Acts 14:16–18

³⁰And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

¹²So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

²⁰He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord.

²⁸And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

³For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

¹²That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

⁵For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

²¹Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

²⁴Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

²⁵Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

¹⁹Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

²⁰For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

²³Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

¹⁰Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields:

¹⁴That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

⁶And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

¹⁷Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

¹²The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

¹²Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

¹³And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

¹⁴Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

²⁶And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

¹⁷Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

¹⁸And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

²⁴Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

⁴Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

¹⁵The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

¹⁶Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

⁹The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

⁷Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

⁸Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

¹THE heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

²Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

³There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

⁴Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

¹AND it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.

²⁷That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

²⁸For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

²²Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

⁶For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.

³⁵But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

²⁵And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

²⁴O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

²⁵So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

²⁶There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

²⁷These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

²⁸That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

⁵Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.

⁶Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.

⁷How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

¹WHY boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endureth continually.

⁹Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

¹⁰Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.

¹¹Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

¹²They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.

¹³The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

⁹Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.

¹⁰Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.

¹³And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die.

²⁶To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;

²⁷To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

²⁸Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

⁴⁵That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

¹⁶As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.

¹⁷But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

²¹And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

²²And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.

²³For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

⁶And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

¹⁵¶ When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

⁹And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.