19 But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them.

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(A)and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then (B)nations shall bless themselves in him,
    (C)and in him shall they glory.”

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(A)It is the same for all, since (B)the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who (C)swears is as he who shuns an oath.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 9:2 Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew lacks and the evil

I say:[a] Keep the king's command, because of (A)God's oath to him.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 8:2 Hebrew lacks say
  2. Ecclesiastes 8:2 Or because of your oath to God

20 This we will do to them: let them live, lest (A)wrath be upon us, (B)because of the oath that we swore to them.”

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