'Things' in the Bible

“Also on your skirts is foundThe lifeblood of the innocent poor;You did not find them breaking in [a house].But in spite of all these things [your disobedience, your love of idolatry, your lack of compassion]—

‘Will He be angry forever?Will He be indignant to the end?’Behold, you have spoken,And you have done all the evil things [you could],And you have had your way and have carried out your wickedness.”

I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous (faithless) sister Judah saw it.

“Your ways and your deedsHave brought these things on you.This is your tragedy and doom; how bitter,How it has touched your heart!”

“Shall I not punish them [for these things]?” says the Lord;“Shall I not avenge MyselfOn a nation such as this?”

It will come about when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘As you have abandoned (rejected) Me,’ [says the Lord,] ‘and have served strange and foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

‘Shall I not punish them [for these things]?’ says the Lord.‘Shall I not avenge MyselfOn such a nation as this?’

“Were they ashamed because they had committed disgusting and vile things?No, they were not at all ashamed;They did not even know how to blush [at their idolatry].Therefore they will fall among those who fall;At the time that I punish themThey will be overthrown,” says the Lord.

“Therefore hear, O [Gentile] nations,And see, O congregation, what [vengeful act] is to be done to them.

And now, because you have done all these things,” says the Lord, “and I spoke [persistently] to you, even rising up early and speaking, but you did not listen, and I called you but you did not answer,

For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord; “they have set their disgusting and shamefully vile things in the house which is called by My Name, to defile it.

“Were they ashamed because of the extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things they had done?They were not at all ashamed,And they did not know how to blush.Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall;At the time of their punishment they shall be overthrown,”Says the Lord.

“I will gather and snatch them away [utterly consuming them],” says the Lord.“There will be no grapes on the vine,Nor figs on the fig tree,And even the leaf will wither;And the things that I have given them will pass away [by the hand of those whom I have appointed].”’”

“Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.“Shall I not avenge MyselfOn such a nation as this?

but let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me [and acknowledges Me and honors Me as God and recognizes without any doubt], that I am the Lord who practices lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these things I delight,” says the Lord.

The Portion of Jacob [the true God on whom Israel has a claim] is not like these;For He is the Designer and Maker of all things,And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance [and He will not fail them]—The Lord of hosts is His name.

“For even your [tribal] brothers and the household of your father,Even they have dealt treacherously (unfaithfully) with you;Indeed they are [like a pack of hounds] howling after you.Do not believe them, although they may say kind words and promise you good things.”

“And if you [wonder and] say in your heart,‘Why have these things happened to me?’It is because of the greatness and nature of your sinThat your skirts have been pulled away [subjecting you to public disgrace]And [like a barefoot slave] your heels have been wounded.

Are there any among the idols of the nations who can send rain?Or can the heavens [of their own will] give showers?Is it not You, O Lord our God?Therefore we will wait and hope [confidently] in You,For You are the one who has made all these things [the heavens and the rain].

I will first doubly repay and punish them for their wickedness and their sin [before I return them to their land], because they have profaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.”

[Then said Jeremiah] “O Lord, my Strength and my Stronghold,And my Refuge in the day of distress and need,The nations will come to YouFrom the ends of the earth and say,‘Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies and illusion,[Worthless] things in which there is no benefit!’

“The heart is deceitful above all thingsAnd it is extremely sick;Who can understand it fully and know its secret motives?

“Therefore thus says the Lord,‘Ask now among the nations,Who has heard of such things?The virgin IsraelHas done a very vile and horrible thing.

Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was [also] chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

Moreover, I will hand over all the riches of this city, all the result of its labor, all its precious things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will hand over to their enemies, and they will plunder them, and take them away and carry them to Babylon.

How long [shall this state of affairs continue]? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart,

When the princes (court officials) of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the Lord.

‘Why do you cry out over your injury [since it is the natural result of your sin]?Your pain is incurable (deadly).Because your guilt is greatAnd your sins are glaring and innumerable,I have done these things to you.

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.’

Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to act in accordance with all the things that the Lord your God sends you to tell us.

