Psalms 53:4

For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent in that which is evil.

Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.

‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God.

I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.

who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don’t know Yahweh.

Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?

A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:

Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.”

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

Therefore all those who devour you will be devoured. All your adversaries, everyone of them, will go into captivity. Those who plunder you will be plunder. I will make all who prey on you become prey.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

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

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,

Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.

Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God.

A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”

For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars.

because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.

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

The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.

The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know. My people don’t consider.”

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.

Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’ ”

Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God.

Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.

“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.

But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.

Yahweh called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit.” With the noise of a great roar he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.

For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies.

But it was plucked up in fury. It was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit. Its strong branches were broken off and withered. The fire consumed them.

Then he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he will stumble and fall, and won’t be found.

You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will eat me up.”

This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.

However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”

But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.

Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;

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

Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners,

It isn’t good to have zeal without knowledge, nor being hasty with one’s feet and missing the way.

Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”

Therefore my people go into captivity for lack of knowledge. Their honorable men are famished, and their multitudes are parched with thirst.

“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”

I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says Yahweh: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.” ’ ”

Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work?

“ ‘ “How weak is your heart,” says the Lord Yahweh, “since you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute;

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now.

“When a man or woman has a plague on the head or on the beard,

When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them.

Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?

My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words.

When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, will make her desolate, will strip her naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.

There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.