Then the king asked, “And where is your master’s son?” “Well, he’s staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba said to the king, “for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore to me the kingdom of my father.”
“My lord the king, my own servant deceived me,” he answered. “For your servant had said, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, ride on it and go with the king,’ because your servant is lame.
For I heard the whispering of many: “‘Terror on every side?’ Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” Even all my close friends are watching for my fall: “Perhaps he may be deceived, so we’ll get the better of him, and we’ll get our revenge on him.”
But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord. “Look, Master, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have somehow cheated anyone, I repay four times as much!”
Also soldiers asked him, saying, “And what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not take things from anyone by force, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be content with your wages.”
And why not say, “Let us do evil, so that good may come” — just as we are being slandered and as some claim that we say. Their condemnation is deserved!
“As soon as you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was blazing with fire, you came near to me—all the heads of your tribes and your elders.
yet with humility and reverence—keeping a clear conscience so that, whatever you are accused of, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Messiah may be put to shame.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Anointed One, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters—the one who accuses them before our God day and night—has been thrown out.