Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is pure wickedness; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue.

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 neighbor: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is any that executes justice, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.

And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

But you shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receives correction: truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land: Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint, and bloodshed touches bloodshed.

The godly man has perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look on iniquity: why do you look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he?

And make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

And after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:

As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said unto him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? And he said unto them, You know the man, and his communication.

The LORD has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that you should be officers in the house of the LORD, over every man that is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison, and in the stocks.

The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, because of the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred.

And when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, He is beside himself.

Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and you say, If a man keeps my saying, he shall never taste of death.

And many of them said, He has a demon, and is mad; why hear you him?

And as he thus spoke for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you are beside yourself; much learning does make you mad.

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be in our right mind, it is for your cause.

And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: therefore he slew him also.

And when the mourning was past, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

Yet the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a light to him and to his sons forever.