Proverbs 14 Cross References - MSB

¹ Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands. ² He who walks in uprightness fears the LORD, but the one who is devious in his ways despises Him. ³ The proud speech of a fool brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them. ⁴ Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of the ox. ⁵ An honest witness does not deceive, but a dishonest witness pours forth lies. ⁶ A mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning. ⁷ Stay away from a foolish man; you will gain no knowledge from his speech. ⁸ The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools deceives them. ⁹ Fools mock the making of amends, but goodwill is found among the upright. ¹⁰ The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares in its joy. ¹¹ The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish. ¹² There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. ¹³ Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in sorrow. ¹⁴ The backslider in heart receives the fill of his own ways, but a good man is rewarded for his ways. ¹⁵ The simple man believes every word, but the prudent man watches his steps. ¹⁶ A wise man fears and turns from evil, but a fool is careless and reckless. ¹⁷ A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated. ¹⁸ The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. ¹⁹ The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. ²⁰ The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but many are those who love the rich. ²¹ He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who shows kindness to the poor. ²² Do not those who contrive evil go astray? But those who plan goodness find loving devotion and faithfulness. ²³ There is profit in all labor, but mere talk leads only to poverty. ²⁴ The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the effort of fools is folly. ²⁵ A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful. ²⁶ He who fears the LORD is secure in confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. ²⁷ The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death. ²⁸ A large population is a king’s splendor, but a lack of subjects is a prince’s ruin. ²⁹ A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly. ³⁰ A tranquil heart is life to the body, but envy rots the bones. ³¹ Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him. ³² The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death. ³³ Wisdom rests in the heart of the discerning; even among fools she is known. ³⁴ Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. ³⁵ A king delights in a wise servant, but his anger falls on the shameful.

¹¹ “We are witnesses,” said the elders and all the people at the gate. “May the LORD make the woman entering your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you be prosperous in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem.

³¹ And as if it were not enough for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he even married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and he then proceeded to serve and worship Baal.

²⁴ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.” ²⁵ (Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, incited by his wife Jezebel.

¹ When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.

¹³ The woman named Folly is loud; she is naive and knows nothing. ¹⁴ She sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the heights of the city, ¹⁵ calling out to those who pass by, who make their paths straight.

¹³ A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

⁹ Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

¹⁹ Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.

³ By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established; ⁴ through knowledge its rooms are filled with every precious and beautiful treasure.

¹⁰ A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies. ¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he lacks nothing of value. ¹² She brings him good and not harm all the days of her life. ¹³ She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. ¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. ¹⁵ She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants. ¹⁶ She appraises a field and buys it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard. ¹⁷ She girds herself with strength and shows that her arms are strong. ¹⁸ She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night. ¹⁹ She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. ²⁰ She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. ²¹ When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet. ²² She makes coverings for her bed; her clothing is fine linen and purple. ²³ Her husband is known at the city gate, where he sits among the elders of the land. ²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchants. ²⁵ Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the days to come. ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. ²⁷ She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. ²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband praises her as well: ²⁹ “Many daughters have done noble things, but you surpass them all!” ³⁰ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. ³¹ Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.

⁶ Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

¹ There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

⁴ I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

²⁸ And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

²¹ May integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait for You.

¹ Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.

³ Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt. ⁴ We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

¹⁵ whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious.

¹² Whoever shows contempt for his neighbor lacks judgment, but a man of understanding remains silent.

¹⁷ The highway of the upright leads away from evil; he who guards his way protects his life.

¹ Better a poor man who walks with integrity than a fool whose lips are perverse.

⁶ Better a poor man who walks with integrity than a rich man whose ways are perverse.

¹³ When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

⁵ “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. ⁶ True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

¹⁶ Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.

³¹ Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace. It grew in strength and numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

²² “Cornelius the centurion has sent us,” they said. “He is a righteous and God-fearing man with a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation. A holy angel instructed him to request your presence in his home so he could hear a message from you.”

³⁵ but welcomes those from every nation who fear Him and do what is right.

⁴ Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

² For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,

³ Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.

²¹ You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and will not fear havoc when it comes.

