10 The wicked crave evil;
    their neighbors get no mercy from them.

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    you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
    and the flesh from their bones;(A)
who eat my people’s flesh,(B)
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;(C)
who chop(D) them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot?(E)

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For fools speak folly,(A)
    their hearts are bent on evil:(B)
They practice ungodliness(C)
    and spread error(D) concerning the Lord;
the hungry they leave empty(E)
    and from the thirsty they withhold water.
Scoundrels use wicked methods,(F)
    they make up evil schemes(G)
to destroy the poor with lies,
    even when the plea of the needy(H) is just.(I)
But the noble make noble plans,
    and by noble deeds(J) they stand.(K)

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29 Do not plot harm against your neighbor,
    who lives trustfully near you.(A)

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16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,(A) the lust of the eyes,(B) and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

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Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers(A) who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries(B) of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.(C) You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves(D) in the day of slaughter.[a](E) You have condemned and murdered(F) the innocent one,(G) who was not opposing you.

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Footnotes

  1. James 5:5 Or yourselves as in a day of feasting

Submit Yourselves to God

What causes fights and quarrels(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle(B) within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill.(C) You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive,(D) because you ask with wrong motives,(E) that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous(F) people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world(G) means enmity against God?(H) Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.(I) Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]?(J)

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Footnotes

  1. James 4:4 An allusion to covenant unfaithfulness; see Hosea 3:1.
  2. James 4:5 Or that the spirit he caused to dwell in us envies intensely; or that the Spirit he caused to dwell in us longs jealously

13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.(A) Mercy triumphs over judgment.

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Now these things occurred as examples(A) to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

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21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed,(A) malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

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13 Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor
    will also cry out(A) and not be answered.(B)

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12 The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers,
    but the root of the righteous endures.

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They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor,(A)
    their righteousness endures(B) forever;
    their horn[a] will be lifted(C) high in honor.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 112:9 Horn here symbolizes dignity.

Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely,(A)
    who conduct their affairs with justice.

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You who practice deceit,(A)
    your tongue plots destruction;(B)
    it is like a sharpened razor.(C)
You love evil(D) rather than good,
    falsehood(E) rather than speaking the truth.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 52:3 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 5.

Even on their beds they plot evil;(A)
    they commit themselves to a sinful course(B)
    and do not reject what is wrong.(C)

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Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever(A) you can find for them.’”

When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name. Then they waited.

10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who(B) is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread(C) and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

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