Acts 23:21

Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.

But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.

Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”

They conspire and lurk, watching my steps. They are eager to take my life.

When some of both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, made a violent attempt to mistreat and stone them,

This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage,

If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

But if any man hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities;

He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil;

When you vow a vow to God, don’t defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.

When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.

When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

When I was told that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him to you immediately, charging his accusers also to bring their accusations against him before you. Farewell.”

For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.

then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, “May Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell;

Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.

Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn’t kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt for my life to take it.

When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

Yet for all this, we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, and our priests, seal it.”

You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You will pay your vows.

My praise of you comes in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people.

I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey your righteous ordinances.

But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.

All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the local governors, the counselors and the governors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a strong decree, that whoever asks a petition of any god or man for thirty days, except of you, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.

Pilate decreed that what they asked for should be done.

but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him,

But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders.

But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.

But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

“I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

“ ‘Or if anyone swears rashly with his lips to do evil or to do good—whatever it is that a man might utter rashly with an oath, and it is hidden from him—when he knows of it, then he will be guilty of one of these.

“ ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.

You shall not do so to Yahweh your God; for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, they have done to their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”

They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;

because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones.

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I haven’t gone astray from your precepts.

The wicked desires the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes.

It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows.

Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

“Again you have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land?

But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great curse to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

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?

if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.

not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

Therefore I make known to you that no man speaking by God’s Spirit says, “Jesus is accursed.” No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” but by the Holy Spirit.

If any man doesn’t love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Come, Lord!

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might know the love that I have so abundantly for you.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”

For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,

knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

When a man vows a vow to Yahweh, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

If he shoved him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, so that he died,

You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to Yahweh your God as a free will offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do.

He commanded them, saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready.

Our adversaries said, “They will not know or see, until we come in among them and kill them, and cause the work to cease.”

joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.

For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.

The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes.

serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;

asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh

I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;

that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;