfort you?^*
20 Your children have fainted,
   they lie at the head of every street
   like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
   the rebuke of your God.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,^*
   who are drunk, but not with wine:
²² Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,
   your God who pleads the cause of his people:
See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
you shall drink no more
   from the bowl of my wrath.
²³ And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
   who have said to you,
   ‘Bow down, that we may walk on you’;
and you have made your back like the ground
   and like the street for them to walk on.

6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, ⁷and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ ⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. ⁹For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.’ ¹⁰Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue, ¹²not by works but by his call) she was told, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’ ¹³As it is written,
‘I have loved Jacob,
   but I have hated Esau.’