⁸ Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance,^{(A) 9} and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.^{(B) 10} Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.^(C)

⁴ Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.^(A)

⁸ But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers and sisters at that.

⁹ Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes,^[a] men who engage in illicit sex,^{[b](A) 10} thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ^[c] and in the Spirit of our God.^(B)

⁷ And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.^(A)

⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;^{(A) 10} do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.^{(B) 11} But they refused to listen and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears in order not to hear.^{(C) 12} They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.^{(D) 13} Just as, when I^[a] called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts,^{(E) 14} and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.”^(F)