Psalm 11
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD tries the righteous: but the wicked and him that loves violence his soul hates. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loves righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
Psalm 12
To the chief Musician upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David.
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceases; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him.
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Psalm 13
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Jeremiah 23-24
Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith Jehovah. Therefore thus saith Jehovah God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith Jehovah. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith Jehovah.
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, Jehovah liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, Jehovah liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of Jehovah, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah. They say still unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
For who hath stood in the counsel of Jehovah, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of Jehovah is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith Jehovah. Is not my word like as a fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith Jehovah, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith Jehovah.
And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith Jehovah. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house. Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath Jehovah answered? and, What hath Jehovah spoken? And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath Jehovah answered thee? and, What hath Jehovah spoken? But since ye say, The burden of Jehovah; therefore thus saith Jehovah; Because ye say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah; Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
Jehovah shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said Jehovah unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Again the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith Jehovah, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
Proverbs 14
Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.
He that walks in his uprightness fears the LORD: but he that is perverse in his ways despises him.
In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.
Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies.
A scorner seeks wisdom, and finds it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understands.
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.
The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.
Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favor.
The heart knows his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.
The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish.
There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.
The simple believes every word: but the prudent man looks well to his going.
A wise man fears, and departs from evil: but the fool rages, and is confident.
He that is soon angry deals foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.
The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
The poor is hated even of his own neighbor: but the rich has many friends.
He that despises his neighbor sins: but he that has mercy on the poor, happy is he.
Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.
In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tends only to penury.
The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.
A true witness delivers souls: but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
In the multitude of people is the king’s honor: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalts folly.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
He that oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker: but he that honors him has mercy on the poor.
The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous has hope in his death.
Wisdom rests in the heart of him that has understanding: but that which is in the midst of fools is made known.
Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
The king’s favor is toward a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causes shame.
You Think Too Much! 