Open the gates so a righteous nation can enter – one that remains trustworthy.

so that you may know for certain ¹  the things you were taught. ² 

The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful. ¹ 

The Lord said, ¹  “Go up and down ²  through the streets of Jerusalem. ³  Look around and see for yourselves. Search through its public squares. See if any of you can find a single person who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. ⁴  If you can, ⁵  then I will not punish this city. ⁶ 

The Lord says, ¹  “These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows. Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ²  They have become powerful in the land, but they have not done so by honest means. ³  Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ⁴  and do not pay attention to me. ⁵ 

Now ¹  the Word became flesh ²  and took up residence ³  among us. We ⁴  saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, ⁵  full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

O Lord, you do not withhold ¹  your compassion from me. May your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me! ² 

before the Lord, for he comes! For he comes to judge the earth! He judges the world fairly, ¹  and the nations in accordance with his justice. ² 

But Paul replied, ¹  “I have not lost my mind, most excellent Festus, ²  but am speaking ³  true and rational ⁴  words.

What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, ¹  and I will continue to rejoice,

Now I will tell you the truth.“Three ¹  more kings will arise for Persia. Then a fourth ²  king will be unusually rich, ³  more so than all who preceded him. When he has amassed power through his riches, he will stir up everyone against ⁴  the kingdom of Greece.

But we have rejected ¹  shameful hidden deeds, ²  not behaving ³  with deceptiveness ⁴  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ¹  you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’ and are descended from Judah, ²  who take oaths in the name of the Lord, and invoke ³  the God of Israel – but not in an honest and just manner. ⁴ 

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ¹  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ²  from your reliable moral standards. ³ 

One of you must go and get ¹  your brother, while ²  the rest of you remain in prison. ³  In this way your words may be tested to see if ⁴  you are telling the truth. ⁵  If not, then, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!”

When they came they said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and do not court anyone’s favor, because you show no partiality ¹  but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²  Is it right ³  to pay taxes ⁴  to Caesar ⁵  or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ¹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ²  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ²  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Letters were sent ¹  to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the empire of Ahasuerus – words of true peace ²  –

For ¹  they do not speak the truth; ²  their stomachs are like the place of destruction, ³  their throats like an open grave, ⁴  their tongues like a steep slope leading into it. ⁵