³ May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue.

¹⁸ May lying lips be silenced—lips that speak with arrogance against the righteous, full of pride and contempt.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Maskil of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long. ² Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

⁴ My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

⁶ The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.

⁶ A fool’s lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.

²⁴ Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man—of him who acts with excessive pride.

⁸ He who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

²⁵ A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

²⁰ I also wanted to know about the ten horns on its head and the other horn that came up, before which three of them fell—the horn whose appearance was more imposing than the others, with eyes and with a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

⁵ In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it boasts of great things. Consider how small a spark sets a great forest ablaze. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

¹⁸ With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

¹⁰ Because you have kept My command to persevere, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹ They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.

⁵ After this I looked, and the temple—the tabernacle of the Testimony—was opened in heaven. ⁶ And out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, dressed in clean and bright linen and girded with golden sashes around their chests.

²³ Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor, but without justice it is swept away.

⁶ “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

⁹ For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? ¹⁰ Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you?

¹⁶ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹ “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.

¹³ And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

¹² And all the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king.” ¹³ Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah instructed him, “Behold now, with one accord the words of the prophets are favorable to the king. So please let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴ But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will speak whatever the LORD tells me.”

¹⁹ a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.

¹⁷ He who speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit.

⁵ The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace.

²⁵ A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful.

⁵ A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

⁹ A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who pours out lies will perish.

¹⁸ Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.

⁹ They are all plain to the discerning, and upright to those who find knowledge.

²⁴ Wisdom is the focus of the discerning, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

² A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in airing his opinions.

¹² Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

⁹ The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what wisdom do they really have?

²² The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight. ²⁷ All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. ²⁶ For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. ²⁸ Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

³¹ but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³² Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works of the law. For they stumbled over the stumbling stone,

¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

² The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

³ Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. ⁴ “Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

⁶ Leave your folly behind, and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”

²⁰ He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

²⁷ If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

¹¹ But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

¹¹ Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

⁵ Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!

³⁴ Give me understanding that I may obey Your law, and follow it with all my heart. ³⁵ Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.

⁷³ Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.

⁸ Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

⁹ Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity—every good path.

²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

¹⁸ The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride?

¹⁹ Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹³ while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁵ From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁶ how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?

⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water? ⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?

⁴ Then you will find favor and high regard in the sight of God and man.

³⁵ For whoever finds me finds life and obtains the favor of the LORD.

²³ The fool delights in shameful conduct, but a man of understanding has wisdom.

² The good man obtains favor from the LORD, but the LORD condemns a man who devises evil.

¹⁵ Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the faithless is difficult.

¹⁸ Like a madman shooting firebrands and deadly arrows, ¹⁹ so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

²⁰ This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ For whoever serves Christ in these things is pleasing to God and approved by men.

¹⁸ when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”

²¹ Then they said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw his anguish when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”

¹⁰ In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

²⁷ When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

² “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales. ³ For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been rash. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹¹ Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁸ He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.

¹ “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

¹³ A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance, but sorrow of the heart crushes the spirit.

¹⁴ The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

¹⁴ So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me.

³³ He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed. ³⁴ Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”

²⁷ Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.

¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Though you have not known Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

⁶ if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate.

¹⁵ He leans on his web, but it gives way; he holds fast, but it does not endure.

³⁴ For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

¹⁴ He is torn from the shelter of his tent and is marched off to the king of terrors. ¹⁵ Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.

²¹ Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”

²⁶ Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent. ²⁷ The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. ²⁸ The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

²⁸ For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

¹³ This is the wicked man’s portion from God—the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty. ¹⁴ Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food. ¹⁵ His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them. ¹⁶ Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay, ¹⁷ what he lays up, the righteous will wear, and his silver will be divided by the innocent. ¹⁸ The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut set up by a watchman. ¹⁹ He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone. ²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night. ²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. ²² It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power. ²³ It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.

² His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. ³ Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.

³³ The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.

²⁸ He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.

⁷ The wicked are overthrown and perish, but the house of the righteous will stand.

¹² The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked and brings the wicked to ruin.

²⁰ Precious treasures and oil are in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man consumes them.

¹¹ The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. ¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

⁴ I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

¹⁵ The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.

