But Ephraim thinks, ‘How rich I have become; I made it all myself. In all my earnings, no one can find any iniquity in me that I can be punished for! ’
Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say, “Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich!” Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.
Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
And he told them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight.
No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’
How can you protest, ‘I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals’? Look at your behaviour in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,
You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you ask, ‘How have we wearied him? ’ When you say, ‘Everyone who does what is evil is good in the Lord’s sight, and he is delighted with them, or else where is the God of justice? ’
asking, ‘When will the New Moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, so that we may market wheat? We can reduce the measure while increasing the price and cheat with dishonest scales.