Verse 34

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.

Other Translations

Referenced Verses

  • Ps 107:34 : 34 and a fruitful land into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who dwell there.
  • Deut 28:1-9 : 1 If you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God by carefully keeping all His commandments that I am commanding you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of the LORD your God. 3 You will be blessed in the city, and you will be blessed in the field. 4 Blessed will be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your land, and the offspring of your livestock—including the young of your cattle and the increase of your flocks. 5 Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 You will be blessed when you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out. 7 The LORD will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will come out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven directions. 8 The LORD will command the blessing on your storehouses and on all you set your hand to do. He will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 9 The LORD will establish you as His holy people, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the LORD is called upon you, and they will stand in awe of you. 11 The LORD will make you prosper abundantly in the fruit of your womb, in the offspring of your livestock, and in the produce of your land on the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open the heavens, His rich treasury, to give rain to your land in its season and bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will only go upwards and not downwards, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, to observe and to do them. 14 You must not turn aside from any of the words I am commanding you today, neither to the right nor to the left, to follow other gods and serve them. 15 But if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commandments and statutes I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed will you be in the city, and cursed will you be in the field. 17 Cursed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed will be the fruit of your womb, the produce of your land, the offspring of your cattle, and the increase of your flocks. 19 Cursed will you be when you come in, and cursed will you be when you go out. 20 The LORD will send curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil of your deeds, by which you have forsaken Me. 21 The LORD will cause pestilence to cling to you until He has consumed you from the land that you are entering to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation, scorching heat, drought, blight, and mildew, which will pursue you until you perish. 23 The heavens over your head will be like bronze, and the earth beneath you like iron. 24 The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed. 25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven directions. You will become a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scabs, and an incurable itch. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and confusion of heart. 29 At midday, you will grope around like a blind person in the dark. You will not prosper in your ways; you will be continually oppressed and robbed, with no one to save you. 30 You will become engaged to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken forcibly from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. 32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch with longing eyes all day, but you will be powerless to act. 33 A people you don’t know will eat the fruit of your land and the result of your labor. You will be oppressed and crushed continually. 34 You will go mad because of the things you see with your own eyes. 35 The LORD will strike you with painful and incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. 36 The LORD will drive you and the king you set over yourself to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. 37 You will become an object of horror, a byword, and a taunt among all the peoples to which the LORD will drive you. 38 You will sow much seed in the field but gather little, because locusts will consume it. 39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink their wine or gather their grapes, for worms will eat them. 40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory, but you will not anoint yourself with oil, for your olives will drop off prematurely. 41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not remain with you, because they will go into captivity. 42 Swarms of insects will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your land. 43 The foreigner who resides among you will rise higher and higher above you, but you will sink lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. 45 All these curses will come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that He commanded you. 46 These curses will become a sign and a wonder against you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly in the time of abundance. 48 You will serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and total destitution. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand. 50 It will be a fierce and ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and no mercy for the young. 51 They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine, or fresh oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have wiped you out. 52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until your high fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down. They will besiege all the cities in the land the LORD your God has given you. 53 Because of the suffering your enemy inflicts upon you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of your womb—the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you. 54 Even the most tender and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who are still alive. 55 He will not share with any of them the flesh of his children that he is eating, because he has nothing else during the suffering and siege that your enemy will inflict on all your cities. 56 The most tender and delicate woman among you, so refined that she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she loves, her son, and her daughter. 57 She will secretly eat her afterbirth and the children she bears during the siege and suffering that your enemy inflicts upon your cities, because she is in dire need of food. 58 If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law that are written in this book, and do not fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— 59 then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues upon you and your descendants, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and enduring diseases. 60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, which you dreaded, and they will cling to you. 61 The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not written in this Book of the Law, until you are completely destroyed. 62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so it will please Him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. 64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations, you will find no peace, and no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. 66 Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be filled with fear night and day, and you will not be sure of your life. 67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights your eyes will see. 68 The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, in the way I said you would never see again. There, you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
  • Deut 29:18-28 : 18 When such a person hears the words of this curse, they may bless themselves in their heart and say, 'I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the destruction of both the well-watered and the dry. 19 The LORD will not be willing to forgive such a person. His anger and jealousy will burn against them, and every curse written in this scroll will fall on them. The LORD will blot out their name from under the heavens. 20 The LORD will single them out for disaster from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 21 Future generations—your children who come after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country—will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. 22 The whole land will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger. 23 All the nations will ask, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?' 24 And they will answer, 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. 25 They turned to other gods and worshiped and bowed down to them, gods they did not know and gods the LORD had not given to them.' 26 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, bringing upon it every curse written in this book. 27 In His anger and great wrath, the LORD uprooted them from their land and cast them into another land, as it is today. 28 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
  • Deut 4:6-8 : 6 You must keep and do them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, who will hear about all these statutes and say, 'Indeed, this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us whenever we call on Him? 8 And what great nation has righteous statutes and judgments like this entire law that I am setting before you today?
