If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: "The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Is...  Read More

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.Howeve...  Read More

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if that sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, "Let us follow other gods" . . .  "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your...  Read More

Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess . . . The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take po...  Read More

Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. Cursed be the day I was born!  . . . For He (God) did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave . . .  Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? Jeremiah 20:13-18 One minute the prophet Jeremiah was extolling the praises of God. The ne...  Read More

You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed.I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.But if I say, "I will not mention His word or speak anymore in His name," His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.I...  Read More