Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible




Engaging in evil is like sport to the fool [who refuses wisdom and chases sin],
But to a man of understanding [skillful and godly] wisdom brings joy.



Engaging in evil is like sport to the fool [who refuses wisdom and chases sin],
But to a man of understanding [skillful and godly] wisdom brings joy.


The thing spoken of in the true proverb has happened to them, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “A sow is washed only to wallow [again] in the mire.”


I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness [an unexpected and refreshing delight];
I saw your fathers (ancestors) as the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season,
But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to shamefulness [the worship of Baal],
And [because of their spiritual and physical adultery] they became as detestable and loathsome as the thing they loved.

The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for the sentence) lies in this: the Light has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil. For every wrongdoer hates (loathes, detests) the Light, and will not come out into the Light but shrinks from it, lest his works (his deeds, his activities, his conduct) be exposed and reproved.


For they eat the bread of wickedness
And drink the wine of violence.


Concerning evil, both of their hands pursue it and do it diligently and thoroughly;
The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe,
And a great man speaks the [evil] desire of his soul.
So they twist the course of justice between them.


In which He went and preached to the spirits in prison, [The souls of those] who long before in the days of Noah had been disobedient, when God's patience waited during the building of the ark in which a few [people], actually eight in number, were saved through water.


Like a dog that returns to his vomit
Is a fool who repeats his foolishness.


How much less [pure and clean is] the one who is repulsive and corrupt,
Man, who drinks unrighteousness and injustice like water!

Thus says the Lord to this people [Judah], “In the manner and to the degree [already pointed out] they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will now remember [in detail] their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”


He who [slyly] winks his eyes does so to plot perverse things;
And he who compresses his lips [as if in a secret signal] brings evil to pass.


Engaging in evil is like sport to the fool [who refuses wisdom and chases sin],
But to a man of understanding [skillful and godly] wisdom brings joy.

because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My Sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their [worthless] idols.

Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, Though he is loath to let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,


They (the priests) feed on the sin offering of My people
And set their heart on their wickedness.