1A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool spouts folly. 3The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good. 4A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit. 5A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction is prudent. 6The house of the righteous has great treasure, but the income of the wicked is trouble. 7The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools. 8The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. 9The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but He loves those who pursue righteousness.
New Testament·Titus 2
1But as for you, speak the things that are consistent with sound doctrine. 2Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance. 3Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but teachers of good. 4In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, managers of their households, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be discredited. 6In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed to have nothing bad to say about us. 9Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior. 11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. 12It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 14He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. 15Speak these things as you encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.
Old Testament·Jeremiah 50
1This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans: 2“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’ 3For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.” 4“In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God. 5They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten. 6My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. 7All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’ 8Flee from the midst of Babylon; depart from the land of the Chaldeans; be like the he-goats that lead the flock. 9For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed. 10Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD. 11“Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph— you who plunder My inheritance— because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions, 12your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 13Because of the wrath of the LORD, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds. 14Line up in formation around Babylon, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against the LORD. 15Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her. 16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. In the face of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land. 17Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” 18Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria. 19I will return Israel to his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan; his soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead. 20In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve. 21Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD. 22“The noise of battle is in the land— the noise of great destruction. 23How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations! 24I laid a snare for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and captured because you challenged the LORD. 25The LORD has opened His armory and brought out His weapons of wrath, for this is the work of the Lord GOD of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. 26Come against her from the farthest border. Break open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain. Devote her to destruction; leave her no survivors. 27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come— the time of their punishment. 28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for His temple. 29Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD. 31“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you. 32The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.” 33This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them. 34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon. 35A sword is against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and wise men. 36A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror. 37A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered. 38A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols. 39So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation. 40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there. 41Behold, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirred up from the ends of the earth. 42They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Babylon. 43The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor. 44Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?” 45Therefore hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them. 46At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.
Reflect
Where do you need to trust God instead of your own understanding?