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²⁰ Watch for the opportune time, and beware of evil,
   and do not be ashamed to be yourself.
²¹ For there is a shame that leads to sin,
   and there is a shame that is glory and favour.
²² Do not show partiality, to your own harm,
   or deference, to your downfall.
²³ Do not refrain from speaking at the proper moment,^*
   and do not hide your wisdom.^*
24 For wisdom becomes known through speech,
   and education through the words of the tongue.
²⁵ Never speak against the truth,
   but be ashamed of your ignorance.
²⁶ Do not be ashamed to confess your sins,
   and do not try to stop the current of a river.
²⁷ Do not subject yourself to a fool,
   or show partiality to a ruler.
²⁸ Fight to the death for truth,
   and the Lord God will fight for you.

²⁹ Do not be reckless in your speech,
   or sluggish and remiss in your deeds.
³⁰ Do not be like a lion in your home,
   or suspicious of your servants.
³¹ Do not let your hand be stretched out to receive
   and closed when it is time to give.

Precepts for Everyday Living

5Do not rely on your wealth,
   or say, ‘I have enough.’
² Do not follow your inclination and strength
   in pursuing the desires of your heart.
³ Do not say, ‘Who can have power over me?’
   for the Lord will surely punish you.

⁴ Do not say, ‘I sinned, yet what has happened to me?’
   for the Lord is slow to anger.
⁵ Do not be so confident of forgiveness^*
   that you add sin to sin.
⁶ Do not say, ‘His mercy is great,
   he will forgive^* the multitude of my sins’,
for both mercy and wrath are with him,
   and his anger will rest on sinners.
⁷ Do not delay to turn back to the Lord,
   and do not postpone it from day to day;
for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come upon you,
   and at the time of punishment you will perish.

Social Evils Denounced

2Alas for those who devise wickedness
   and evil deeds^* on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
   because it is in their power.
² They covet fields, and seize them;
   houses, and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
   people and their inheritance.
³ Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
   from which you cannot remove your necks;
and you shall not walk haughtily,
   for it will be an evil time.
⁴ On that day they shall take up a taunt-song against you,
   and wail with bitter lamentation,
and say, ‘We are utterly ruined;
   the Lord ^* alters the inheritance of my people;
how he removes it from me!
   Among our captors^* he parcels out our fields.’
⁵ Therefore you will have no one to cast the line by lot
   in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶ ‘Do not preach’—thus they preach—
   ‘one should not preach of such things;
   disgrace will not overtake us.’
⁷ Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
   Is the Lord’s patience exhausted?
   Are these his doings?
Do not my words do good
   to one who walks uprightly?
⁸ But you rise up against my people^* as an enemy;
   you strip the robe from the peaceful,^*
from those who pass by trustingly
   with no thought of war.
⁹ The women of my people you drive out
   from their pleasant houses;
from their young children you take away
   my glory for ever.
¹⁰ Arise and go;
   for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
   with a grievous destruction.^*
11 If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods,
   saying, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink’,
   such a one would be the preacher for this people!

A Promise for the Remnant of Israel

¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,
   I will gather the survivors of Israel;
I will set them together
   like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture;
   it will resound with people.
¹³ The one who breaks out will go up before them;
   they will break through and pass the gate,
   going out by it.
Their king will pass on before them,
   the Lord at their head.

The 144,000 of Israel Sealed

7After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree. ²I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage earth and sea, ³saying, ‘Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants^* of our God with a seal on their foreheads.’

4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel:

5 From the tribe of Judah twelve thousand sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,

6 from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,

7 from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,

8 from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand,
from the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand sealed.

A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’^{* 55}But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶Then^* they went on to another village.

Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ ⁵⁹To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ ⁶⁰But Jesus^* said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ ⁶¹Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ ⁶²Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’