Ecclesiastes 5

WEEK  10                                          Ecclesiastes 5

WEDNESDAY  Reflections

Even as the Preacher/teacher examines life under the sun (just from the human perspective), he recognizes that God isn't to be trifled with. Even without an eternity to look forward to, or to fear if you're in rebellion to God, in this life God is a force to be reckoned with. Solomon's advice is simple (and I greatly paraphrase it ) don't tick God off and enjoy it when He blesses you. 



Ecc 5:1-20
(1)  Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
(2)  Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
(3)  For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
(4)  When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
(5)  Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
(6)  Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
(7)  For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
(8)  If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
(9)  Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
(10)  He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
(11)  When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
(12)  The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
(13)  There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
(14)  But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
(15)  As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
(16)  And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
(17)  All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
(18)  Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
(19)  Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
(20)  For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

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1 Kings 9

WEEK 10                                              1 Kings 9

TUESDAY  Reflections

Here again, God reminds Solomon it isn't the temple which will bring a blessing but obedience. God goes so far as to tell Solomon, He will cast this temple aside if Israel lives in disobedience. For God, a temple, even one as beautiful and costly as this one was, didn't impress Him when compared to the obedience of Israel.

 

This is again a reminder that God isn't impressed with what we offer (sacrifice) but the attitude of our hearts. What matters to God is our relationship to Him not what gifts we can bring him. 

1Ki 9:1-28
(1)  And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,
(2)  That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.
(3)  And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
(4)  And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:
(5)  Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
(6)  But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
(7)  Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
(8)  And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?
(9)  And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.
(10)  And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king's house,
(11)  (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
(12)  And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
(13)  And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.
(14)  And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.
(15)  And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
(16)  For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife.
(17)  And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,
(18)  And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
(19)  And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
(20)  And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,
(21)  Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.
(22)  But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.
(23)  These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.
(24)  But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.
(25)  And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.
(26)  And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
(27)  And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
(28)  And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

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1 Kings 8

WEEK   10                                  1 Kings 8

MONDAY  Reflections

Solomon's prayer and dedication speech repeat all of the promises and conditions God made in the wilderness. This dedication has the people reconfirming their covenant with God. Now, instead of a moving tabernacle, the ark has a permanent place.

 

. Why would they do this? Couldn’t they have turned it so it couldn’t be seen, or made the room bigger? Perhaps there is another reason? Perhaps God wanted the symbol of his presence to be seen outside of the Most Holy Place.

 

This is also to happen in our lives. God comes in when we surrender to Jesus, but his presence is meant to be noticed outside of us. The ark/God's presence was supposed to be seen in the temple always. Paul said we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus moves in his presence should be seen. God wants his presence to always be seen in us.

1Ki 8:1-66
(1)  Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
(2)  And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
(3)  And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
(4)  And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.
(5)  And king Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude.
(6)  And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims.
(7)  For the cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered the ark and the staves thereof above.
(8)  And they drew out the staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy place before the oracle, and they were not seen without: and there they are unto this day.
(9)  There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
(10)  And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
(11)  So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
(12)  Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
(13)  I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever.
(14)  And the king turned his face about, and blessed all the congregation of Israel: (and all the congregation of Israel stood;)
(15)  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hand fulfilled it, saying,
(16)  Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.
(17)  And it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
(18)  And the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart.
(19)  Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
(20)  And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
(21)  And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.
(22)  And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
(23)  And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:
(24)  Who hast kept with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day.
(25)  Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me.
(26)  And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
(27)  But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
(28)  Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
(29)  That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.
(30)  And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
(31)  If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:
(32)  Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
(33)  When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
(34)  Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
(35)  When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:
(36)  Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
(37)  If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
(38)  What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
(39)  Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
(40)  That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
(41)  Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake;
(42)  (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;
(43)  Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.
(44)  If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:
(45)  Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
(46)  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;
(47)  Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;
(48)  And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:
(49)  Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
(50)  And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:
(51)  For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:
(52)  That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.
(53)  For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.
(54)  And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.
(55)  And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying,
(56)  Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
(57)  The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:
(58)  That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.
(59)  And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the LORD, be nigh unto the LORD our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require:
(60)  That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
(61)  Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
(62)  And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.
(63)  And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the LORD, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
(64)  The same day did the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the house of the LORD: for there he offered burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings: because the brasen altar that was before the LORD was too little to receive the burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.
(65)  And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
(66)  On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

Jeremiah 46

WEEK  9                                          Jeremiah 46

SATURDAY  Reflections

The prophecy in this chapter was actually given before the events in chapter 42. This placement may have been done so as not to interfere with the flow of the book. What is important to note is God had warned Israel that Egypt was going to be destroyed. The leaders of the remnant in Judah ignored both warnings (chapter 46 and 42).

 

Yet in these prophesies, God offers a promise that He will not let Israel go. He will bring them back. Here we see the love of God shining forth. The God of the Old Testament isn't a God of vengeance, he is the same God of love we see in Jesus.

Jer 46:1-28
(1)  The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
(2)  Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.
(3)  Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
(4)  Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines.
(5)  Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD.
(6)  Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall toward the north by the river Euphrates.
(7)  Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
(8)  Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.
(9)  Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
(10)  For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
(11)  Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.
(12)  The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.
(13)  The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.
(14)  Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
(15)  Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
(16)  He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
(17)  They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
(18)  As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
(19)  O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
(20)  Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
(21)  Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.
(22)  The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
(23)  They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
(24)  The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
(25)  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
(26)  And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
(27)  But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
(28)  Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

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Ecclesiastes 4

WEEK  9                                         Ecclesiastes 4

FRIDAY  Reflections

Under the sun, from just an earthly perspective life is meaningless. The Preacher/teacher looks at the trials people face, and yes if there is only this life then what good is it to even be born. However, in the middle of these words, Christians have hope that there is more than this life. 

 

In the middle of his depression, there are words of practical wisdom in verses 9-12. Life is easier and more productive if you have help. As an introvert, my strength comes from spending time alone. Yet, being alone all of the time isn't productive. I believe God made us to be in community. We need others to help us and for us to be a help to them. Just from the practical side having two is better than one. 

Ecc 4:1-16
(1)  So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
(2)  Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
(3)  Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
(4)  Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
(5)  The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
(6)  Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
(7)  Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
(8)  There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
(9)  Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
(10)  For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
(11)  Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
(12)  And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(13)  Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
(14)  For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.
(15)  I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.
(16)  There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

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