The Love Without Hypocrisy

1 My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

2 You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

3 Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

4 Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

7 which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

8 provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

9 How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

11 so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

13 who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

14 in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

15 Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

16 There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;

18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

19 a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.

21 Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

22 When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

24 to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.

25 Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

26 For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

28 Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

30 Men don’t despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

31 but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

32 He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

33 He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.

35 He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”

4 Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

5 Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.

9 Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.

10 Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

11 “What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.

12 When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

13 Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can’t stand evil assemblies.

14 My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

17 Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”

21 How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

22 Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

23 Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don’t judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

24 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies;

25 and I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

26 I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’

27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

30 For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

31 The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.

3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,

5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil;

6 doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.

12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.

13 But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

1 These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.

2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

3 As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

4 Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner;

5 Take away the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

6 Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men;

7 for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen.

8 Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you?

9 Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another;

10 lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart.

11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

12 As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.

13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters.

14 As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.

15 By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.

16 Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it.

17 Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you.

18 A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.

19 Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.

20 As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink:

22 for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you.

23 The north wind produces rain; so a backbiting tongue brings an angry face.

24 It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.

25 Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

26 Like a muddied spring, and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

27 It is not good to eat much honey; nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.

28 Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint.

1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

2 We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

3 Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

5 But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;

6 who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”

7 to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

8 but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,

9 oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

10 But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

11 For there is no partiality with God.

12 For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

13 For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified

14 (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)

16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.

17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,

18 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

21 You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?

22 You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

23 You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law?

24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

25 For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

26 If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

27 Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.

6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 The commandment, which was for life, this I found to be for death;

11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.

20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,

23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.