The Bible, quoted
in its own voices.

For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”

“‘The Lord GOD says: “It will happen in that day that things will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. You will say, ‘I will go up to the land of unwalled villages. I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take the plunder and to take prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.’ Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all its young lions, will ask you, ‘Have you come to take the plunder? Have you assembled your company to take the prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’”’

For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. The LORD’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.

Don’t withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again; tomorrow I will give it to you,” when you have it by you. Don’t devise evil against your neighbor, since he dwells securely by you. Don’t strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm.

Therefore the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: At the end of seven years, every man of you shall release his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years. You shall let him go free from you. But your fathers didn’t listen to me, and didn’t incline their ear. You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor. You had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name; but you turned and profaned my name, and every man caused his servant and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return. You brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.’”

A Song of Ascents. By David.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let’s go to the LORD’s house!” Our feet are standing within your gates, Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, where the tribes go up, even the LORD’s tribes, according to an ordinance for Israel, to give thanks to the LORD’s name.

The burnt offering that the prince shall offer to the LORD shall be on the Sabbath day, six lambs without defect and a ram without defect; and the meal offering shall be an ephah for the ram, and the meal offering for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. On the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without defect, six lambs, and a ram. They shall be without defect. He shall prepare a meal offering: an ephah for the bull, and an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs according as he is able, and a hin of oil to an ephah. When the prince enters, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go out by its way.

A good name is more desirable than great riches, and loving favor is better than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is the maker of them all. A prudent man sees danger and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it. The result of humility and the fear of the LORD is wealth, honor, and life. Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked; whoever guards his soul stays far from them.

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and broke it. Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “The LORD says: ‘Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from off the neck of all the nations within two full years.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘The LORD says, “You have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron.” For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. I have also given him the animals of the field.”’”