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11 Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
    so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in midlife it will leave them,
    and at their end they will prove to be fools.

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20 The faithful will abound with blessings,
    but one who is in a hurry to be rich will not go unpunished.(A)

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The getting of treasures by a lying tongue
    is a fleeting vapor and a snare[a] of death.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 21.6 Gk: Heb seekers

17 But your eyes and heart
    are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.(A)

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13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
    and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
    and does not give them their wages,(A)

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27 Those greedy for unjust gain make trouble for their households,
    but those who hate bribes will live.(A)

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14 They have eyes full of adultery,[a] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

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Footnotes

  1. 2.14 Gk adulteress; or longing for an adulteress

11 they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for sordid gain what it is not right to teach.(A)

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On that day I will punish
    all who leap over the threshold,
who fill their master’s house
    with violence and fraud.(A)

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The Woes of the Wicked

Shall not everyone taunt such people and, with mocking riddles, say about them,

“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
    How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?(A)
Will not your own creditors suddenly rise
    and those who make you tremble wake up?
    Then you will be plunder for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
    all who survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
    to cities and all who live in them.(B)

“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
    setting your nest on high
    to be safe from the reach of harm!”(C)
10 You have devised shame for your house
    by cutting off many peoples;
    you have forfeited your life.(D)
11 The very stones will cry out from the wall,
    and the rafter will respond from the woodwork.

12 “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed
    and found a city on iniquity!”(E)

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Social Evils Denounced

Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and evil deeds[a] on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in their power.(A)
They covet fields and seize them,
    houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
    people and their inheritance.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.1 Cn: Heb work evil

13 There is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owners to their hurt,(A) 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. 15 As they came from their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall take nothing for their toil that they may carry away with their hands.(B) 16 This also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go, and what gain do they have from toiling for the wind?(C)

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22 The miser is in a hurry to get rich
    and does not know that loss is sure to come.

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One who augments wealth by exorbitant interest
    gathers it for another who is kind to the poor.(A)

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11 Wealth hastily gotten[a] will dwindle,
    but those who gather little by little will increase it.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 13.11 Gk Vg: Heb from vanity

23 But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.(A)

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Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure[a] during the last days. 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) You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 5.3 Or will eat your flesh, since you have stored up fire

20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’(A)

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“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)

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Footnotes

  1. 7.13 Heb he

And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.(A)

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But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.(A)

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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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Footnotes

  1. 23.13 Other authorities add 23.14 here (or after 23.12): Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for the sake of appearance you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation

Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.(A)

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I have sent it out, says the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name, and it shall abide in that house and consume it, both timber and stones.”(A)

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Their hands are skilled to do evil;
    the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
    thus they pervert justice.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 7.3 Cn: Heb they weave it