For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
These dogs have fierce appetites; they never have enough. And they are shepherds who have no discernment; all of them turn to their own way, every last one for his own profit.
‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you don’t go in, and you don’t allow those entering to go in. ,
Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment, and her prophets practise divination for silver. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying, ‘Isn’t the Lord among us? No disaster will overtake us.’
‘I wish one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle a useless fire on my altar! I am not pleased with you,’ says the Lord of Armies, ‘and I will accept no offering from your hands.
People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood. You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbours. You have forgotten me. This is the declaration of the Lord God.
You profane me among my people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread; you put those to death who should not die and spare those who should not live, when you lie to my people, who listen to lies.
Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love graft and chase after bribes. They do not defend the rights of the fatherless, and the widow’s case never comes before them.
Do not bring a female prostitute’s wages or a male prostitute’s earnings into the house of the Lord your God to fulfil any vow, because both are detestable to the Lord your God.
cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves #– #human lives.
He went over to her and said, ‘Come, let me sleep with you,’ for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, ‘What will you give me for sleeping with me? ’
When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, two and a half kilograms of silver, and a bar of gold weighing half a kilogram, I coveted them and took them. You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under the cloak.’
Now the one sown among the thorns #– #this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.