Ezekiel 18:15

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

and has not eaten on the mountains, hasn’t lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hasn’t defiled his neighbor’s wife, hasn’t come near a woman in her impurity,

Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh’s law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived. You shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.

Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.

I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh,

I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.

“ ‘You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people. “ ‘You shall not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am Yahweh.

and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the army of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.

Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he has recompensed me.

Those of you that escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols. Then they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

You will know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.

because they rejected my ordinances, and didn’t walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.

You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, that you will shake his yoke from off your neck.”

“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

“ ‘It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.’ ”

“ ‘If any man lies with her, and her monthly flow is on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed he lies on shall be unclean.

“ ‘You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness.

To you, Yahweh, I lift up my soul.

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

For I have heard the defaming of many, “Terror on every side! Denounce, and we will denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall. “Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.”

You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.

“ ‘ “Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head,” says the Lord Yahweh: “and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.

Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel?

“ ‘ “But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt.

“ ‘ “But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Don’t walk in the statutes of your fathers. Don’t observe their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.

I am Yahweh your God. Walk in my statutes, keep my ordinances, and do them.

“ ‘ “Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.

In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whoever she lusted after.

There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

“I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

“Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;

For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth.

This is to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to Yahweh, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace offerings to Yahweh.

“ ‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.

Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

When Saul had returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.”

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart;

He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.

I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in Yahweh.

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won’t tolerate one who is arrogant and conceited.

Whoever despises instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command will be rewarded.

The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts.

The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

“Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.

You will know that I am Yahweh, for you have not walked in my statutes, You have not executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.” ’ ”

or who does not do any of those things, but even has eaten at the mountain shrines, and defiled his neighbor’s wife,

“Yet you say, ‘Why doesn’t the son bear the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he will surely live.

I said to them, ‘Each of you throw away the abominations of his eyes. Don’t defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’

because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.

Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you.

Therefore tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood. So should you possess the land?

You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. So should you possess the land?” ’

They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don’t desire that you would have fellowship with demons.

The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,

I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

so whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.

Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.