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12 Do you want to really live?[a]
Would you love to live a long, happy life?[b]
13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words[c]
or use deceptive speech.[d]
14 Turn away from evil and do what is right.[e]
Strive for peace and promote it.[f]
15 The Lord pays attention to the godly
and hears their cry for help.[g]
16 But the Lord opposes evildoers
and wipes out all memory of them from the earth.[h]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 34:12 tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.
  2. Psalm 34:12 tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”
  3. Psalm 34:13 tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”
  4. Psalm 34:13 tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”
  5. Psalm 34:14 tn Or “do good.”
  6. Psalm 34:14 tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”
  7. Psalm 34:15 tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord [are] toward the godly, and his ears [are] toward their cry for help.”
  8. Psalm 34:16 tn Heb “the face of the Lord [is] against the doers of evil to cut off from the earth memory of them.”

12 Whoever of you loves life(A)
    and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue(B) from evil
    and your lips from telling lies.(C)
14 Turn from evil and do good;(D)
    seek peace(E) and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the Lord(F) are on the righteous,(G)
    and his ears are attentive(H) to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against(I) those who do evil,(J)
    to blot out their name(K) from the earth.

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