Malachi 3:14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 You have said, “It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the Lord of hosts?(A)
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Isaiah 58:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
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.(A)
Psalm 73:8-13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.(A)
9 They set their mouths against heaven,
and their tongues range over the earth.
10 Therefore the people turn and praise them[a]
and find no fault in them.[b]
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”(B)
12 Such are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.(C)
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.(D)
Job 35:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 If you ask, ‘What advantage have I?
How am I better off than if I had sinned?’(A)
Zechariah 7:3-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”(A) 4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?(B) 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?
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Zephaniah 1:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the people
who settle like dregs in wine,
those who say in their hearts,
“The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do harm.”(A)
Joel 2:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;(A)
Job 34:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 For he has said, ‘It profits one nothing
to take delight in God.’(A)
James 4:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
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Job 22:17
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Job 21:14-15
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
14 They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
We do not desire to know your ways.(A)
15 What is the Almighty,[a] that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’(B)
Footnotes
- 21.15 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
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.