Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. {men: Gr. perfect, or, of a ripe age}

For your obedience is come abroad unto all {men}. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. {simple: or, harmless}

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: {understanding: Heb. heart}

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. {destroyed: Heb. cut off}

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms {is} in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. {They will...: or, Their doings will not suffer them} {frame: Heb. give}

And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

For they {are} a nation void of counsel, neither {is there any} understanding in them.

And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. {indeed, but understand: or, without ceasing, etc: Heb. in hearing, etc}

And even as they did not like to retain God in {their} knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; {to retain: or, to acknowledge} {a reprobate...: or, a mind void of judgment or, an unapproving mind}

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, {and} set them on fire: for it {is} a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? {then} may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. {accustomed: Heb. taught}

But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock {is} a doctrine of vanities. {altogether: Heb. in one, or, at once}

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: {but} Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Therefore I said, Surely these {are} poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, {nor} the judgment of their God.

Who {is} blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger {that} I sent? who {is} blind as {he that is} perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant?

Where {is} the wise? where {is} the scribe? where {is} the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

[To the chief Musician, {A Psalm} of David.] The fool hath said in his heart, {There is} no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, {there is} none that doeth good.

Woe unto you, {ye} blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!

Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? {is} not he thy father {that} hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because {there is} no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father's concubines, which he hath left to keep the house; and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father: then shall the hands of all that {are} with thee be strong.

And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. {rulers: Heb. heads}

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

But Amnon had a friend, whose name {was} Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother: and Jonadab {was} a very subtil man.

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, {that} the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? {there is} no searching of his understanding.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. {destroyed: Heb. cut off}

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: {but} Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord {is}.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great {is} that darkness!

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, {and} hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: {understanding: Heb. heart}

And even as they did not like to retain God in {their} knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; {to retain: or, to acknowledge} {a reprobate...: or, a mind void of judgment or, an unapproving mind}

Be ye not as the horse, {or} as the mule, {which} have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.

For they {are} a nation void of counsel, neither {is there any} understanding in them.

And they bend their tongues {like} their bow {for} lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people {as} they eat bread: they have not called upon God.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because {there is} no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

For your obedience is come abroad unto all {men}. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. {simple: or, harmless}

For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all {things}.

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. {robbery: or, spoil}

The righteousness of thy testimonies {is} everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live.

The words of his mouth {are} iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, {and} to do good.

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in {their} heart; and they have not known my ways.

And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, {the youths: Heb. the sons}

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, {and} seek God.

For among my people are found wicked {men}: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. {they lay...: or, they pry as fowlers lie in wait}

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. {both...: Heb. from man unto beast}

How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these {things}, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

This wisdom descendeth not from above, but {is} earthly, sensual, devilish. {sensual: or, natural}

Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? {is} not he thy father {that} hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

And she laid up his garment by her, until his lord came home.

Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: {without natural...: or unsociable}

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, {was} as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God: so {was} all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom. {oracle: Heb. word}

And these {are they which} ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they {are} an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,

I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.

Who {is} blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger {that} I sent? who {is} blind as {he that is} perfect, and blind as the LORD'S servant?

Therefore I said, Surely these {are} poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, {nor} the judgment of their God.

Thou lovest evil more than good; {and} lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.

But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment {was} behind them.

The priests said not, Where {is} the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after {things that} do not profit.

But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock {is} a doctrine of vanities. {altogether: Heb. in one, or, at once}

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, {and} set them on fire: for it {is} a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

But Amnon had a friend, whose name {was} Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother: and Jonadab {was} a very subtil man.