2 Chronicles 19 Cross References - MSB

¹ When Jehoshaphat king of Judah had returned safely to his home in Jerusalem, 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. ³ However, some good is found in you, for you have removed the Asherah poles from the land and have set your heart on seeking God.” ⁴ Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and once again he went out among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and turned them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers. 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. ¹¹ Note that Amariah, the chief priest, will be over you in all that pertains to the LORD, and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all that pertains to the king. And the Levites will serve as officers before you. Act resolutely; may the LORD be with the upright!”

³¹ When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “This is the king of Israel!” So they turned to fight against him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him. ³² And when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.

⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

¹⁰ But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

⁴¹ when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me.

¹¹ Bless his substance, O LORD, and accept the work of his hands. Smash the loins of those who rise against him, and of his foes so they can rise no more.”

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.)

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha, saying:

⁷ Moreover, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil he had done in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands and becoming like the house of Jeroboam, and also because Baasha had struck down the house of Jeroboam.

¹² So Zimri destroyed the entire household of Baasha, according to the word that the LORD had spoken against Baasha through Jehu the prophet.

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.

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and told him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

¹ Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage.

³ Ahab king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth-gilead?” And Jehoshaphat replied, “I am like you, and my people are your people; we will join you in the war.”

⁷ 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.

²⁸ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

³⁴ As for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from beginning to end, they are indeed written in the Chronicles of Jehu son of Hanani, which are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.

¹⁸ They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

²⁵ But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

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

⁸ Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song. God arises. His enemies are scattered, and those who hate Him flee His presence.

¹⁵ My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.

⁷ For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

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.

¹⁰ My son, if sinners entice you, do not yield to them. ¹¹ If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause, ¹² let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit. ¹³ We will find all manner of precious goods; we will fill our houses with plunder. ¹⁴ Throw in your lot with us; let us all share one purse”— ¹⁵ my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path. ¹⁶ For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood. ¹⁷ How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it! ¹⁸ But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. ¹⁹ Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.

¹⁸ If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.

²³ Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

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.

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

³¹ Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

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

⁴ You adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

¹⁰ If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him. ¹¹ Whoever greets such a person shares in his evil deeds.

¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the LORD, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.

¹² Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, and He did not destroy him completely. Indeed, conditions were good in Judah.

¹⁴ And Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

³ Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek out the Baals, ⁴ but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel. ⁵ So the LORD established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor. ⁶ And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah.

¹⁹ who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

¹⁰ For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

⁷ My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music.

¹⁸ I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot discover how to carry it out.

³³ And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.

¹⁵ Joshua answered them, “If you have so many people that the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go to the forest and clear for yourself an area in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim.”

¹ Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

¹ Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.

³ Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the Israelites put away the Baals and Ashtoreths and served only the LORD.

¹⁵ So Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. ¹⁶ Every year he would go on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all these places. ¹⁷ Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.

⁸ When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the LORD’s temple. ⁹ And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, along with those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for great numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. ¹⁰ So they gathered together in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. ¹¹ At that time they sacrificed to the LORD seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep from all the plunder they had brought back. ¹² Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul. ¹³ And whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ Now, my sons, do not be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, to minister before Him, and to burn incense.”

⁶ And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

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. ¹⁹ Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

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.

¹ Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God. ² Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval. ⁴ For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore it is necessary to submit to authority, not only to avoid punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.

¹³ Therefore submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to the king as the supreme authority, ¹⁴ or to governors as those sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.

¹⁵ You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

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.”

⁵ But be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

¹⁰ Consider now that the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it.”

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. ⁶ I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’

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.

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

⁸ Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Therefore do not follow them.

³⁵ “Men of Israel,” he said, “consider carefully what you are about to do to these men.

²⁶ On hearing this, the centurion went and reported it to the commander. “Consider what you are about to do,” he said. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

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

²¹ Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² Have these men judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you any major issue, but all minor cases they can judge on their own, so that your load may be lightened as they share it with you.

²⁵ So Moses chose capable men from all Israel and made them heads over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.

⁸ Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

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. ¹⁹ Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

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.

¹⁹ who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.

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. ²⁴ Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies. ²⁵ I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities. ²⁶ I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

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.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance.

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.

⁵ But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms. ⁶ Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!

⁶ But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me.

⁹ And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that your Master is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.

²⁵ But whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each one’s work impartially, conduct yourselves in reverent fear during your stay as foreigners.

¹⁹ Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their causes to Him. ²⁰ Teach them the statutes and laws, and show them the way to live and the work they must do. ²¹ Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² Have these men judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you any major issue, but all minor cases they can judge on their own, so that your load may be lightened as they share it with you. ²³ If you follow this advice and God so directs you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people can go home in peace.” ²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

⁸ If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the LORD your God will choose. ⁹ You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case. ¹⁰ You must abide by the verdict they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you, ¹¹ according to the terms of law they give and the verdict they proclaim. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from the decision they declare to you. ¹² But the man who acts presumptuously, refusing to listen either to the priest who stands there to serve the LORD your God, or to the judge, must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

⁵ And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault.

¹ If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

⁴ “Of these,” said David, “24,000 are to oversee the work of the house of the LORD, 6,000 are to be officers and judges,

²⁹ From the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had the outside duties as officers and judges over Israel.

⁸ accompanied by certain Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah—along with the priests Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD. They went throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people.

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.”

³ The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

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.”

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, ⁴ but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. ⁵ Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.

¹ Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.

⁴⁶ Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, place fire from the altar in it, and add incense. Go quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, because wrath has come out from the LORD; the plague has begun.”

¹⁸ And now, would you turn away from the LORD? If you rebel today against the LORD, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹ If indeed the land of your inheritance is unclean, then cross over to the land of the LORD’s possession, where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take possession of it among us. But do not rebel against the LORD or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. ²⁰ Was not Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath upon the whole congregation of Israel? Yet it was not only Achan who perished because of his sin!’”

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.

¹⁸ If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you warn a wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰ Now if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. And I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹ But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’

³¹ Therefore be alert and remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.

⁶ Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them.

⁹ Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

¹¹ Azariah was the father of Amariah, Amariah was the father of Ahitub,

¹¹ Now, my son, may the LORD be with you, and may you succeed in building the house of the LORD your God, as He said you would.

¹⁶ in gold and silver, bronze and iron—craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and may the LORD be with you.”

¹⁹ Now set your heart and soul to seek the LORD your God. Get started building the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD.”

³⁰ From the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had charge of the affairs of Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the LORD and for the service of the king.

²⁰ David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you before all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.

² So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

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.

²⁵ To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless; ²⁶ to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.

²³ The steps of a man are ordered by the LORD who takes delight in his journey.

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

²⁰ So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²⁶ To the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner He assigns the task of gathering and accumulating that which he will hand over to one who pleases God. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

⁷ For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

⁵⁰ Now there was a Council member named Joseph, a good and righteous man,

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. ²⁴ Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. The word that you hear is not My own, but it is from the Father who sent Me.

²⁴ Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

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. ⁶ God “will repay each one according to his deeds.” ⁷ To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. ⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be anger and wrath. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew, then for the Greek. ¹¹ For God does not show favoritism. ¹² All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

¹³ Be on the alert. Stand firm in the faith. Be men of courage. Be strong.

⁸ Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

¹ You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.