If the wicked are shown mercy, they do not learn about justice. ¹  Even in a land where right is rewarded, they act unjustly; ²  they do not see the Lord’s majesty revealed.

those who bear false testimony against a person, ¹  who entrap the one who arbitrates at the city gate ²  and deprive the innocent of justice by making false charges. ³ 

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

I brought you ¹  into a fertile land so you could enjoy ²  its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; ³  you made the land I call my own ⁴  loathsome to me.

I will turn my face away from them and they will desecrate my treasured place. ¹  Vandals will enter it and desecrate it. ² 

“‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, ¹  whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

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

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 

I know Ephraim all too well; ¹  the evil of ²  Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself. 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.

They are determined to be experts at doing evil; ¹  government officials and judges take bribes, ²  prominent men make demands, and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. ³ 

Next I eradicated the three shepherds in one month, ¹  for I ran out of patience with them and, indeed, they detested me as well.

Then I will stop the plague ¹  from ruining your crops, ²  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors ¹  do the same, don’t they?

“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth ¹  and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

If ¹  he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If ²  he refuses to listen to the church, treat him like ³  a Gentile ⁴  or a tax collector. ⁵ 

Even from among your own group ¹  men ²  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ³  to draw the disciples away after them.

Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

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