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Jesaja 1:11-15
“ The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord.“ I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! (niv)
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Micha 3:2-4
you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones;who eat my people’s flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?”Then they will cry out to the Lord, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them because of the evil they have done. (niv)
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Jesaja 58:2-6
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.‘ Why have we fasted,’ they say,‘ and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’“ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?“ Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? (niv)
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Matthäus 23:13
“ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. (niv)
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Jeremia 7:4-11
Do not trust in deceptive words and say,“ This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.“‘ Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say,“ We are safe”— safe to do all these detestable things?Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord. (niv)
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Matthäus 23:5
“ Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; (niv)
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Jesaja 64:5
You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? (niv)
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Jesaja 29:15
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think,“ Who sees us? Who will know?” (niv)
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Jesaja 59:6-8
Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace. (niv)
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Römer 3:10-20
As it is written:“ There is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”“ Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”“ The poison of vipers is on their lips.”“ Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”“ Their feet are swift to shed blood;ruin and misery mark their ways,and the way of peace they do not know.”“ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (niv)
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Jesaja 66:3-4
But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol. They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations;so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” (niv)
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Römer 10:2-3
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. (niv)
