Romans 1:31

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.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up.

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

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

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

Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

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.

Joseph hurried, for his heart yearned over his brother; and he sought a place to weep. He entered into his room, and wept there.

Behold, when we come into the land, tie this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household.

“Oh, my son! Oh, son of my womb! Oh, son of my vows!

Yes also when the fool walks by the way, his understanding fails him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

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.

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

Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.

I will also spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there.

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.”

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

“He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

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;

Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.

Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”

But remember me when it is well with you. Please show kindness to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways.

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

A prudent man keeps his knowledge, but the hearts of fools proclaim foolishness.

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

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;

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.

He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

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.

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

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

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!

Don’t you yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?

without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good,

You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.

He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.

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.

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

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

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

The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, since he has no understanding?

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

I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.

The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.

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.

The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children. They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Therefore the fathers will eat the sons within you, and the sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you; and I will scatter the whole remnant of you to all the winds.

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;

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

He summoned the multitude, and said to them, “Hear, and understand.

He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,

But they didn’t understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.

Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

Now therefore, please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true sign;

We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.”

Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill him!” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide him.”

“There is a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.”

She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion.

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.

The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man.

“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.”

Even the jackals offer their breast. They nurse their young ones. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

So Jesus said, “Do you also still not understand?

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

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!

“ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the middle of Babylon he will die.

For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;