²⁰ that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. ^(A)For you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ^(B)‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and ^(C)whatever the Lord our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’

²² But be ^(A)doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

^7 (A)Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for ^(B)whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

^35 (A)And one of them, ^(B)a lawyer, asked him a question ^(C)to test him.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

^15 (A)Then the Pharisees went and plotted how ^(B)to entangle him in his words. ¹⁶ And they sent ^(C)their disciples to him, along with ^(D)the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, ^(E)we know that you are true and teach ^(F)the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for ^(G)you are not swayed by appearances.^{[a] 17} Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay ^(H)taxes to ^(I)Caesar, or not?” ¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why ^(J)put me to the test, you hypocrites?

^31 (A)And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for ^(B)with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.

^3 (A)“Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set ^(B)the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. ^(C)Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? ⁴ Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, ^(D)I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols,

² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let ^(A)our plea for mercy come before you, and ^(B)pray to the Lord your God for us, for all ^(C)this remnant—^(D)because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us—