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21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless hearts were darkened.(A)

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The Old Life and the New

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the[a] gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds;(A) 18 they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 4.17 Other ancient authorities add other

Thus says the Lord:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me
    that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?(A)

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15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their ancestors and the warnings that he had given them. They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.(A)

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Lord, who will not fear
    and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship before you,
for your judgments have been revealed.”(A)

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He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”(A)

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But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.9 Gk a people for his possession

For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,(A)

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23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me;
    to those who go the right way,[a]
    I will show the salvation of God.”

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Footnotes

  1. 50.23 Heb who set a way

18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold

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10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
    and keep their backs forever bent.”

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19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

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19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.(A)

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12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.(A)

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and that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will confess you among the gentiles
    and sing praises to your name”;(A)

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28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind and to do things that should not be done.(A)

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15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.(A) 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus’s[a] feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.(B) 17 Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? So where are the other nine? 18 Did none of them return to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

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Footnotes

  1. 17.16 Gk his

15 He brings all of them up with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his seine,
    so he rejoices and exults.(A)
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his seine,
for by them his portion is lavish,
    and his food is rich.

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She did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil
and who lavished upon her silver
    and gold that they used for Baal.(A)

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19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
    my refuge in the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,
    worthless things in which there is no profit.(A)

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14 Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;
    goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols,
for their images are false,
    and there is no breath in them.(A)
15 They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

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For the customs of the peoples are false:
a tree from the forest is cut down
    and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan;(A)
they deck it with silver and gold;
    they fasten it with hammers and nails
    so that it cannot move.(B)
Their idols[a] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
    and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
    for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
    for they cannot do evil,
    nor is it in them to do good.(C)

There is none like you, O Lord;
    you are great, and your name is great in might.(D)
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
    For that is your due;
among all the wise ones of the nations
    and in all their kingdoms
    there is no one like you.(E)
They are both stupid and foolish;
    the instruction given by idols
    is no better than wood![b](F)

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Footnotes

  1. 10.5 Heb They
  2. 10.8 Q ms Gk lack 10.6–8

For darkness shall cover the earth
    and thick darkness the peoples,
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will appear over you.(A)

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The Absurdity of Idol Worship

All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, and so they will be put to shame.(A) 10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?(B) 11 All its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans, too, are merely human. Let them all assemble; let them stand up; they shall be terrified; they shall all be put to shame.(C)

12 The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.(D) 13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.(E) 14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.(F) 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,[a] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm[b] by the fire!” 17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”(G)

18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.(H) 19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”(I) 20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”(J)

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Footnotes

  1. 44.16 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb he eats, he roasts a roast
  2. 44.16 Q ms: MT I see

29 See, this alone I found, that God made human beings straightforward, but they have devised many schemes.(A)

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