And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring disaster on all flesh,’ says the Lord, ‘but I will give your life to you [as your only reward and] as a prize of war wherever you go.’”

The Portion of Jacob [the true God of Israel] is not like these [handmade gods];For He is the Maker of all and the One who formed and fashioned all things,And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—The Lord of hosts is His name.

The two pillars, the one [enormous] Sea (basin), and the twelve bronze bulls under the Sea, and the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these things was beyond weighing.

In the days of her affliction and homelessnessJerusalem remembers all her precious thingsThat she had from the days of old,When her people fell into the hand of the adversary,And no one helped her,The enemy saw her,They mocked at her downfall.

The adversary has spread out his handOver all her precious and desirable things;For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)—The ones whom You commandedThat they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].

All her people groan, seeking bread;They have exchanged their desirable and precious things for foodTo restore their lives.“See, O Lord, and considerHow despised and repulsive I have become!”

“I weep for these things;My eyes overflow with tears,Because a comforter,One who could restore my soul, is far away from me.My children are desolate and perishing,For the enemy has prevailed.”

Your prophets have seen (imagined) for youFalse and foolish visions;And they have not exposed your wickednessTo restore you from captivity [by teaching you to repent],But they have seen (imagined) and declared to you false and misleading oracles.

To defraud a man in his lawsuit—The Lord does not approve of these things.

Because of this our heart is faint,Because of these things our eyes are dim.

So, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you and withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare [you].

As for the beauty of [gold for] ornaments, they turned it to pride and from it made the images of their repulsive things (idols) and of their vile things. Therefore I will make it an unclean thing to them.

So I entered and looked, and saw every kind of creeping things and beasts and loathsome things, and all the idols of the house of Israel, carved all around on the wall.

Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and He said to me, “Say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “This is what you think, house of Israel, for I know your thoughts.

When they return there, they will remove from it all [traces of] its detestable things and all its repulsive things (remnants of paganism).

But as for those whose heart longs for and follows after their detestable things and their repulsive things [associated with idolatry], on their own head I will repay [them in full for] their [vile] conduct,” says the Lord God.

Thus says the Lord God, “Woe (judgment is coming) to the foolish prophets who are following their own spirit [claiming to have seen things] but have [in fact] seen nothing.

No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

You took some of your clothes and made for yourself [decorated] high places and shrines of various colors and prostituted yourself on them—things which should never have come about and taken place.

“How weakened by longing and lust is your heart (mind),” says the Lord God, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold and brazen prostitute.

Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore, I in turn will bring your conduct down on your own head,” says the Lord God, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other repulsive acts.

Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, but you have greatly increased your repulsive acts more than they. So you have made your [wicked] sisters [Samaria and Sodom] appear righteous and justified by [comparison to] all the disgusting things which you have done.

“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Do you not know (realize) what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Hear this, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king [Jehoiachin] and its princes and brought them with him to Babylon.

But Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar by sending his ambassadors to Egypt so that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant [with Babylon] and [still] escape?

Now Zedekiah dishonored the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he gave his hand and pledged his allegiance, yet did all these things; he shall not escape.’”

oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore [to the debtor] his pledge, but raises his eyes to the idols, and commits repulsive acts,

Then I said to them, ‘Let every man throw away the detestable things on which he feasts his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’

But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not throw away the detestable things on which they feasted their eyes, nor did they give up the idols of Egypt.“Then I decided to pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Will you [exiles] defile yourselves in the same manner as your fathers? And will you prostitute yourselves before their loathsome and heinous things?

For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel (Zion),” says the Lord God, “there the whole house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me. There I will [graciously] accept them, and there I will seek (require) your offerings and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy and sacred things.

thus says the Lord God, ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; things shall not remain as they have been. Exalt that which is low and abase the high.

You have despised and scorned My sacred things and have profaned My Sabbaths.

There is a conspiracy of her [false] prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured [human] life; they have taken [in their greed] treasure and precious things; they have made many widows among her.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy (sacred) and the profane (secular), they have not taught [people] the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

These things will be done to you because you have prostituted yourself with the [Gentile] nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

Moreover, the Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah (Samaria, capital of Israel) and Oholibah (Jerusalem, capital of Judah)? Then inform them of their atrocities [the detestable and vile things they do].