  • Hos 13:1 : 1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he became guilty by worshiping Baal and died.
  • Judg 2:6-9 : 6 After Joshua sent the people away, the Israelites went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. 7 The people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and had seen all the great works the LORD had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of one hundred and ten. 9 And they buried him within the boundary of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD or the works he had done for Israel. 11 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. 12 They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger. 13 They abandoned the LORD and worshipped Baal and the Ashtaroth. 14 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, and they could no longer stand before their enemies.
  • Jer 2:2-9 : 2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the LORD says: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who tried to devour it were held guilty; disaster came upon them,’ declares the LORD. 4 Hear the word of the LORD, house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. 5 This is what the LORD says: ‘What fault did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so far from me? They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and deep darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ 7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and its bounty. But you came and defiled my land. You made my inheritance detestable. 8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed worthless things. 9 Therefore I will still bring charges against you, declares the LORD, and against your children’s children I will bring charges. 10 Go across to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this. 11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glory for worthless idols. 12 Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD. 13 For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 14 Is Israel a servant, a slave born in the household? Why then has he become plunder? 15 Young lions have roared against him; they have raised their voices. They have turned his land into a desolation; his towns are burned and uninhabited. 16 Even the sons of Noph and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. 17 Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way? 18 Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the river? 19 Your own wickedness will discipline you; your backslidings will rebuke you. Consider and see how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. 20 For long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your bonds, but you said, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute. 21 I planted you as a choice vine, from the very best seed. How then have you turned into wild, degenerate branches of a foreign vine for me? 22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Lord GOD. 23 How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals’? Consider your path in the valley; acknowledge what you have done—like a swift young she-camel running here and there. 24 You are like a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, sniffing the wind in her desire. Who can restrain her in her mating season? None of those seeking her will grow weary; in her month, they will find her. 25 Keep your feet from going bare and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It’s hopeless! I love foreigners, and I will follow them.’
  • Ezek 16:1-9 : 1 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3 and say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites—your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite.’ 4 On the day you were born, your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. 5 No eye looked on you with pity to do any of these things for you, out of compassion. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, for you were despised on the day you were born. 6 Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay in your blood, I said to you, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew and became tall and reached the age of maturity. Your breasts were formed, and your hair grew, but you were still naked and bare. 8 Then I passed by you again and saw you, and behold, you were at the age for love. So I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you, entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine. 9 Then I washed you with water and rinsed the blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you with embroidered garments, put sandals of fine leather on you, wrapped you in fine linen, and covered you with silk. 11 I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your wrists and a necklace around your neck. 12 I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidery. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil, and you became exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. 15 But you trusted in your beauty and acted like a prostitute because of your fame. You lavished your acts of prostitution on every passerby, willing to be his. 16 You took your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them, you committed prostitution. Such things should not have happened, nor should they occur. 17 You also took the fine jewelry made of gold and silver that I had given you, and you made male idols for yourself and engaged in prostitution with them. 18 You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you presented my oil and incense before them. 19 Also, the food I provided for you–the fine flour, oil, and honey that I fed you–you set before them as a pleasing aroma. And so it was, declares the Lord GOD. 20 You even took the sons and daughters you bore to me and sacrificed them to the idols as food. Was your prostitution not enough? 21 You slaughtered my children and offered them up by making them pass through fire to these idols. 22 In all your detestable practices and prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood. 23 Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD, after all your wickedness. 24 You built yourselves a mound and made high places at every street corner. 25 At the head of every street, you built your high places. You degraded your beauty by spreading your legs to every passerby and multiplied your acts of prostitution. 26 You engaged in prostitution with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and multiplied your acts of prostitution to anger me. 27 So now I have stretched out my hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. 28 You prostituted yourself with the Assyrians because you were never satisfied. Even after prostituting yourself with them, you were not satisfied. 