David said to the messenger, "Encourage Joab and tell him not to be upset, since you never can tell who will die in battle. Tell him to launch a stronger attack on the city and capture it."

I know you are taking me off to my death, to the fate in store for everyone.

then everyone living would die and turn into dust again.

You tell us to return to what we were; you change us back to dust.

Seventy years is all we have--- eighty years, if we are strong; yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow; life is soon over, and we are gone.

After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either.

They are both going to the same place---the dust. They both came from it; they will both go back to it.

Yes, the living know they are going to die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward; they are completely forgotten.

Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God.

There is hope for a tree that has been cut down; it can come back to life and sprout.

with water it will sprout like a young plant.

Like rivers that stop running, and lakes that go dry,

My strength is gone, gone like water spilled on the ground. All my bones are out of joint; my heart is like melted wax.

They shed your people's blood like water; blood flowed like water all through Jerusalem, and no one was left to bury the dead.

The LORD your God is supreme over all gods and over all powers. He is great and mighty, and he is to be obeyed. He does not show partiality, and he does not accept bribes.

He does not take the side of rulers nor favor the rich over the poor, for he created everyone.

Then they sent to him some of their disciples and some members of Herod's party. "Teacher," they said, "we know that you tell the truth. You teach the truth about God's will for people, without worrying about what others think, because you pay no attention to anyone's status.

Peter began to speak: "I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.

For God judges everyone by the same standard.

You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

But if it was an accident and he did not mean to kill him, he can escape to a place which I will choose for you, and there he will be safe.

"But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me,

These will serve as cities of refuge for Israelites and for foreigners who are temporary or permanent residents. Anyone who kills someone accidentally can escape to one of them.

You are guilty only of manslaughter, and the community is to rescue you from the dead person's relative, and they are to return you to the city of refuge to which you had escaped. You must live there until the death of the man who is then High Priest.

Any of you guilty of manslaughter must remain in the city of refuge until the death of the High Priest, but after that you may return home.

The LORD says, "Do you think I sent my people away like a man who divorces his wife? Where, then, are the papers of divorce? Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes.

"Why did my people fail to respond when I went to them to save them? Why did they not answer when I called? Am I too weak to save them? I can dry up the sea with a command and turn rivers into a desert, so that the fish in them die for lack of water.