Ecclesiastes 3:7
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7 a time to tear and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;(A)
Amos 5:13
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13 Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time,
for it is an evil time.
Esther 4:13-14
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13 Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
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Acts 4:20
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20 for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”(A)
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Micah 7:5
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5 Put no trust in a friend;
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace,
Lamentations 3:28
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Footnotes
- 3.28 Heb he
Proverbs 31:8-9
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8 Speak out for those who cannot speak,
for the rights of all the destitute.[a](A)
9 Speak out; judge righteously;
defend the rights of the poor and needy.(B)
Footnotes
- 31.8 Heb all children of passing away
Proverbs 24:11-12
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11 if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death,
those who go staggering to the slaughter;(A)
12 if you say, “Look, we did not know this”—
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?
And will he not repay all according to their deeds?(B)
Joel 2:13
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13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,
and relenting from punishment.(A)
Job 32:4-22
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4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 But when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouths of these three men, he became angry.
6 Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite answered:
“I am young in years,
and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid
to declare my opinion to you.(A)
7 I said, ‘Let days speak
and many years teach wisdom.’
8 But truly it is the spirit in a mortal,
the breath of the Almighty[a] that makes for understanding.(B)
9 It is not the old[b] who are wise
nor the aged who understand what is right.(C)
10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;
let me also declare my opinion.’
11 “See, I waited for your words;
I listened for your wise sayings
while you searched out what to say.(D)
12 I gave you my attention,
but there was, in fact, no one who confuted Job,
no one among you who answered his words.
13 Yet do not say, ‘We have found wisdom;
God may vanquish him, not a human.’(E)
14 He has not directed his words against me,
and I will not answer him with your speeches.
15 “They are dismayed; they answer no more;
they have not a word to say.
16 And am I to wait because they do not speak,
because they stand there and answer no more?
17 I also will give my answer;
I also will declare my opinion.
18 For I am full of words;
the spirit within me constrains me.(F)
19 My belly is indeed like wine that has no vent;
like new wineskins, it is ready to burst.(G)
20 I must speak, so that I may find relief;
I must open my lips and answer.
21 I will not show partiality to any person
or use flattery toward anyone.(H)
22 For I do not know how to flatter—
or my Maker would soon put an end to me!(I)
Esther 7:4
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4 For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace, but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”[a](A)
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- 7.4 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Luke 19:37-40
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37 Now as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”(A)
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”(B) 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”(C)
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1 Samuel 25:24-44
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24 She fell at his feet and said, “Upon me alone, my lord, be the guilt; please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.(A) 25 My lord, do not take seriously this ill-natured fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal[a] is his name, and folly is with him, but I, your servant, did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent.(B)
26 “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, since the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from taking vengeance with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be like Nabal.(C) 27 And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the trespass of your servant, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live.(D) 29 If anyone should rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living under the care of the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. 30 When the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, 31 my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for having saved himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!(E) 33 Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! 34 For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal so much as one male.” 35 Then David received from her hand what she had brought him; he said to her, “Go up to your house in peace; see, I have heeded your voice, and I have granted your petition.”(F)
36 Abigail came to Nabal; he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk, so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.(G) 37 In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him; he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has judged the case of Nabal’s insult to me and has kept back his servant from evil; the Lord has returned the evildoing of Nabal upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail to make her his wife.(H) 40 When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41 She rose and bowed down, with her face to the ground, and said, “Your servant is a slave to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.”(I) 42 Abigail got up hurriedly and rode away on a donkey; her five maids attended her. She went after the messengers of David and became his wife.(J)
43 David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel; both of them became his wives.(K) 44 Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.(L)
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- 25.25 That is, fool
Amos 8:3
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3 The songs of the temple[a] shall become wailings on that day,”
says the Lord God;
“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”(A)
Footnotes
- 8.3 Or palace
Jeremiah 8:14
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14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink
because we have sinned against the Lord.(A)
Isaiah 36:21
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21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”
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Psalm 39:2
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2 I was silent and still;
I held my peace to no avail;
my distress grew worse;(A)
2 Kings 6:30
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30 When the king heard the words of the woman he tore his clothes—now since he was walking on the city wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth on his body underneath(A)—
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2 Kings 5:7
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7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”(A)
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1 Kings 21:27
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27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth over his bare flesh; he fasted, lay in the sackcloth, and went about dejectedly.(A)
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2 Samuel 3:31
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31 Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn over Abner.” And King David followed the bier.(A)
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2 Samuel 1:11
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11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and all the men who were with him did the same.(A)
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1 Samuel 19:4-5
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4 Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you and because his deeds have been of good service to you,(A) 5 for he took his life in his hand when he attacked the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced; why then will you sin against an innocent person by killing David without cause?”(B)
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Genesis 44:34
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34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father.”
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Genesis 44:18
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Judah Pleads for Benjamin’s Release
18 Then Judah stepped up to him and said, “O my lord, let your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.(A)
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