²⁵ There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

¹² There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.

¹³ Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

²¹ What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.

³ If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

²² Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

⁴ in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

² I said of laughter, “It is folly,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?”

¹⁰ Anything my eyes desired, I did not deny myself. I refused my heart no pleasure. For my heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. ¹¹ Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

⁵ It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. ⁶ For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

²⁵ But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

⁹ Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

⁷ As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’ ⁸ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

³¹ So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. ³² For the waywardness of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

¹⁴ By fruitful speech a man is filled with good things, and the work of his hands returns to him.

¹⁰ The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares in its joy.

¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

⁵ Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.

³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁶ For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow?

⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

¹⁴ But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹² And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the integrity and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

⁴ Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else.

⁸ The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

¹² See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.

²⁰ If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

²⁶ Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

⁸ The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools deceives them.

³ The prudent see danger and take cover, but the simple keep going and suffer the consequences.

¹² The prudent see danger and take cover; but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

¹³ Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

⁷ an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, a man of intelligence, summoned Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.

¹⁸ For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. ¹⁹ Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise indeed about what is good and innocent about what is evil.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

¹ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

⁹ “I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”

¹⁸ and on the third day he said to them, “I fear God. So do this and you will live:

² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the lives of those you killed!”

¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.” ¹¹ And the king of Israel replied, “Tell him: ‘The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off.’”

¹⁸ “If they have marched out in peace,” he said, “take them alive. Even if they have marched out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁵ The governors before me had heavily burdened the people, taking from them bread and wine plus forty shekels of silver. Their servants also oppressed the people, but I did not do this because of my fear of God.

²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate, ²² then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket. ²³ For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

¹⁴ Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

¹²⁰ My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

²² He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

⁶ By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns aside from evil.

¹⁴ Blessed is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

⁹ If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution.

¹³ The beginning of his talk is folly, and the end of his speech is evil madness.

¹⁷ For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. ¹⁸ For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!” ¹⁹ So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she had been unable,

²⁴ Then she went out and asked her mother, “What should I request?” And her mother answered, “The head of John the Baptist.” ²⁵ At once the girl hurried back to the king with her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.”

⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”

²² Abstain from every form of evil.

⁶ And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.

⁵ Then King Xerxes spoke up and asked Queen Esther, “Who is this, and where is the one who would devise such a scheme?” ⁶ Esther replied, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked man—Haman!” And Haman stood in terror before the king and queen.

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,

¹⁶ A fool’s anger is known at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

²⁹ A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man promotes folly.

¹⁸ A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

³² He who is slow to anger is better than a warrior, and he who controls his temper is greater than one who captures a city.

²⁴ Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,

²² An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.

⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.

⁷ The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

²⁶ For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men. ²⁷ Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. ²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy. ²⁹ Should I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

¹⁹ So then, my beloved brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

³⁵ The wise will inherit honor, but fools are held up to shame.

⁷ Wisdom is supreme; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding. ⁸ Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you. ⁹ She will set a garland of grace on your head; she will present you with a crown of beauty.”

²⁹ He who brings trouble on his house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. ³⁰ The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

¹⁹ O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

³ Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. ³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

⁸ From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.

¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

⁶ Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

²⁸ “Your servant our father is well,” they answered. “He is still alive.” And they bowed down to honor him.

⁸ Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people. Then I will let your people go, that they may sacrifice to the LORD.”

²⁷ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. ²⁸ Pray to the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not need to stay any longer.”

⁸ And all these officials of yours will come and bow before me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will depart.” And hot with anger, Moses left Pharaoh’s presence.

³⁶ And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

¹² Jehoshaphat affirmed, “The word of the LORD is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

⁷ In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him. ⁸ Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was reclining. The king exclaimed, “Would he actually assault the queen while I am in the palace?” As soon as the words had left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

¹⁴ Like sheep they are destined for Sheol. Death will be their shepherd. The upright will rule them in the morning, and their form will decay in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.

²⁹ He who brings trouble on his house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

¹⁴ The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

⁹ Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the LORD, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness. ¹⁰ Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

¹⁶ Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf. ¹⁷ They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will crawl from their holes in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of You.

³ Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.

³⁹ They came to appease them and led them out, requesting that they leave the city.

⁹ Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

² All the royal servants at the king’s gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded that this be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.

¹⁰ Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. And calling for his friends and his wife Zeresh, ¹¹ Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.

²¹ For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid. ²² Have I ever said, ‘Give me something; offer me a bribe from your wealth; ²³ deliver me from the hand of the enemy; redeem me from the grasp of the ruthless’?

¹³ He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me. ¹⁴ My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.

¹⁰ They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹⁵ The wealth of the rich man is his fortified city, but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

⁴ Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.

⁶ Many seek the favor of the prince, and everyone is a friend of the gift giver. ⁷ All the brothers of a poor man hate him—how much more do his friends avoid him! He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.

¹³ If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me, ¹⁴ what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account? ¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

⁵ Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you. ⁶ If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him?

²⁴ For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble. ² The LORD will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to surrender him to the will of his foes.

⁵ It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice.

⁹ He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor.

²⁴ One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor. ²⁵ A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

³¹ Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

⁵ He who mocks the poor insults their Maker; whoever gloats over calamity will not go unpunished.

³ With a wicked man comes contempt as well, and shame is accompanied by disgrace.

¹⁷ Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.

²⁷ Whoever gives to the poor will not be in need, but he who hides his eyes will receive many curses.

¹ Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. ² Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may befall the land.

⁷ Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. ⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk, ¹⁰ and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

²⁷ Therefore, may my advice be pleasing to you, O king. Break away from your sins by doing what is right, and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”

³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ ⁴⁰ And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ ⁴¹ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ ⁴⁶ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

⁹ To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

³⁵ In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

¹² Then you will not be sluggish, but will imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court?

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that?

¹⁷ If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? ¹⁸ My little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. ¹⁹ And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: ²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, ²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

²⁷ saying, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

⁸ But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for My Name, you have done well to have this in your heart.

¹⁰ All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees.

⁷ May he sit enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness to guard him.

²⁹ Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he trustfully dwells beside you.

¹⁷ A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated.

²² The desire of a man is loving devotion; better to be poor than a liar.

⁷ The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just. ⁸ But a noble man makes honorable plans; he stands up for worthy causes.

⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁰ He who winks the eye causes grief, and foolish lips will come to ruin.

²⁴ The hand of the diligent will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.

¹⁹ The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

³ As a dream comes through many cares, so the speech of a fool comes with many words.

²⁷ Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

¹⁰ For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat.” ¹¹ Yet we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives and accomplishing nothing but being busybodies. ¹² We command and urge such people by our Lord Jesus Christ to begin working quietly to earn their own living.

¹³ At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention.

¹⁰ For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the labor of love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure.

¹⁰ For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others. ¹¹ Their graves are their eternal homes—their dwellings for endless generations—even though their lands were their namesakes. ¹² But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure; he is like the beasts that perish. ¹³ This is the fate of the self-confident and their followers who endorse their sayings. Selah

²² Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.

¹¹ Wisdom, like an inheritance, is good, and it benefits those who see the sun. ¹² For wisdom, like money, is a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times, a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.

⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when you fail, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

¹⁹ Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor. ²⁰ And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’ ²⁵ But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

⁵ An honest witness does not deceive, but a dishonest witness pours forth lies.

²¹ testifying to Jews and Greeks alike about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.

²⁶ Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. ²⁷ For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.

¹⁶ ‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you. ¹⁷ I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’ ¹⁹ So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. ²⁰ First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone throughout the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

¹ Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, ² influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. ³ They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

³ Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them. ⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! ⁹ Fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing. ¹⁰ Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. ¹¹ Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

⁶ Surely he will never be shaken; the righteous man will be remembered forever. ⁷ He does not fear bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. ⁸ His heart is assured; he does not fear, until he looks in triumph on his foes.

¹³ He will bless those who fear the LORD—small and great alike. ¹⁴ May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.

⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. ⁸ This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

²⁵ Do not fear sudden danger or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, ²⁶ for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from the snare.

¹⁰ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

²³ The fear of the LORD leads to life, that one may rest content, without visitation from harm.

