Ezekiel 18:17

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

He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!”

Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.

Don’t turn away to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.

Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds.

By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.

It is an abomination for kings to do wrong, for the throne is established by righteousness.

Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.

But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.

Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.

“But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, should he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them he shall die.

I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he will live in them.

then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn’t heed the warning, if the sword comes, and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.

if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he will surely live. He will not die.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’ ”

For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,

Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!”

For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them.

“ ‘Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled.

For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

“See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the evil on his house in his son’s day.”

You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

Oh continue your loving kindness to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.

The rich and the poor have this in common: Yahweh is the maker of them all.

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

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

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the dreaded ones is like a storm against the wall.

Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?

Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains. They will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god.

Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.

When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; that wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.

has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live,” says the Lord Yahweh.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.

Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.

“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’

He said to them, “Collect no more than that which is appointed to you.”

But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!

I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.

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

They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest.

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.

“ ‘You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out.

You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you.

Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess;

He brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter; for she had neither father nor mother. The maiden was fair and beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb);

he who doesn’t lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.

All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name.

He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.

Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

He who increases his wealth by excessive interest gathers it for one who has pity on the poor.

he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

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

In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you.

For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies.

This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”

You shall do my ordinances. You shall keep my statutes and walk in them. I am Yahweh your God.

You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you

Therefore you shall keep my requirements, that you do not practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and that you do not defile yourselves with them. I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him who I didn’t know.

If his children forsake my law, and don’t walk in my ordinances;

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren’t concerned about knowledge.

The king who fairly judges the poor, his throne shall be established forever.

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so it was well, then. Wasn’t this to know me?” says Yahweh.

Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he will surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.”

has lent with interest, and has taken increase from the poor; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood will be on him.

“But if the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

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.

“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations?

When I tell the righteous that he will surely live; if he trusts in his righteousness, and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but he will die in his iniquity that he has committed.

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your tranquility.”

From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”