Ezekiel 20:18

I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.

One who walks with wise men grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.

For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.

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

My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.

Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

My son, don’t walk on the path with them. Keep your foot from their path,

My foot stands in an even place. In the congregations I will bless Yahweh.

So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,

Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times.

Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.

Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.

If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it.

Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.

Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.

As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.

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

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.

“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?

to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things,

Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

Penalties are prepared for scoffers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to prepare a people prepared for the Lord.”

through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

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.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

“Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.”

Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

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;

Yahweh of Armies, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his 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.

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

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

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.

for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

Yahweh had said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.’ ”

Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Your enemies will submit themselves to you. You will tread on their high places.”

Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you.

I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.

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

Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.

Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.

But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

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.

If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of Yahweh your God.

“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?

Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

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

Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’

To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

“ ‘ “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.

Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!”

Don’t quench the Spirit.

The land was defiled. Therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.

Gideon made an ephod out of it, and put it in Ophrah, his city. Then all Israel played the prostitute with it there; and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images.

Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

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.

Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze;

For Yahweh says, “You were sold for nothing; and you will be redeemed without money.”

“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

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

“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

“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.

“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;

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

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.

I hate the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.

My son, if sinners entice you, don’t consent.

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

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.’

When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”

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;

knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

“Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in Egypt; and serve Yahweh.

He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.

They came in and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice and didn’t walk in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them.

“Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father’s sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;

who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who hasn’t received interest or increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.