Then Nehemiah, that is, the governor, and Ezra the priest-scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people: “Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not lament, do not weep!”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
Her gates sank into the ground; he smashed her bars to bits. Her king and her princes are among the nations; instruction is wanting, Even her prophets do not obtain any vision from the Lord.
See, days are coming—oracle of the Lord God— when I will send a famine upon the land: Not a hunger for bread, or a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.
Its leaders render judgment for a bribe, the priests teach for pay, the prophets divine for money, While they rely on the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No evil can come upon us!”
To those outside the law I became like one outside the law—though I am not outside God’s law but within the law of Christ—to win over those outside the law.
For they themselves openly declare about us what sort of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God
We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.