Micah 6:12

but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper’s poison is under their lips.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.

“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

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

Don’t draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

he who hasn’t lent to them with interest, hasn’t taken any increase from them, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,

Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!

Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.

The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly.

They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

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

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.

“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.

Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.

“ ‘Make chains; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’

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

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.

“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and plunder, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people,” says the Lord Yahweh.

As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

My God will cast them away, because they didn’t listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.

Wail, you inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are undone! All those who were loaded with silver are cut off.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

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

For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their heart is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.

Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?

He who is truthful testifies honestly, but a false witness lies.

Truth’s lips will be established forever, but a lying tongue is only momentary.

By the fruit of his lips, a man enjoys good things, but the unfaithful crave violence.

How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers.

For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you.

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.

Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me.

Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.

“Son of man, you dwell in the middle of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.

She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by fire, doesn’t leave her.

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

“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”

but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.

They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”

One who hates and divorces”, says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says Yahweh of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.

Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among them.

Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger. Behold, they put the branch to their nose.

By the abundance of your commerce, your insides were filled with violence, and you have sinned. Therefore I have cast you as profane out of God’s mountain. I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.

Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

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

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,

“Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.”

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.