[ 24:14] As the old proverb says, Transgression will proceed from the wicked ones; but my hand shall not be upon you.

And Nabal sprang up, and answered the servants of David, and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are an abundance of servants who depart, everyone from his master.

And shall I take my bread, and my wine, and my beasts that I have slain for my shearers, and shall I give them to men of whom I know not who they are?

If the Ethiopian shall change his skin, or the leopardess her spots, then shall you be able to do good, having learned [to do] evil.

Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

But I say to you, that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Even so the tongue is a small member and it boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Thus the tongue is set among our members, as that which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.

For the end. Destroy not; by David, for a memorial. If you do indeed speak righteousness, [then] do you judge rightly, you sons of men?

For you work iniquities in [your] hearts in the earth; your hands plot unrighteousness.

Wherefore their hearts are inflamed as an oven, while they rage all the night. Ephraim is satisfied with sleep; the morning has come; he is burnt up as a flame of fire.

They are all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges. All their kings are fallen; there was not one among them that called on Me.

They meditated troubles, and wrought wickedness on their beds, and they put it in execution with the daylight; for they have not lifted up their hands to God.

And they desired fields, and plundered orphans, and oppressed families, and spoiled a man and his house, even a man and his inheritance.

But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart [for] you to lie to the Holy Spirit, and [for] you to keep back for yourself from the price of the land?

While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And after it was sold, was it not in your control? Why have you purposed this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."

You have neither part nor portion in this word, for your heart is not straight before God.

Repent therefore from this your wickedness, and make petition to God, if perhaps the intent of your heart will be forgiven you.

But each [one] is tempted by his own lusts, being drawn away and being seduced [by them].

Then lust, when it conceives, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Is not your wickedness abundant, and your sins innumerable?

Neither have you given water to the thirsty to drink, but have taken away the morsel of the hungry.

But you have sent widows away empty, and have afflicted orphans.

while the ungodly have passed over the bound, carrying off the flock with the shepherd?

They have turned aside the weak from the right way, and the meek of the earth have hidden themselves together.

They have reaped a field that was not their own before the time; the poor have labored in the vineyards of the ungodly without pay and without food.

They are wet with the drops of the mountains; they have embraced the rock, because they had no shelter.

And they have wrongfully caused [others] to sleep without clothing, and taken away the morsel of the hungry.

Who have cast forth the poor from the city and their own houses, and the soul of the children has groaned aloud.

But having known their works, He delivered them into darkness; and in the night one will be as a thief.

In darkness he digs through houses; by day they conceal themselves securely; they know not the light.

There are [some] who scatter their own, and make it more, and there are some also who gather, yet have less.

May he that hoards grain leave it to the nation: but blessing be on the head of him that gives it.

Thus says the Lord; for three sins of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from him, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for sandals,

in which to tread on the dust of the earth, and they have smitten upon the heads of the poor, and have perverted the way of the lowly; and a son and his father have gone into the same maid, that they might profane the name of their God.

That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes; and we will trade in every kind of fruit.

And He shall say, Hear now these words, you heads of the house of Jacob, and you remnant of the house of Israel; is it not for you to know judgment?

even as they devoured the flesh of My people, and stripped their skins off them, and broke their bones, and divided [them] as flesh for the caldron, and as meat for the pot,

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men; for you do not enter, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and [the] Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.