The people said to me, “These things that you are doing—tell us, what do they mean for us?”

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it shall be the wages for his army.

“A sword will come upon Egypt,And anguish and trembling will be in Ethiopia (Cush),When the slain fall in EgyptAnd they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people and her richesAnd her foundations are torn down.

Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so will the desolate cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know [with confident assurance] that I am the Lord.”’”

They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all their transgressions in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. So they will be My people, and I will be their God.

so that the fishes of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the creatures that crawl on the earth, and all the men that are on the face of the earth will tremble and shake at My presence; the mountains will crumble, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.

Then he (the angel) said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separate area, are the holy chambers where the priests who are close to the Lord shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall place the most holy things—the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering—for the place is holy.

And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have chosen foreigners [to please yourselves] and have set them in charge of My sanctuary.”

And they shall not come near to Me to serve as priests to Me, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame and their disgrace and [the consequences of] their repulsive acts which they have committed.

“It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things;He knows what is in the darkness,And the light dwells with Him.

Then a fourth kingdom (Rome) will be strong as iron, for iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; and like iron which crushes things in pieces, it will break and crush all these [others].

While I was considering the horns, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, and three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots before it; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth boasting of great things.

I approached one of those who stood by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and explained to me the interpretation of the things:

and the meaning of the ten horns (kings) that were on its head and the other horn which came up later, and before which three of the horns fell, specifically, that horn which had eyes and a mouth that boasted great things and which looked larger than the others.

“Then the king (the Antichrist) will do exactly as he pleases; he will exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and will speak astounding and disgusting things against the God of gods and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is determined [by God] will be done.

Instead, he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold and silver, with precious stones and with expensive things.

He will have power over the treasures of gold and silver and over all the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow in his footsteps.

And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he held up his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and a half a time (three and a half years); and as soon as they finish shattering and crushing the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished.

As for me, I heard, but I did not understand; so I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

“And in that day I will make a covenant for IsraelWith the animals of the open countryAnd with the birds of the heavensAnd with the creeping things of the ground.And I will abolish the bow and the sword and [banish] war from the landAnd will make them lie down in safety.

Afterward the sons of Israel will return [in deep repentance] and seek the Lord their God and [seek from the line of] David their king [the King of kings—the Messiah]; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness and blessing in the last days.

I wrote for him the ten thousand precepts of My law,But they are regarded as a strange thing [which does not concern him].

For behold, they will go away because of devastation and destruction;Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them.Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;Thorns will grow in their tents.

Whoever is [spiritually] wise, let him understand these things;Whoever is [spiritually] discerning and understanding, let him know them.For the ways of the Lord are right,And the righteous will walk in them,But transgressors will stumble and fall in them.

“But I will remove the northern army far away from you,And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,With its forward guard into the eastern sea (Dead Sea)And with its rear guard into the western sea (Mediterranean Sea).And its stench will arise and its foul odor of decay will come up [this is the fate of the northern army in the final day of the Lord],For He has done great things.”

Do not fear, O land; be glad and rejoice,For the Lord has done great things!

“How Esau (Edom) shall be ransacked [by men who come to ravage with divine approval]!How his hidden treasures shall be searched out!

‘Do not speak out,’ so they speak out.But if they do not speak out concerning these things,Reproaches will not be turned back.

“As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,I shall show you marvelous and miraculous things.”

They shall lick the dust like a serpent;Like crawling things of the earthThey shall come trembling out of their fortresses and hiding places.They shall turn and come with fear and dread to the Lord our GodAnd they shall be afraid and stand in awe before You [O Lord].

“I will throw filth on youAnd make you vile and treat you with contempt,And set you up as a spectacle.

Why do You make men like the fish of the sea,Like reptiles and creeping things that have no ruler [and are helpless against their enemies]?

“I will completely consume and sweep away all thingsFrom the face of the earth [in judgment],” says the Lord.

I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the desirable and precious things of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory and splendor,’ says the Lord of hosts.