¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

²⁰ But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

²¹ How the faithful city has become an [idolatrous] harlot, she who was full of justice! Uprightness and right standing with God [once] lodged in her—but now murderers.

²² Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water.

²³ Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes and runs after compensation and rewards. They judge not for the fatherless nor defend them, neither does the cause of the widow come to them [for they delay or turn a deaf ear].

²⁴ Therefore says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will appease Myself on My adversaries and avenge Myself on My enemies.

²⁵ And I will bring My hand again upon you and thoroughly purge away your dross [as with lye] and take away all your tin or alloy.

²⁶ And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; afterward you shall be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.

²⁷ Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her [returned] converts with righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God).

²⁸ But the crushing and destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together, and they who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

²⁹ For you will be ashamed [of the folly and degradation] of the oak or terebinth trees in which you found [idolatrous] pleasure, and you will blush with shame for the [idolatrous worship which you practice in the passion-inflaming] gardens which you have chosen.

³⁰ For you shall be like an oak or terebinth whose leaf withers, and like a garden that has no water.

³¹ And the strong shall become like tow and become tinder, and his work like a spark, and they shall both burn together, with none to quench them.

²⁰ And solemnly lifting up His eyes on His disciples, He said: Blessed (happy—^[a]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[b]to be envied) are you poor and ^[c]lowly and afflicted (destitute of wealth, influence, position, and honor), for the kingdom of God is yours!

²¹ Blessed (happy—^[d]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[e]to be envied) are you who hunger and seek with eager desire now, for you shall be filled and completely satisfied! Blessed (happy—^[f]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[g]to be envied) are you who weep and sob now, for you shall laugh!

²² Blessed (happy—^[h]with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, apart from your outward condition—and ^[i]to be envied) are you when people despise (hate) you, and when they exclude and excommunicate you [as disreputable] and revile and denounce you and defame and cast out and spurn your name as evil (wicked) on account of the Son of Man.

²³ Rejoice and be glad at such a time and exult and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is rich and great and strong and intense and abundant in heaven; for even so their forefathers treated the prophets.

²⁴ But woe to (alas for) you who are rich (^[j]abounding in material resources), for you already are receiving your consolation (the solace and sense of strengthening and cheer that come from prosperity) and have taken and enjoyed your comfort in full [having nothing left to be awarded you].

²⁵ Woe to (alas for) you who are full now (completely filled, luxuriously gorged and satiated), for you shall hunger and suffer want! Woe to (alas for) you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep and wail!

²⁶ Woe to (alas for) you when everyone speaks fairly and handsomely of you and praises you, for even so their forefathers did to the false prophets.

¹⁰ According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it,

¹¹ For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

¹² But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

¹³ The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

¹⁴ If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward.

¹⁵ But if any person’s work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire.^(A)

¹⁶ Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, ^[a]collectively as a church and also individually]?

¹⁷ If anyone ^[b]does hurt to God’s temple or corrupts it [^[c]with false doctrines] or destroys it, God will ^[d]do hurt to him and bring him to the corruption of death and destroy him. For the temple of God is holy (sacred to Him) and that [temple] you [^[e]the believing church and its individual believers] are.

¹⁸ Let no person deceive himself. If anyone among you supposes that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool [let him discard his worldly discernment and recognize himself as dull, stupid, and foolish, without true learning and scholarship], that he may become [really] wise.^(B)

¹⁹ For this world’s wisdom is foolishness (absurdity and stupidity) with God, for it is written, He lays hold of the wise in their [own] craftiness;^(C)

²⁰ And again, The Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are.^(D)

²¹ So let no one exult proudly concerning men [boasting of having this or that man as a leader], for all things are yours,

²² Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (Peter), or the universe or life or death, or the immediate and ^[f]threatening present or the [subsequent and uncertain] future—all are yours,

²³ And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.