trusting others

⁵Do not be willing to believe a friend. And do not be willing to confide in a commander. From her, who sleeps in your bosom, keep the doors of your mouth closed. ⁶For the son acts with contempt for the father, and the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are those of his own household.

¹⁹Do not defend yourselves, dearest ones. Instead, step aside from wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is mine. I shall give retribution, says the Lord.”

⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.

⁷Charity suffers all, believes all, hopes all, endures all.

¹“So then, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, so as to keep and do all of his commandments, which I instruct to you this day, the Lord your God will cause you to be more exalted than all the nations which exist upon the earth. ²And all these blessings shall come to you and take hold of you, but only if you listen to his precepts. ³Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field. ⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of your loins, and the fruit of your land, and the fruit of your cattle, the droves of your herds, and the folds of your sheep. ⁵Blessed shall be your barns, and blessed your storehouses. ⁶Blessed shall you be entering and departing.

¹I am the Lord your God. You shall not make for yourselves an idol or a graven image. Neither shall you erect a monument, or set up a conspicuous stone in your land, in order that you may adore it. For I am the Lord your God. ²Observe my Sabbaths, and be fearful toward my Sanctuary. I am the Lord. ³If you will walk in my precepts, and observe my commandments, and accomplish them, I will give to you rain in its time, ⁴and the ground shall bring forth its seedlings, and the trees shall be filled again with fruit. ⁵The threshing of the harvest shall last until the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing. And you shall eat your bread to fullness, and you shall live in your land without fear. ⁶I will give peace to your most distant regions. You will sleep, and there will be no one to strike you with terror. I will take away harmful wild beasts, and the sword will not cross your borders.

²⁶The just falling down before the impious is like a fountain stirred up by feet and like a corrupted spring.

²⁷In response, he said: “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart, and from your whole soul, and from all your strength, and from all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

⁵²Then Jesus said to him: “Put your sword back in its place. For all who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. ⁵³Or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, so that he would give me, even now, more than twelve legions of Angels? ⁵⁴How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must be so?”

¹³Everything is possible in him who has strengthened me.

⁶Charity does not rejoice over iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

³⁸You have heard that it was said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil, but if anyone will have struck you on your right cheek, offer to him the other also.