Micah 3 Cross References - BSB

¹ Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice? ² You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones. ³ You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.” ⁴ Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done. ⁵ This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths: ⁶ Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them. ⁷ Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.” ⁸ As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. ⁹ Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right, ¹⁰ who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.” ¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

¹³ Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.” ¹⁴ And you answered me and said, “What you propose to do is good.” ¹⁵ So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes. ¹⁶ At that time I charged your judges: “Hear the disputes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident. ¹⁷ Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

¹⁸ You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

⁵ He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah. ⁶ Then he said to the judges, “Consider carefully what you do, for you are not judging for man, but for the LORD, who is with you when you render judgment. ⁷ And now, may the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.” ⁸ Moreover, Jehoshaphat appointed in Jerusalem some of the Levites, priests, and heads of the Israelite families to judge on behalf of the LORD and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem. ⁹ He commanded them, saying, “You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the LORD. ¹⁰ For every dispute that comes before you from your brothers who dwell in their cities—whether it regards bloodshed or some other violation of law, commandments, statutes, or ordinances—you are to warn them, so that they will not incur guilt before the LORD and wrath will not come upon you and your brothers. Do this, and you will not incur guilt.

⁴ Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.

¹ A Psalm of Asaph. God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods: ² “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah ³ Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. ⁴ Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. ⁵ They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

⁴ Then I said, “They are only the poor; they have played the fool, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God. ⁵ I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

¹⁵ Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken. ¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness. ¹⁷ But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. ¹⁸ Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

² saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates. ³ This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

¹ “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

¹ Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy, who say to your husbands, “Bring us more to drink.”

⁹ Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right, ¹⁰ who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.

⁵ I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

²⁰ When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, “So you have found me out, my enemy.” He replied, “I have found you out because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD.

⁶ So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” ⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here of whom we can inquire?” ⁸ The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

² Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to confront him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, the wrath of the LORD is upon you.

⁴ who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath,

⁴ Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon God.

²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD, and detest those who rise against You? ²² I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them as my enemies.

⁴ Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.

¹⁵ Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

³ You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.

¹⁰ There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity. ¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted. ¹² For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate. ¹³ Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil. ¹⁴ Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land, ⁵ asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales. ⁶ Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

³ Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.

⁴ This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, ⁵ whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them.

¹⁴ But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify that its works are evil.

¹⁸ If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, it would love you as its own. Instead, the world hates you, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.

²³ Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.

⁴⁰ “Not this man,” they shouted, “but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)

⁵¹ You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

⁹ Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.

³ unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,

³ They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’

⁶ You have multiplied those you killed in this city and filled its streets with the dead. ⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within this city are the meat, and the city is the pot; but I will remove you from it.

¹⁷ On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ ¹⁸ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

¹⁹ When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters. ²⁰ He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness.

⁴¹ They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—to the LORD, but He did not answer.

²⁸ Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.

⁹ Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

¹¹ Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹ Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. ² But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. ³ For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice. ⁴ No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake. ⁸ The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace. ⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰ Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead. ¹¹ We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities: ¹³ rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart. ¹⁴ So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. ¹⁵ Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

²⁷ say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’ ²⁸ But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

⁵ The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.

¹⁸ Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. ⁴ In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”

¹³ And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.

²² Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

²⁵ After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’

³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will.

⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

¹³ For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹² Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.

¹⁵ The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies. ¹⁶ For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

⁹ Come, all you beasts of the field; eat greedily, all you beasts of the forest. ¹⁰ Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber. ¹¹ Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain: ¹² “Come, let me get the wine, let us imbibe the strong drink, and tomorrow will be like today, only far better!”

¹⁴ They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

¹⁴ “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds. ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

⁹ As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His holy words. ¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused. ¹¹ “For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD. ¹² “Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD. ¹³ “Among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. ¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” ¹⁶ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’

²⁷ They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

³² “Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie. ¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’” ¹⁷ And in the seventh month of that very year, the prophet Hananiah died.

²¹ This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes. ²² Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’ ²³ For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”

¹⁰ Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built, ¹¹ tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth. ¹² Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’ ¹³ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury. ¹⁴ I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹⁵ And after I have vented My wrath against the wall and against those who whitewashed it, I will say to you: ‘The wall is gone, and so are those who whitewashed it— ¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw a vision of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.’

¹⁸ and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own? ¹⁹ You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.

²⁵ The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

¹¹ If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!

¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

⁸ But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

¹⁴ Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁸ For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

⁹ There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.

²⁰ To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. ²¹ They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God. ²² Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

¹⁰ For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.

¹⁰ Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

⁹ The mother of seven will grow faint; she will breathe her last breath. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. And the rest I will put to the sword in the presence of their enemies,” declares the LORD.

²² Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives, ²³ therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will deliver My people from your hands. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

⁹ And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime. ¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.

² And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. ³ And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not remain alive, because you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD.’ When he prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will pierce him through. ⁴ And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.

¹⁸ The magicians tried to produce gnats using their magic arts, but they could not. And the gnats remained on man and beast. ¹⁹ “This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

¹¹ The magicians could not stand before Moses, because the boils had broken out on them and on all the Egyptians.

⁴⁵ A diseased person must wear torn clothes and let his hair hang loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

⁹ (Formerly in Israel, a man on his way to inquire of God would say, “Come, let us go to the seer.” For the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.)

³⁷ So Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You give them into the hand of Israel?” But God did not answer him that day.

⁶ He inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.

¹⁵ Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am deeply distressed,” replied Saul. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.”

²⁵ who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,

¹² So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror! ¹³ You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate. ¹⁴ Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coals to warm them or fire to sit beside.

¹⁷ Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”

²² Then you will do as I have done: You will not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.

⁹ If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one decree for you. You have conspired to speak before me false and fraudulent words, hoping the situation will change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I will know that you can give me its interpretation.” ¹⁰ The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can do what the king requests! No king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer. ¹¹ What the king requests is so difficult that no one can tell it to him except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.”

¹¹ Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

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.

⁴ And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.

⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith. ⁹ But they will not advance much further. For just like Jannes and Jambres, their folly will be plain to everyone.

¹⁸ For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. ³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear,

¹ “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

¹⁸ Now behold, this day I have made you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.

¹¹ But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike.

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you return, I will restore you; you will stand in My presence. And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless, you will be My spokesman. It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them. ²⁰ Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, declares the LORD. ²¹ I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”

⁹ If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

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.

² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations

⁴ Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man? Confront them with the abominations of their fathers

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

¹⁰ As for you, son of man, describe the temple to the people of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure the plan,

⁷ But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

²⁹ because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

¹⁷ James son of Zebedee and his brother John (whom He named Boanerges, meaning “Sons of Thunder”),

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! ⁹ If we are being examined today about a kind service to a man who was lame, to determine how he was healed, ¹⁰ then let this be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ¹¹ This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ ¹² Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. ²⁰ For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

⁵⁴ On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him.

⁹ Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked directly at Elymas ¹⁰ and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord? ¹¹ Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. ¹² When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

⁵ And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself fully to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. ⁶ But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁹ One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent. ¹⁰ For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city.” ¹¹ So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching the word of God among the Corinthians.

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

¹² We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

¹⁶ Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

¹⁵ and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David. Do you indeed speak justly, O rulers? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? ² No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

¹⁵ Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the LORD.

²³ Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

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.

¹ Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice?

¹³ “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages, ¹⁴ who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion. ¹⁵ Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him. ¹⁶ He took up the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well with him. Is this not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD. ¹⁷ “But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”

²⁵ The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

⁹ Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster! ¹⁰ You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life. ¹¹ For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork. ¹² Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

⁵⁰ You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

¹⁵ Then Moses became very angry and said to the LORD, “Do not regard their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them or mistreated a single one of them.”

³ When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.” ⁴ So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. ⁵ When the ark of the covenant of the LORD entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a great shout that it shook the ground. ⁶ On hearing the noise of the shout, the Philistines asked, “What is this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” And when they realized that the ark of the LORD had entered the camp,

³ But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice.

³ Here I am. Bear witness against me before the LORD and before His anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated or oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe and closed my eyes? Tell me, and I will restore it to you.” ⁴ “You have not wronged us or oppressed us,” they replied, “nor have you taken anything from the hand of man.”

² who indeed call yourselves after the holy city and lean on the God of Israel; the LORD of Hosts is His name.

¹¹ Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:

¹³ “For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

⁸ But look, you keep trusting in deceptive words to no avail. ⁹ Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD. ¹² But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

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.

¹⁸ When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.

¹⁰ All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:

³ Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

¹⁰ “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

¹⁸ When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money. ¹⁹ “Give me this power as well,” he said, “so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter replied, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

¹⁷ Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; ¹⁸ if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; ¹⁹ if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? ²⁴ As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ²⁵ Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. ²⁶ If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker. ²⁸ A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God.

³ not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.

¹¹ who must be silenced. For the sake of dishonorable gain, they undermine entire households and teach things they should not.

² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but because it is God’s will; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;

¹ Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed. ³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

¹⁴ Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed. ¹⁵ They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

¹¹ Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹ A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

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

² In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. ³ And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

¹⁸ “Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’

⁶ Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.

¹ In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it. ² And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

² “Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

¹³ where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. ¹⁴ For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”