Ezekiel 7:13

In the prophets of Jerusalem I have also seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! Yahweh has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.

What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

I discerned, and behold, God had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me. Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;

Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—

Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

The rich man’s wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and we are in agreement with Sheol. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’ ”

For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. They couldn’t blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says Yahweh.

by your great wisdom and by your trading you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches—”

But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to Yahweh, as a devoted field. It shall be owned by the priests.

Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Should I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or should I refrain?” They said, “Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?

“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’

Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.

For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken. Chemosh will go out into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

“ ‘To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie in the middle of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. “ ‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude,’ says the Lord Yahweh.”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!

Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,

But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go.

“ ‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,

and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the moist with the dry.

Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?

Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose, and went to David into the woods, and strengthened his hand in God.

For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.

He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by Yahweh’s word, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” He lied to him.

They went after them to the Jordan; and behold, all the path was full of garments and equipment which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned, and told the king.

Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear?” They said, “Go up; for God will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him and prospered?

Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,

If he set his heart on himself, if he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath,

then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.

that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”

Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God.

They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.

They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?

A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, but he will condemn a man of wicked plans.

Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh, but those who do the truth are his delight.

The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.

A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish.

He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” peoples will curse him, and nations will abhor him—

Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”

There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”

Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and wickedness as with cart rope,

The elder and the honorable man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.

Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?

Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.

They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ”

Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.

“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plan against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings.” ’

Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.

They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’

But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Therefore Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth. This year you will die, because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.’ ”

therefore Yahweh says, “Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. He will not have a man to dwell among this people. He won’t see the good that I will do to my people,” says Yahweh, “because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh.” ’ ”

Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment.

Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,’ ” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”

Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive.

“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.

but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.

“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’

Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”

He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly.

Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.

It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”

For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.

Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;