Bible Browser

² Do not praise individuals for their good looks,
   or loathe anyone because of appearance alone.
³ The bee is small among flying creatures,
   but what it produces is the best of sweet things.
⁴ Do not boast about wearing fine clothes,
   and do not exalt yourself when you are honoured;
for the works of the Lord are wonderful,
   and his works are concealed from humankind.
⁵ Many kings have had to sit on the ground,
   but one who was never thought of has worn a crown.
⁶ Many rulers have been utterly disgraced,
   and the honoured have been handed over to others.

Deliberation and Caution

⁷ Do not find fault before you investigate;
   examine first, and then criticize.
⁸ Do not answer before you listen,
   and do not interrupt when another is speaking.
⁹ Do not argue about a matter that does not concern you,
   and do not sit with sinners when they judge a case.

¹⁰ My child, do not busy yourself with many matters;
   if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless.
If you pursue, you will not overtake,
   and by fleeing you will not escape.
¹¹ There are those who work and struggle and hurry,
   but are so much the more in want.
¹² There are others who are slow and need help,
   who lack strength and abound in poverty;
but the eyes of the Lord look kindly upon them;
   he lifts them out of their lowly condition
¹³ and raises up their heads
   to the amazement of many.

¹⁴ Good things and bad, life and death,
   poverty and wealth, come from the Lord.^*
17 The Lord’s gift remains with the devout,
   and his favour brings lasting success.
¹⁸ One becomes rich through diligence and self-denial,
   and the reward allotted to him is this:
¹⁹ when he says, ‘I have found rest,
   and now I shall feast on my goods!’
he does not know how long it will be
   until he leaves them to others and dies.

²⁰ Stand by your agreement and attend to it,
   and grow old in your work.

God Challenges Israel

6Hear what the Lord says:
   Rise, plead your case before the mountains,
   and let the hills hear your voice.
² Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord,
   and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for the Lord has a controversy with his people,
   and he will contend with Israel.

³ ‘O my people, what have I done to you?
   In what have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
   and redeemed you from the house of slavery;
and I sent before you Moses,
   Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ O my people, remember now what King Balak of Moab devised,
   what Balaam son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
   that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.’

What God Requires

⁶ ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,
   and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,
   with calves a year old?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
   with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’
⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
   and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
   and to walk humbly with your God?

13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four^* horns of the golden altar before God, ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ ¹⁵So the four angels were released, who had been held ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, to kill a third of humankind. ¹⁶The number of the troops of cavalry was two hundred million; I heard their number. ¹⁷And this was how I saw the horses in my vision: the riders wore breastplates the colour of fire and of sapphire^* and of sulphur; the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulphur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸By these three plagues a third of humankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulphur coming out of their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they inflict harm.

20 The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.

Jesus Visits Martha and Mary

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing.^* Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’