¹⁸ It is good to grasp the one and not let the other slip from your hand. For he who fears God will follow both warnings.

²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed. ²¹ For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

¹¹ The LORD said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress.

³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

¹⁶ At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name. ¹⁷ “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

² “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

⁵ The cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul. ¹¹ Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you, ¹² to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity, ¹³ from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness, ¹⁴ from those who enjoy doing evil and rejoice in the twistedness of evil, ¹⁵ whose paths are crooked and whose ways are devious. ¹⁶ It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words ¹⁷ who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. ¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.

¹⁴ The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning one from the snares of death.

⁵ Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse; he who guards his soul stays far from them.

²⁶ And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

⁶ And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.

¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

²⁰ The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they were eating and drinking and rejoicing. ²¹ And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²⁷ The Israelites also mobilized, gathered supplies, and marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped before them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.

³² In those days the LORD began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout their territory ³³ from the Jordan eastward through all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh), and from Aroer by the Arnon Valley through Gilead to Bashan.

⁷ Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.

³ Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁸ Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

¹¹ A man’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

²⁴ Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, ²⁵ or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

⁸ do not bring hastily to court. Otherwise, what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame?

²⁸ Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who does not control his temper.

⁶ Folly is appointed to great heights, but the rich sit in lowly positions.

¹⁹ At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual, ²⁰ and he commanded some mighty men of valor in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing fiery furnace. ²¹ So they were tied up, wearing robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, and they were thrown into the blazing fiery furnace. ²² The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the fiery flames killed the men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. ²³ And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, firmly bound, fell into the blazing fiery furnace. ²⁴ Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and asked his advisers, “Did we not throw three men, firmly bound, into the fire?” “Certainly, O king,” they replied. ²⁵ “Look!” he exclaimed. “I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire—and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”

¹⁶ When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap the fruit of righteousness.

² For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

¹⁰ The wicked man will see and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked will perish.

⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame.

⁸ This will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.

²³ Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life.

⁴ A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but she who causes shame is like decay in his bones.

²² A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

⁹ Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, sexual immorality, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

⁵ Or do you think the Scripture says without reason that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns with envy?

¹³ If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me, ¹⁴ what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account? ¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb? ¹⁶ If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

⁵ “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”

²¹ He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who shows kindness to the poor.

² The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is Maker of them all.

¹⁶ Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.

²² Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, ²³ for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

⁸ If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

⁸ The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me.”

⁷ But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving. ⁸ I am not making a demand, but I am testing the sincerity of your love in comparison to the earnestness of others. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

¹⁷ If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? ¹⁸ My little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. ¹⁹ And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: ²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God,

²¹ And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.

¹⁸ I await Your salvation, O LORD.

¹⁵ Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.

¹⁸ He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world.

²⁵ But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. ²⁶ Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. ²⁷ I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night. ²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. ²² It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

¹⁵ As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

³⁷ Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.

⁹ Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.

¹⁵ Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.

¹⁶ For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.

²⁶ And this is the interpretation of the message: MENE means that God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. ²⁷ TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. ²⁸ PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” ²⁹ Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third highest ruler in the kingdom. ³⁰ That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace.

²¹ Again Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”

²⁴ That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

²² What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

⁵⁵ “Where, O Death, is your sting? Where, O Hades, is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

⁹ Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

⁸ We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

²¹ For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²³ I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

³ For while people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

¹⁸ And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, and their deeds will follow them.”

²³ A shrewd man keeps his knowledge to himself, but a foolish heart proclaims its folly.

¹⁶ Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool displays his folly.

² The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool spouts folly.

²⁸ The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil.

¹¹ A fool vents all his anger, but a wise man holds it back.

³ Even as the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking, and he shows everyone that he is a fool.

