The watchmen who go their rounds in the city found me. I [said], Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

For the heart of this people has become dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

And I said, How long, O Lord? And He said, Until cities are deserted by reason of them not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate.

The days of vengeance have come, the days of your recompense have come; and Israel shall be afflicted as the prophet that is mad, as a man deranged. By reason of the multitude of your iniquities your madness has abounded.

The watchman of Ephraim [was] with God. The prophet is a crooked snare in all his ways: they have established madness in the house of God.

For I know this, that savage wolves will come in after my departure, not sparing the flock.

Also from among you yourselves will arise men speaking things having been distorted, [in order] to draw away the disciples after them.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

The righteous shall chasten me with mercy, and reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head: for yet shall my prayer also be in their pleasures.

Therefore have I mown down your prophets; I have slain them with the word of My mouth; and My judgment shall go forth as the light.

They will excommunicate you; but a time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is offering God a service.

Therefore I thought in myself that it was necessary to do many hostile things against the name of Jesus the Nazarene;

which also I did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them.

with respect to zeal, persecuting the church; with respect to righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

Solomon had a vineyard in Baal Hamon; he leased his vineyard to keepers; everyone was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

And on your walls, O Jerusalem, have I set watchmen all day and all night, who shall never cease making mention of the Lord.

"Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to farmers and went on a journey.

And the farmers took his servants, they beat one, and one they killed, and another they stoned.

And at last he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

"And taking him, they cast [him] out of the vineyard and killed [him].

They said to Him, "He will destroy [those] wicked [men] miserably, and lease his vineyard to other farmers, who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."

saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

"So that you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets.

Serpents! Brood of vipers! How shall you escape from the condemnation of hell?

so that on you may come all the righteous blood being shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude you, and shall revile you, and cast out your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.

And they were persuaded by him, and when they called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and released them.

Then they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing because they were counted worthy to be dishonored on behalf of the name of Jesus.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are despised!

And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;

Still others took a trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and of prison.

They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tried, they were slain, being murdered with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being in want, being afflicted, being ill treated,

looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured [the] cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

If you are reviled in the name of Christ, blessed are you, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On the one hand He is blasphemed, but on the other He is glorified.

but if anyone [suffers] as a Christian, let him not be put to shame, but let him glorify God in this matter.