and if ¹  God ²  is gracious to him and says, ‘Spare ³  him from going down to the place of corruption, I have found a ransom for him,’ ⁴ 

The fear of the Lord is to hate ¹  evil; I hate arrogant pride ²  and the evil way and perverse utterances. ³ 

The prince who is a great oppressor lacks wisdom, ¹  but the one who hates ²  unjust gain will prolong his days.

For your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with sin; your lips speak lies, your tongue utters malicious words.

I reported, ¹  “All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ²  They are as hard as bronze or iron. They go about telling lies. They all deal corruptly.

It has tried my patience; ¹  yet its thick rot is not removed ²  from it. Subject its rot to the fire! ³ 

If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.

Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, ¹  and I will welcome ²  you, ³ 

which you commanded us through your servants the prophets with these words: ¹  ‘The land that you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the impurities of the local residents! ²  With their abominations they have filled it from one end to the other with their filthiness.

For seven days ¹  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ²  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ³  or one born in the land.

(Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) ¹ 

He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done. ¹  (He did not, however, have the audacity to enter the temple.) ²  Yet the people were still sinning.

But you, O God, will bring them ¹  down to the deep Pit. ²  Violent and deceitful people ³  will not live even half a normal lifespan. ⁴  But as for me, I trust in you.

¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ²  the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children ³  who do wicked things. They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴  They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the city of bloodshed, the pot whose rot ¹  is in it, whose rot has not been removed ²  from it! Empty it piece by piece. No lot has fallen on it. ³ 

You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. ¹  I tried to cleanse you, ²  but you are not clean. You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness ³  until I have exhausted my anger on you.

I alone was left to see this great vision. My strength drained from ¹  me, and my vigor disappeared; ²  I was without energy. ³ 

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

For if after they have escaped the filthy things ¹  of the world through the rich knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, ²  they ³  again get entangled in them and succumb to them, ⁴  their last state has become worse for them than their first.