Prophecy Against Mount Seir

35 The word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (A)“Son of man, ^(B)set your face ^(C)against ^(D)Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, ³ and say to it, Thus says the Lord God: ^(E)Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and ^(F)I will stretch out my hand against you, ^(G)and I will make you a desolation and a waste. ^4 (H)I will lay your cities waste, and you shall become a desolation, and you shall know that I am the Lord. ⁵ Because ^(I)you cherished perpetual enmity and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword ^(J)at the time of their calamity, ^(K)at the time of their final punishment, ⁶ therefore, ^(L)as I live, declares the Lord God, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; ^(M)because you did not hate bloodshed, therefore blood shall pursue you. ^7 (N)I will make Mount Seir a waste ^(O)and a desolation, and I will cut off from it ^(P)all who come and go. ⁸ And I will fill ^(Q)its mountains with the slain. On your hills and in your valleys and in all ^(R)your ravines ^(S)those slain with the sword shall fall. ^9 (T)I will make you a perpetual desolation, and ^(U)your cities shall not be inhabited. Then ^(V)you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁰ “Because you said, ^(W)‘These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and ^(X)we will take possession of them’—although the ^(Y)Lord was there— ¹¹ therefore, ^(Z)as I live, declares the Lord God, I will deal with you ^(AA)according to the anger and ^(AB)envy that you showed because of your hatred against them. And ^(AC)I will make myself known among them, when I judge you. ¹² And you shall know that I am the Lord.

^(AD)“I have heard all the revilings that you uttered against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They are laid desolate; ^(AE)they are given us to devour.’ ¹³ And ^(AF)you magnified yourselves against me ^(AG)with your mouth, and multiplied your words against me; I heard it. ¹⁴ Thus says the Lord God: ^(AH)While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. ¹⁵ As you ^(AI)rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, ^(AJ)Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then ^(AK)they will know that I am the Lord.

Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are ^(A)at war within you?^{[b] 2} You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^(B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ^4 (C)You adulterous people!^[c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(D)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit ^(E)that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But ^(F)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ^(G)“God opposes the proud but ^(H)gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^(I)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^8 (J)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. ^(K)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and ^(L)purify your hearts, ^(M)you double-minded. ^9 (N)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^10 (O)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

^11 (P)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.^[d] The one who speaks against a brother or ^(Q)judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is only ^(R)one lawgiver and ^(S)judge, he who is able to save and ^(T)to destroy. But ^(U)who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, ^(V)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^(W)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(X)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. ^(Y)All such boasting is evil. ^17 (Z)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.