Old/New Testament

Chapter 14

Idolatry of the Elders. ¹ Some of the elders came into my presence and sat down before me.^{[a] 2} Then the word of the Lord came to me: ³ Son of man, these men have reserved a special place in their hearts for their idols and have continued to revere the occasions of sin that led to their downfall. Why should I allow myself to be consulted by them?

⁴ Therefore, speak to them and declare this: Thus says the Lord God: To all those belonging to the house of Israel who continue to revere their idols in their hearts and fail to remove the stumbling block of their iniquity and then approach a prophet, I, the Lord, will deliver my answer to those who approach me with their multitude of idols. ⁵ In this way, I will recapture the hearts of the house of Israel, all of those who have been estranged from me through their idols.

⁶ Therefore, say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. ⁷ For if any members of the house of Israel or any aliens who reside in Israel separate themselves from me, holding the memory of their idols in their hearts and keeping the cause of their iniquity before their eyes, and then approach a prophet to consult me, I, the Lord, will answer them myself. ⁸ I will set my face against them, and I will make them an example and a byword. I will cut them off from the midst of my people, and thus you will know that I am the Lord.

⁹ If a prophet is led astray into making a prophecy, I, the Lord, shall have been the one who deceived that prophet. I will stretch out my hand against him and eradicate him from the presence of my people Israel. ¹⁰ The punishments received by the inquirer and the prophet shall be identical, ¹¹ so that the house of Israel will never again stray from me or defile themselves any longer with all their sins. Thus, they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord God.

¹² Individual Responsibility.^[b] This word of the Lord came to me: ¹³ Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it and cut off its supply of food, inflicting famine on it and removing from its midst all of its inhabitants and its animals, ¹⁴ even if the three men, Noah, Daniel,^[c] and Job were there, they could save no one but themselves by their own righteousness, says the Lord God.

¹⁵ If I were to unleash wild animals throughout the land to ravage it, so that it would become a desolate wasteland through which no one could traverse because of the savage beasts, ¹⁶ even if those three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither sons nor daughters; they alone would survive.

¹⁷ Or if I were to bring the sword down on that country, commanding the sword to pass through the land, isolating it from man and beast, ¹⁸ even if those three men were in it, says the Lord God, they would be unable to save either their sons or their daughters; they alone would be saved.

¹⁹ Or if I were to inflict a pestilence upon that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, destroying all people and animals with it, ²⁰ even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would save neither son nor daughter; they would only save themselves by their righteousness.

²¹ Thus says the Lord God: Even if I were to inflict upon Jerusalem my four dreadful scourges—sword, famine, wild animals, and pestilence—to cut off from it both men and animals, ²² even so some survivors will be left in it, both men and women. When they come to you and you observe their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled despite the disaster I have inflicted upon Jerusalem.^{[d] 23} They will be a source of consolation when you reflect upon their conduct and their deeds, and you will come to realize that it was not without good reason that I have done to it what I did.

Chapter 15^[e]

The Useless Vine. ¹ This word of the Lord came to me:

⁶ Therefore, thus says the Lord God:

Chapter 2

Rich and Poor in the Christian Assembly.^{[a] 1} My brethren, since you are believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, you must never practice favoritism. ² Suppose a man wearing a gold ring and expensive clothes comes into your assembly as well as a poor man dressed in shabby clothes. ³ If you lavish special attention on the one wearing the expensive clothes and say, “Please sit in this good seat,” while to the poor man you say, “Stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor at my feet,” ⁴ have you not shown favoritism among yourselves and judged by wrongful standards?

⁵ Listen to me, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose those who are poor^[b] in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have humiliated the poor man. Furthermore, is it not the rich who oppress you? Are they not the ones who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you?

⁸ You will be doing well if you truly observe the sovereign law enjoined in Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹ However, if you show partiality, you are committing a sin and stand convicted by the law as lawbreakers. ¹⁰ For whoever observes the whole Law but trips up on a single point is held guilty of breaking all of it.

¹¹ The one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do kill, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹² Therefore, always speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ True Faith Is Proved by Works.^[c] What good is it, my brethren, if someone claims to have faith but does not have good works? Can such faith save him? ^15 [d]Suppose a brother or sister is naked and lacks his or her daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to such a person, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat well,” but does not take care of that person’s physical needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it does not have works.

¹⁸ But perhaps someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and by works I will show you my faith. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well to assert that. But even the demons believe and tremble.

²⁰ You fool! Do you want proof that faith without works is futile? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Thus, you can see that his faith and his works were active together; his faith was brought to completion by works.

²³ Thus, the words of Scripture were fulfilled that say, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You can see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵ Likewise, Rahab the prostitute,^[e] was she not also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them away by a different road? ²⁶ For just as the body is dead without a spirit, so faith without works is also dead.