'Words' in the Bible

The words of the wise heard in quietness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, while the lips of a fool consume him;

Yet the fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?

The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.

The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.

Give ear and hear my voice,Listen and hear my words.

Then you will be brought low;From the earth you will speak,And from the dust where you are prostrateYour words will come.Your voice will also be like that of a spirit from the ground,And your speech will whisper from the dust.

The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

Then the Lord said,“Because this people draw near with their wordsAnd honor Me with their lip service,But they remove their hearts far from Me,And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,

On that day the deaf will hear words of a book,And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,Speak to us pleasant words,Prophesy illusions.

Yet He also is wise and will bring disasterAnd does not retract His words,But will arise against the house of evildoersAnd against the help of the workers of iniquity.

I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?

But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’”

Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God.

Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was no one who declared,Surely there was no one who proclaimed,Surely there was no one who heard your words.

I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

Transgressing and denying the Lord,And turning away from our God,Speaking oppression and revolt,Conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words.

“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”

The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

Then the Lord stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,“Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;‘I will not look upon you in anger.For I am gracious,’ declares the Lord;‘I will not be angry forever.

Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts,“Because you have spoken this word,Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fireAnd this people wood, and it will consume them.

“Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people,The fruit of their plans,Because they have not listened to My words,And as for My law, they have rejected it also.

Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant

And the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.

Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.’”

They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”

This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.

Your words were found and I ate them,And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;For I have been called by Your name,O Lord God of hosts.

“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’

“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.”

Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words.”

Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you,

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,” declares the Lord, “that this house will become a desolation.”’”

As for the prophets:My heart is broken within me,All my bones tremble;I have become like a drunken man,Even like a man overcome with wine,Because of the LordAnd because of His holy words.

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.They are leading you into futility;They speak a vision of their own imagination,Not from the mouth of the Lord.

“But if they had stood in My council,Then they would have announced My words to My people,And would have turned them back from their evil wayAnd from the evil of their deeds.

Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other.

For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.

“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words,

I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

“Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them,‘The Lord will roar from on highAnd utter His voice from His holy habitation;He will roar mightily against His fold.He will shout like those who tread the grapes,Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah who have come to worship in the Lord’s house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word!

to listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again, but you have not listened;

The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city and on its inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

Indeed, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

When King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard it, and he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt.

I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

So do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you;

Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon’; for they are prophesying a lie to you.

and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the Lord’s house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.

Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

because they have not listened to My words,’ declares the Lord, ‘which I sent to them again and again by My servants the prophets; but you did not listen,’ declares the Lord.

because they have acted foolishly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who knows and am a witness,” declares the Lord.’”

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book.

Now these are the words which the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:

Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem

I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts—

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words?” declares the Lord.

“The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are observed. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again; yet you have not listened to Me.

“Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which He had spoken to him.

So you go and read from the scroll which you have written at my dictation the words of the Lord to the people in the Lord’s house on a fast day. And also you shall read them to all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house, to all the people.

Now when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the Lord from the book,

Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people.

When they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one to another and said to Baruch, “We will surely report all these words to the king.”

And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?”

Then Baruch said to them, “He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book.”

So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to the king.

Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying,

“Take again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,

Then the officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm.”

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die.

Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him, since the conversation had not been overheard.

“Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before you on that day.

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray to the Lord your God in accordance with your words; and I will tell you the whole message which the Lord will answer you. I will not keep back a word from you.”

But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the Lord their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God—that is, all these words—

This will be the sign to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.’

This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah’s dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying:

So Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamity which would come upon Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words aloud,

and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.