Old/New Testament
22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the House of the king of Judah, and speak this thing there,
2 “and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter in by these gates!
3 ‘Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not trouble the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow. Do no violence or shed innocent blood in this place.
4 “For if you do this thing, then the kings sitting upon the throne of David shall enter in by the gates of this House and ride upon chariots and upon horses, he and his servants and his people.
5 “But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself,” says the LORD, “that this House shall be waste.”
6 ‘For thus has the LORD, spoken upon the king’s House of Judah: “You are Gilead to Me, the head of Lebanon. Surely I will make you as a wilderness, as uninhabited cities.
7 “And I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons. And they shall cut down your chief cedar trees and cast them in the fire.
8 “And many nations shall pass by this city. And every man shall say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’
9 “Then they shall answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods and served them.’”’”
10 Do not weep for the dead, and do not be moved for them. Weep for him who goes out. For he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned for Josiah, his father, who went out of this place: “He shall not return there.
12 “But he shall die in the place where they have led him captive and shall see this land no more.”
13 “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers without justice. He uses his neighbor without wages and gives him nothing for his work.
14 “He says, ‘I will build myself a wide house and large chambers.’ So he will make himself large windows and a ceiling with cedar and paint them with vermilion.
15 “Shall you reign because you close yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and prosper when he executed judgment and justice?
16 “When he judged the cause of the afflicted and the poor he prospered. Was not this because he knew Me,” says the LORD?
17 “But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for destruction.”
18 Therefore, thus says the LORD against Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother,’ or ‘Ah sister.’ Nor shall they mourn for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord,’ or ‘Ah, his glory.’
19 “He shall be buried as a donkey is buried, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry! Shout in Bashan, and cry by the passages! For all your lovers are destroyed.
21 “I spoke to you when you were in prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, that you would not obey My Voice.
22 “The spirit shall feed all your shepherds. And your lovers shall go into captivity. And then you shall be ashamed of all your wickedness and confounded.
23 “You who dwell in Lebanon, and make your nest in the cedars, how beautiful shall you be when sorrows come upon you, as the sorrow of a woman in labor?
24 “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet of My right Hand, yet would I pluck you from there.
25 “And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whose faces you fear, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 “And I will cause them to carry you away, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born. And there you shall die.
27 “But to the land to which they desire to return, they shall not return to it.
28 “Is not this man, Coniah, a despised and broken idol or a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they carried away, he and his seed, and cast out into a land that they do not know?
29 “O Earth, Earth, Earth! Hear the Word of the LORD!
30 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days. For there shall be no man from his seed who shall prosper and sit upon the throne of David or bear rule anymore in Judah.’”
23 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture,” says the LORD.
2 “Therefore, thus says the LORD God of Israel to the shepherds who feed My people: You have scattered My flock, and thrust them out, and have not visited them. Behold, I will reckon with you for the wickedness of your works,” says the LORD.
3 “And I will gather the remnant of My sheep out of all countries where I had driven them and will bring them again to their folds. And they shall grow and increase.
4 “And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them. And they shall dread no more nor be afraid, nor shall any of them be lacking,” says the LORD.
5 “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch. And a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice on the Earth.
6 “In His days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the Name by which they shall call Him: The Lord Our Righteousness.
7 “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘The LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
8 “but, ‘The LORD lives, Who brought up and led the seed of the House of Israel out of the North country, and from all countries where I had scattered them,’ and they shall dwell in their own land.”
9 My heart breaks within me, because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the presence of the LORD and because of His holy Words.
10 For the land is full of adulterers. Because of oaths, the land mourns, the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
11 “For both the Prophet and the Priest do wickedly. And I have found their wickedness in My House,” says the LORD.
12 “Therefore, their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness. They shall be driven forth and fall in it. For I will bring a plague upon them, the year of their reckoning,” says the LORD.
13 “And I have seen foolishness in the prophets of Samaria, who prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err.
14 “I have also seen filthiness in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They also strengthen the hands of the wicked, so that no one can turn away from his wickedness. They are all to Me as Sodom, and their inhabitants as Gomorrah.
15 “Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts concerning the prophets: ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall. For wickedness has gone forth from the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.’”
16 Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and teach you vanity. They speak the vision of their own heart, not out of the Mouth of the LORD.
17 “They continue to say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace.”’ And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’”
18 For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, so that he has perceived and heard His Word? Who has marked His Word and heard it?
19 Behold, the tempest of the LORD goes forth in wrath, and a violent whirlwind shall fall down upon the head of the wicked!
20 The anger of the LORD shall not return until He has executed, and until He has performed, the thoughts of His Heart. In the latter days, you shall understand it plainly.
21 “I have not sent these prophets,” says the LORD, “yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, and yet they prophesied.
22 “But if they had stood in My counsel, and had declared My Words to My people, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their inventions.
23 “Am I a God near at hand,” says the LORD, “and not a far off God?”
24 “Can anyone hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him,” says the LORD? “Do not I fill Heaven and Earth,” says the LORD?
25 “I have heard what the prophets said who prophesied lies in My Name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed.’
26 “How long do the prophets delight to prophesy lies, even prophesying the deceit of their own heart?
27 “Do they intend to cause My people to forget My Name by their dreams, which everyone tells his neighbor, as their forefathers have forgotten My Name for Baal?
28 “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream. And he who has My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat,” says the LORD?
29 “Is not My Word like a fire,” says the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks the stone?
30 “Therefore, behold, I will come against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My Word, each one from his neighbor.
31 “Behold, I will come against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who have sweet tongues, and say, ‘He says.’
32 “Behold, I will come against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their flatteries. And I did not send them or command them. Therefore, they bring no profit to this people,” says the LORD.
33 “And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest shall ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ You shall then say to them, ‘What oracle? “I will forsake you,”’” says the LORD.
34 “And as for the prophet, or the priest, or the people who shall say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ I will reckon with each one and his house.
35 “Thus each one shall say to his neighbor, and each one to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’
36 “And you shall no longer mention the oracle of the LORD. For each man’s word shall be his oracle. For you have perverted the Words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.
37 “Thus shall you say to the Prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you? And what has the LORD spoken?’
38 “And if you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ then thus says the LORD: Because you say this word, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’ and I have sent to you, saying, ‘You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD,’
39 “Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you. And I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My presence.
40 “And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall never be forgotten.”
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s Elect and the acknowledging of the Truth which is according to godliness;
2 in the hope of eternal life - which God, Who cannot lie, has promised since before the world began.
3 But He has revealed His Word in due time through preaching, which is committed to me according to the Commandment of God our Savior,
4 To Titus, my natural son according to the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you would continue to organize the things which remain, and would ordain elders in every city, as I directed you
6 (if any are blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of wastefulness or disobedient).
7 For an overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not willful, not angry, not given to wine, not a brawler, not greedy;
8 but one who loves strangers and goodness, is wise, righteous, holy, temperate,
9 holding fast the faithful Word according to doctrine, so that he may also be able to encourage with sound doctrine and convince those who speak against it.
10 For there are many disobedient and empty talkers, and deceivers of minds (mainly those of the circumcision)
11 whose mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole houses, teaching things they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain.
12 One of them (one of their own Prophets) said, “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
13 This witness is true! Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith
14 and not holding onto Jewish fables and commandments of men which turn away from the Truth.
15 To the pure, are all things pure. But, to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their minds and consciences are defiled.
16 They profess that they know God, but by works they deny Him and are abominable and disobedient and worthless as to every good work.
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