⁶ Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” ⁷ For what nation is great enough to have a god as near to them as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him? ⁸ And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

¹ “Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God: ³ You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. ⁴ The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. ⁵ Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed. ⁶ You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ⁷ The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven. ⁸ The LORD will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the LORD your God will bless you in the land He is giving you. ⁹ The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you. ¹¹ The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. ¹³ The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them. ¹⁵ If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ¹⁷ Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed. ¹⁸ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him. ²¹ The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed. ²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away. ²⁷ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, ²⁹ and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you. ³⁰ You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. ³³ A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. ³⁴ You will be driven mad by the sights you see. ³⁵ The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. ³⁶ The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you. ³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. ³⁹ You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. ⁴¹ You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. ⁴² Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. ⁴⁶ These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, ⁴⁸ you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. ⁵¹ They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. ⁵² They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you. ⁵³ Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you. ⁵⁴ The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, ⁵⁵ refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates. ⁵⁶ The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter ⁵⁷ the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates. ⁵⁸ If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— ⁵⁹ He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. ⁶⁰ He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. ⁶² You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. ⁶³ Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. ⁶⁶ So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see. ⁶⁸ The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹⁸ Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, ¹⁹ because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. ²⁰ The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven ²¹ and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. ²² Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. ²³ All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger. ²⁴ So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ ²⁵ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²⁶ They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. ²⁷ Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. ²⁸ The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

⁶ After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. ⁷ And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the LORD had done for Israel. ⁸ And Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110. ⁹ They buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel. ¹¹ And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. ¹² Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger, ¹³ for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. ¹⁴ Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

³⁴ and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. ³ Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her found themselves guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the LORD. ⁴ Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel. ⁵ This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves? ⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ ⁷ I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land, and made My inheritance detestable. ⁸ The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols. ⁹ Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children. ¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look; send to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this: ¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. ¹² Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the LORD. ¹³ “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water. ¹⁴ Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why then has he become prey? ¹⁵ The young lions have roared at him; they have growled with a loud voice. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant. ¹⁶ The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. ¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way? ¹⁸ Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? ¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts. ²⁰ “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute. ²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine? ²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there, ²⁴ a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her. ²⁵ You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

¹ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations ³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth. ⁶ Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. ⁸ Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD. ⁹ Then I bathed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck. ¹² I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen. ¹⁴ Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁵ But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! ¹⁷ You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. ¹⁹ And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. ²⁰ You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? ²¹ You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols. ²² And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood. ²³ Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness, ²⁴ you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square. ²⁵ At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. ²⁶ You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger. ²⁷ Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. ²⁸ Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied. ²⁹ So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied! ³⁰ How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute! ³¹ But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. ³² You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. ³⁴ So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite! ³⁵ Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! ³⁶ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷ therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked. ³⁸ And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy. ³⁹ Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers. ⁴² So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry. ⁴³ Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations? ⁴⁴ Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south. ⁴⁷ And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were. ⁴⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen. ⁵¹ Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵² So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵³ But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them. ⁵⁴ So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them. ⁵⁵ And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. ⁵⁶ Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you. ⁵⁸ You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD. ⁵⁹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you according to your deeds, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰ But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you. ⁶² So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, ⁶³ so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations ³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself, ⁴ you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those near and far will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil. ⁶ See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths. ⁹ Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency. ¹⁰ In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity. ¹¹ One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. ¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD. ¹³ Now look, I strike My hands together against your unjust gain and against the blood you have shed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act. ¹⁵ I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness. ¹⁶ And when you have defiled yourself in the eyes of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.’” ¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because all of you have become dross, behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’” ²³ And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹ When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.

⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know nothing of evil. ⁵ Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure. ⁶ My eyes favor the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way of integrity shall minister to me. ⁷ No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who tells lies shall stand in my presence. ⁸ Every morning I will remove all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.

⁵ He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

² A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son and share his inheritance as one of the brothers.

¹² A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass. ¹³ A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.

²⁶ He who assaults his father or evicts his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.

⁸ A king who sits on a throne to judge sifts out all evil with his eyes.

²⁶ A wise king separates out the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.

¹¹ He who loves a pure heart and gracious lips will have the king for a friend.

⁵ Remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

¹² If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.

⁴⁵ Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷ Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’ ⁴⁹ And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰ The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. ⁵¹ Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

²¹ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

²³ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

⁴² And the Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their portion at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁴ Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But suppose that servant says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and he begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk. ⁴⁶ The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows. ⁴⁸ But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.