As the proverb of the ancients says, Wickedness proceeds from the wicked. But my hand shall not be against you.

And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days breaking away each one from his master.

Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?

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

Offspring 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 proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual perversions, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. Behold, how large a forest a little fire kindles.

And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. Thus the tongue is set among our members, defiling the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by Gehenna.

i1 [To the chief Musician. Altaschith. Michtam of David.] i0 par Do you indeed speak justice, O silent ones? Do you judge with equity, O sons of men?

Indeed, in heart you work injustice; you weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.

For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen; not one among them calls unto Me.

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

And they covet and seize fields and houses, and carry them away. And they oppress a man and his household, even a man and his inheritance.

But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land for yourself?

While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you put this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.

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

Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed.

Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.

Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquities without end?

You have not given the weary water to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

You have sent widows away empty, and crushed the arms of the fatherless.

Some remove landmarks; they seize flocks and feed on them;

They thrust away the needy out of the road; the poor of the land have been forced into hiding together.

They gather their fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and hug the rock for want of shelter.

They cause them to go naked, without clothing; and they take away the sheaves from the hungry.

Men groan from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out; yet God does not charge them with folly.

The murderer rises at daylight; he kills the poor and needy; and in the night he is like a thief.

In the dark they dig through into houses which they have marked for themselves by day; they do not know the light.

There is one who scatters, yet increases more; but the one who withholds more than is right, tends to poverty.

He who holds back grain, the people curse him; but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.

Thus says Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn back from punishing it, for they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals.

They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the helpless, and thrust aside the way of the afflicted. And a man and his father go in to the same girl, in order to profane My holy name.

in order to buy the poor with silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the wheat?

And I said, Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel; is it not for you to know justice.

who also eat the flesh of My people, and flay their skin off from them; and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh in the kettle.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive more abundant condemnation.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.