Numbers 15:39

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.

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.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.

Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don’t forget, and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching:

Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.

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.

You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

This day shall be a memorial for you. You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh. You shall keep it as a feast throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.

It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”

Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children—

Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.

Behold, a man of God came out of Judah by Yahweh’s word to Bethel; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods.

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

Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself—

They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.

Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes.

I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me.

He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.

Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.

But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

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.

There you will remember your ways, and all your deeds in which you have polluted yourselves. Then you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.

These things will be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.

You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.

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;

I will sow them among the peoples; and they will remember me in far countries; and they will live with their children, and will return.

but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called “today”, lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

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

They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat idols, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.’

“ ‘But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, blasphemes Yahweh. That soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel.

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.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.

For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!

Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.

My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you,

Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?

But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.’

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

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.

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.

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

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.

Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

“ ‘ “Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

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.

Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard: There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig.

But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,

I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

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

Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.

“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;

“ ‘The person that turns to those who are mediums and wizards, to play the prostitute after them, I will even set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people.

Be careful, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

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.

My son, don’t forget my teaching; but let your heart keep my commandments:

One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.