Isaiah 57:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 I will announce your verdict,
and the objects you made will not help you.
Romans 3:10-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
10 as it is written:
“There is no one who is righteous, not even one;(A)
11 there is no one who has understanding;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
there is no one who shows kindness;
there is not even one.”
13 “Their throats are opened graves;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of vipers is under their lips.”(B)
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;(C)
16 ruin and misery are in their paths,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that, whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.(D) 20 For no human will be justified before him by deeds prescribed by the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.(E)
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Matthew 23:13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.[a](A)
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Micah 3:2-4
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2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[a]
and the flesh off their bones,(A)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
and chop them up like meat[b] in a kettle,
like flesh in a caldron.(B)
4 Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time
because they have acted wickedly.(C)
Jeremiah 7:4-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is[a] the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another,(A) 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,(B) 7 then I will dwell with you[b] in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.
8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.(C) 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known(D) 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations?(E) 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? I, too, am watching, says the Lord.(F)
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Isaiah 1:11-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
11 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls
or of lambs or of goats.(A)
12 When you come to appear before me,[a]
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more!(B)
13 Bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.(C)
14 Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.(D)
15 When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.(E)
Footnotes
- 1.12 Or see my face
Romans 10:2-3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 For I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not based on knowledge.(A) 3 Not knowing the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.(B)
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Matthew 23:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long.(A)
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Isaiah 66:3-4
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3 Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human,
whoever sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog’s neck,
whoever presents a grain offering like one who offers pig’s blood,
whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense like one who blesses an idol.
Just as these have chosen their own ways
and in their abominations they take delight,(A)
4 so I will choose their punishments
and bring upon them what they fear,
because, when I called, no one answered,
when I spoke, they did not listen,
but they did what was evil in my sight
and chose what did not please me.(B)
Isaiah 64:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
because you hid yourself we transgressed.[a](A)
Footnotes
- 64.5 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Isaiah 59:6-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 Their webs cannot serve as clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and deeds of violence are in their hands.(A)
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they rush to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
desolation and destruction are in their highways.(B)
8 The way of peace they do not know,
and there is no justice in their ways.
Their roads they have made crooked;
no one who walks in them knows peace.(C)
Isaiah 58:2-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.[a](A)
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
and oppress all your workers.(B)
4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.(C)
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?(D)
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?(E)
Footnotes
- 58.2 Or they delight to draw near to God
Isaiah 29:15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 Woe to those who hide a plan too deep for the Lord,
whose deeds are in the dark,
and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”(A)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.