Listen to this, people of Israel, you that are descended from Judah: You swear by the name of the LORD and claim to worship the God of Israel--- but you don't mean a word you say.

What my enemies say can never be trusted; they only want to destroy. Their words are flattering and smooth, but full of deadly deceit.

Help us, LORD! There is not a good person left; honest people can no longer be found.

All of them lie to one another; they deceive each other with flattery.

People of Jerusalem, run through your streets! Look around! See for yourselves! Search the marketplaces! Can you find one person who does what is right and tries to be faithful to God? If you can, the LORD will forgive Jerusalem.

Even though you claim to worship the LORD, you do not mean what you say.

You will tell them that their nation does not obey me, the LORD their God, or learn from their punishment. Faithfulness is dead. No longer is it even talked about.

The LORD has an accusation to bring against the people who live in this land. Listen, Israel, to what he says: "There is no faithfulness or love in the land, and the people do not acknowledge me as God.

They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another.

There is not an honest person left in the land, no one loyal to God. Everyone is waiting for a chance to commit murder. Everyone hunts down their own people.

But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?

How can you treat people like fish or like a swarm of insects that have no ruler to direct them?

In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest

After many days had gone by, the Jews met together and made plans to kill Saul,

As the scripture says, "For your sake we are in danger of death at all times; we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered."

Some were mocked and whipped, and others were put in chains and taken off to prison.

The world was not good enough for them! They wandered like refugees in the deserts and hills, living in caves and holes in the ground.

The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.

We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right.

Jehu went back to his fellow officers, who asked him, "Is everything all right? What did that crazy fellow want with you?" "You know what he wanted," Jehu answered.

"The LORD made you a priest in place of Jehoiada, and you are now the chief officer in the Temple. It is your duty to see that every crazy person who pretends to be a prophet is placed in chains with an iron collar around the neck.

The time for punishment has come, the time when people will get what they deserve. When that happens, Israel will know it! "This prophet," you say, "is a fool. This inspired man is insane." You people hate me so much because your sin is so great.

When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, "He's gone mad!"

They said to him, "Now we know for sure that you have a demon! Abraham died, and the prophets died, yet you say that whoever obeys your teaching will never die.

Many of them were saying, "He has a demon! He is crazy! Why do you listen to him?"

As Paul defended himself in this way, Festus shouted at him, "You are mad, Paul! Your great learning is driving you mad!"

Are we really insane? It is for God's sake. Or are we sane? Then it is for your sake.

What he did displeased the LORD, and the LORD killed him also.

When the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to the palace; she became his wife and bore him a son. But the LORD was not pleased with what David had done.

but the LORD was not willing to destroy the dynasty of David, because he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would always continue to rule.