Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.
You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,
slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
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.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.
If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,
I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.
. . .
For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead—
and all the brothers with me, To the churches of Galatia:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
. . .
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! For you have made it clear today that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would have pleased you!
God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation each day.
If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.
He has prepared His deadly weapons; He ordains His arrows with fire.
Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.
. . .
He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers, nor for the one desired by women, nor for any other god, because he will magnify himself above them all.
And in their place, he will honor a god of fortresses—a god his fathers did not know—with gold, silver, precious stones, and riches.
He will attack the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him, making them rulers over many and distributing the land for a price.
At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, invading many countries and sweeping through them like a flood.
He will also invade the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall. But these will be delivered from his hand: Edom, Moab, and the leaders of the Ammonites.
. . .
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O God of my praise, be not silent.
For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues.
They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
. . .
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God—
the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,
and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through Him and on behalf of His name, we received grace and apostleship to call all those among the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
. . .
In his place a despicable person will arise; royal honors will not be given to him, but he will come in a time of peace and seize the kingdom by intrigue.
You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?
Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.
His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up.
For his own feet lead him into a net, and he wanders into its mesh.
. . .
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept in Jesus Christ:
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.
For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.
. . .
You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
. . .
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler.
But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name.
. . .
he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and semantics, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,
and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.
The elder, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I alone, but also all who know the truth—
because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, will be with us in truth and love.
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us.
And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
. . .
Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.
And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.
He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.
. . .
Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.
“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.
All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”
“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,
Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
In those times many will rise up against the king of the South. Violent ones among your own people will exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they will fail.
Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
The end of a matter is better than the beginning, and a patient spirit is better than a proud one.
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.
Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush,
which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.
All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it.
For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.
. . .
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why does this concern us?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
. . .
After this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there were trying to kill Him.
However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.
So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing.
For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”
For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.
. . .
“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”
“Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”
Then each went to his own home.
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning He went back into the temple courts. All the people came to Him, and He sat down to teach them.
. . .
But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors.
This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses.
So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves.
For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death.
. . .
And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer.
Then Pilate asked Him, “Do You not hear how many charges they are bringing against You?”
But Jesus gave no answer, not even to a single charge, much to the governor’s amazement.
Now it was the governor’s custom at the feast to release to the crowd a prisoner of their choosing.
At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.
. . .
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.
A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, and a devious man is hated.
The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
The evil bow before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
The poor man is hated even by his neighbor, but many are those who love the rich.
He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who shows kindness to the poor.
. . .
He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment.
A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in airing his opinions.
With a wicked man comes contempt as well, and shame is accompanied by disgrace.
The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters; the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
Showing partiality to the wicked is not good, nor is depriving the innocent of justice.
. . .
If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution.
Men of bloodshed hate a blameless man, but the upright care for his life.
A fool vents all his anger, but a wise man holds it back.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One:
“Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords.”
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.
Then He rebukes them in His anger, and terrifies them in His fury:
. . .
Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts.
Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.
Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.
Blessed be the LORD, for He has heard my cry for mercy.
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart rejoices, and I give thanks to Him with my song.
. . .
A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
. . .
For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.
You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.
. . .
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.
John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne,
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
. . .
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.
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,
. . .