You do damage with words, ¹  and use your tongue to deceive. ² 

Your tongue carries out your destructive plans; ¹  it is as effective as a sharp razor, O deceiver. ² 

Disaster is within it; violence ¹  and deceit do not depart from its public square.

If I had harbored sin in my heart, ¹  the Lord would not have listened.

For I envied those who are proud, as I observed ¹  the prosperity ²  of the wicked.

They spew out threats ¹  and speak defiantly; all the evildoers boast. ² 

I will have nothing to do with a perverse person; ¹  I will not permit ²  evil.

We have sinned like ¹  our ancestors; ²  we have done wrong, we have done evil.

For messengers are coming, heralding disaster, from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim. ¹ 

You ¹  build Zion through bloody crimes, ²  Jerusalem ³  through unjust violence.

and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold.

For I see that you are bitterly envious ¹  and in bondage to sin.”

Then Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed sinned. ¹  However, don’t turn aside from the Lord. Serve the Lord with all your heart.

I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ¹  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ²  any more. Violent men ³  will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning

When your people ¹  come to their senses ²  in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray; ³  we have done evil.’

He passed his son ¹  through the fire ²  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ³  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁴ 

The Lord says to the people of Judah, ¹  “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people? ²  Many of you have done wicked things. ³  Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings ⁴  that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them? ⁵ 

Then the Lord spoke about these people. ¹  “They truly ²  love to go astray. They cannot keep from running away from me. ³  So I am not pleased with them. I will now call to mind ⁴  the wrongs they have done ⁵  and punish them for their sins.”

The high places of the “House ¹  of Wickedness” ²  will be destroyed; it is the place where Israel sins. Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, ¹  those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. ²  As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, ³  because they have the power to do so.