Psalms 18:21

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

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.

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you; for now Yahweh would have established your kingdom on Israel forever.

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.’ ”

For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet. His disease was exceedingly great: yet in his disease he didn’t seek Yahweh, but just the physicians.

An arm of flesh is with him, but Yahweh our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles.” The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’ ”

Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”

See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul: and Yahweh grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

For I have kept Yahweh’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I didn’t depart from them.

because they turned away from following him, and wouldn’t pay attention to any of his ways,

Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to false gods. They have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up,

‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.

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

At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it,

Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this servant and her son! For the son of this servant will not be heir with my son, Isaac.”

“The whole congregation of Yahweh says, ‘What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away today from following Yahweh, in that you have built yourselves an altar, to rebel today against Yahweh?

When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.” Yahweh’s angel was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

“Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.

Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.

Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.

We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.

I have not turned away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.

Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, who walks in his ways.

For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.

Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them.

“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.

Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them.

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn’t gather with me, scatters.

They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,

Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.

For already some have turned away after Satan.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

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

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

Hezekiah did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and faithful before Yahweh his God.

Remember them, my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.

who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.

But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me.

Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.

Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.

Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.

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.

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

“ ‘ “But the Levites who went far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they will bear their iniquity.

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.”

Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.

“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name.

Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray.

But watch yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils. You will be beaten in synagogues. You will stand before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them.

When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,

Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.

“It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.

He walked in the way of Asa his father, and didn’t turn away from it, doing that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes.

Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn’t depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

As for the deeds of men, by the word of your lips, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent.

Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.

“Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.

transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances.

But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says Yahweh of Armies.

In this I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned.

They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.