Questions about the Unmarried and the Widows

1 Corinthians 7 ²⁵Now, concerning what you wrote about unmarried people: I do not have a command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy is worthy of trust.
²⁶Considering the present distress, I think it is better for a man to stay as he is. ²⁷Do you have a wife? Then don't try to get rid of her. Are you unmarried? Then don't look for a wife. ²⁸But if you do marry, you haven't committed a sin; and if an unmarried woman marries, she hasn't committed a sin. But I would rather spare you the everyday troubles that married people will have.
²⁹What I mean, my friends, is this: there is not much time left, and from now on married people should live as though they were not married; ³⁰those who weep, as though they were not sad; those who laugh, as though they were not happy; those who buy, as though they did not own what they bought; ³¹those who deal in material goods, as though they were not fully occupied with them. For this world, as it is now, will not last much longer.
³²I would like you to be free from worry. An unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord's work, because he is trying to please the Lord. ³³But a married man concerns himself with worldly matters, because he wants to please his wife; ³⁴and so he is pulled in two directions. An unmarried woman or a virgin concerns herself with the Lord's work, because she wants to be dedicated both in body and spirit; but a married woman concerns herself with worldly matters, because she wants to please her husband.
³⁵I am saying this because I want to help you. I am not trying to put restrictions on you. Instead, I want you to do what is right and proper, and to give yourselves completely to the Lord's service without any reservation.
³⁶In the case of an engaged couple who have decided not to marry: if the man feels that he is not acting properly toward the young woman and if his passions are too strong and he feels that they ought to marry, then they should get married, as he wants to. There is no sin in this. ³⁷But if a man, without being forced to do so, has firmly made up his mind not to marry, and if he has his will under complete control and has already decided in his own mind what to do--then he does well not to marry the young woman. ³⁸So the man who marries does well, but the one who doesn't marry does even better.
³⁹A married woman is not free as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, then she is free to be married to any man she wishes, but only if he is a Christian. ⁴⁰She will be happier, however, if she stays as she is. That is my opinion, and I think that I too have God's Spirit.

Naboth's Vineyard

1 Kings 21 Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ²One day Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price."
³"I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors," Naboth replied. "The LORD forbid that I should let you have it!"
⁴Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ⁵His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, "Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?"
⁶He answered, "Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!"
⁷"Well, are you the king or aren't you?" Jezebel replied. "Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!"
⁸Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ⁹The letters said: "Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honor. ¹⁰Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death."
¹¹The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ¹²They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor. ¹³The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴The message was sent to Jezebel: "Naboth has been put to death."
¹⁵As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, "Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you." ¹⁶At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.
¹⁷Then the LORD said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, ¹⁸"Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard, about to take possession of it. ¹⁹Tell him that I, the LORD, say to him, 'After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?' Tell him that this is what I say: 'In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's blood they will lick up your blood!'"
²⁰When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, "Have you caught up with me, my enemy?"
"Yes, I have," Elijah answered. "You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight. ²¹So the LORD says to you, 'I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike. ²²Your family will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading Israel into sin.' ²³And concerning Jezebel, the LORD says that dogs will eat her body in the city of Jezreel. ²⁴Any of your relatives who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures."
( ²⁵ There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the LORD's sight as Ahab--all at the urging of his wife Jezebel. ²⁶He committed the most shameful sins by worshiping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)
²⁷When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.
²⁸The LORD said to the prophet Elijah, ²⁹"Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family."

A Call to Repentance

Amos 5 Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral song which I sing over you:

²Virgin Israel has fallen,
Never to rise again!
She lies abandoned on the ground,
And no one helps her up.

³The Sovereign LORD says, "A city in Israel sends out a thousand soldiers, but only a hundred return; another city sends out a hundred, but only ten come back."
⁴The LORD says to the people of Israel, "Come to me, and you will live. ⁵Do not go to Beersheba to worship. Do not try to find me at Bethel--Bethel will come to nothing. Do not go to Gilgal--her people are doomed to exile."
⁶Go to the LORD, and you will live. If you do not go, he will sweep down like fire on the people of Israel. The fire will burn up the people of Bethel, and no one will be able to put it out. ⁷You are doomed, you that twist justice and cheat people out of their rights!

⁸The LORD made the stars,
the Pleiades and Orion.
He turns darkness into daylight
and day into night.
He calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out on the earth.
His name is the LORD.
⁹He brings destruction on the mighty and their strongholds.

¹⁰You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court. ¹¹You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant. ¹²I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts. ¹³And so, keeping quiet in such evil times is the smart thing to do!
¹⁴Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is. ¹⁵Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts. Perhaps the LORD will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive.
¹⁶And so the Sovereign LORD Almighty says, "There will be wailing and cries of sorrow in the city streets. Even farmers will be called to mourn the dead along with those who are paid to mourn. ¹⁷There will be wailing in all the vineyards. All this will take place because I am coming to punish you." The LORD has spoken.
¹⁸How terrible it will be for you who long for the day of the LORD! What good will that day do you? For you it will be a day of darkness and not of light. ¹⁹It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear! Or like someone who comes home and puts his hand on the wall--only to be bitten by a snake! ²⁰The day of the LORD will bring darkness and not light; it will be a day of gloom, without any brightness.
²¹The LORD says, "I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them! ²²When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings. ²³Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps. ²⁴Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.
²⁵"People of Israel, I did not demand sacrifices and offerings during those forty years that I led you through the desert. ²⁶But now, because you have worshiped images of Sakkuth, your king god, and of Kaiwan, your star god, you will have to carry those images ²⁷when I take you into exile in a land beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is Almighty God.