⁹ Then I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk ^(A)in the fear of our God ^(B)because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

^36 (A)Take no usury or interest from him; but ^(B)fear your God, that your brother may live with you.

¹⁴ However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord ^(A)to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

^12 (A)having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, ^(B)they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

⁵ to be discreet, chaste, ^(A)homemakers, good, ^(B)obedient to their own husbands, ^(C)that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

¹⁴ Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

²⁴ For ^(A)“the name of God is ^(B)blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.

The Church Prospers

^31 (A)Then the ^[a]churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were ^(B)edified.^[b] And walking in the ^(C)fear of the Lord and in the ^(D)comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were ^(E)multiplied.

²⁰ When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they ^(A)profaned My holy name—when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.’

Further Sayings of the Wise

²³ These things also belong to the wise: