I have ¹  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ³ 

“‘If a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, the priest will establish its conversion value, whether good or bad. Just as the priest establishes its conversion value, thus it will stand. ¹ 

The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, the city has a good location, as our ¹  master can see. But the water is bad and the land doesn’t produce crops.” ² 

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. ¹  Our wishes are of no concern. ² 

Then that wealth was lost through bad luck; ¹  although he fathered a son, he has nothing left to give him. ² 

The Lord spoke ¹  about Damascus. ²  “The people of Hamath and Arpad ³  will be dismayed because they have heard bad news. Their courage will melt away because of worry. Their hearts will not be able to rest. ⁴ 

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election ¹  would stand, not by works but by ²  his calling) ³  –

He does not fear bad news. He ¹  is confident; he trusts ²  in the Lord.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

The men whom Moses sent to investigate the land, who returned and made the whole community murmur against him by producing ¹  an evil report about the land,

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ¹  so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ² 

those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

But now, put off all such things ¹  as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth.

‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ¹  the commandment ²  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ³  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

The righteous person hates anything false, ¹  but the wicked person acts in shameful disgrace. ² 

accusing her of impropriety ¹  and defaming her reputation ²  by saying, “I married this woman but when I had sexual relations ³  with her I discovered she was not a virgin!”

When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come on in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been commissioned to give you bad news. ¹ 

But Abraham said, ‘Child, ¹  remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus likewise bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. ² 

that I must go down ¹  and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. ²  If not, ³  I want to know.”

and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, ¹  because he has nothing evil to say about us.