29 You also multiplied your promiscuity in the land of Canaan and even with the Chaldeans, yet even with this, you were not satisfied. 30 ‘How weak is your heart,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘that you do all these things, the actions of a brazen prostitute! 31 When you built your mounds at the head of every road and made your high places in every street, you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. 32 You adulterous wife, who prefers strangers instead of her own husband! 33 All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers. You bribe them to come to you from all around for your acts of prostitution. 34 So your prostitution is the opposite of others; you gave payment instead of receiving it, and no one pays you. You are the opposite. 35 Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD. 36 This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children you gave to them, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side, and I will expose your nakedness to them, so they may see all your shame. 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and shed blood. I will bring upon you the wrath and jealousy of my judgment. 39 I will deliver you into their hands, and they will tear down your mounds and demolish your high places. They will strip you of your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. 40 They will bring a crowd against you, stone you to death, and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and execute judgment on you in the sight of many women. I will bring an end to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay fees to anyone. 42 Then my wrath against you will subside, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be calm and no longer angry. 43 Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will bring your conduct down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your other detestable acts? 44 Everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are a true daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children. And you are a sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46 Your elder sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to the south of you. 47 You not only followed their ways and acted according to their detestable practices but in a very short time, you became more depraved than they were in all your ways. 48 As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters did not do as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of food, and abundant ease were hers and her daughters', but they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 They became haughty and committed abominations before me; therefore, I removed them as I saw fit. 51 Samaria did not sin as much as you did. You multiplied your abominations more than they did, and your actions have justified your sisters in comparison to all your abominations. 52 Now bear your disgrace as you have judged your sisters. Because your sins were more abominable than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So, be ashamed and bear your disgrace, for you have justified your sisters. 53 But I will restore their captivity—the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your captivity along with theirs. 54 In order that you may bear your disgrace and feel ashamed for all you have done, as you console them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, and Samaria and her daughters, will return to their former state, and you and your daughters will return to your former state. 56 You did not even mention your sister Sodom during the days of your pride, 57 before your own wickedness was exposed, like the time you were taunted by the daughters of Aram and all her neighbors, and by the daughters of the Philistines, who looked down on you from every side. 58 You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations, declares the LORD. 59 For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you as you have done, since you despised the oath by breaking the covenant. 60 Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. 63 So that you may remember and be ashamed, and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, when I forgive you for all you have done, declares the Lord GOD.
  • Ezek 22:1-9 : 1 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of bloodshed and confront her with all her abominations? 3 Then say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You city that sheds blood in her midst to bring her time closer, and makes idols to defile herself, 4 You have become guilty because of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you made. You have brought your days near and have come to the end of your years. Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. 5 Those near and those far from you will mock you, you who are defiled in name and full of turmoil. 6 See, the princes of Israel, each one by his own might, have been in you to shed blood. 7 Within you, they have treated father and mother with contempt; they have oppressed the foreigner in your midst; they have wronged the orphan and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. 9 The men in you who slander for the purpose of shedding blood eat at the high places; they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you, they have dishonored their fathers' nakedness; they have violated women during their impurity. 11 One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife, another defiles his daughter-in-law with wickedness, and another violates his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you, they accept bribes to shed blood; they take interest and increase unlawfully. You have gained profit in extorting your neighbors, and you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD. 13 See, I will strike my hands together in anger at the dishonest gain you have made and the bloodshed that has been done in your midst. 14 Will your heart stand firm? Will your hands be strong when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands, and I will cleanse you from your impurity. 16 You will be profaned in yourself before the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD. 17 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: 18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead inside a furnace—they are the dross of silver. 19 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because all of you have become dross, I am going to gather you into Jerusalem. 20 Just as silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with fire, so I will gather you in my anger and wrath, and I will deposit you there and melt you. 21 I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath upon you. 23 The word of the LORD came to me, saying: