Curated semantic-search results from the Bible and early Jewish and Christian writings.
These passages are drawn from a current, full-corpus deep search.
Top matching passages
Best matchAmos 5:14–25
4/10 · fair
14 Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed. 15 Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” 16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail. 17 There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD. 18 Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light. 19 It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake. 20 Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it? 21 “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard. 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 25 Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty…
Deuteronomy 16:16–22
3/10 · fair
16 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed. 17 Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. 18 You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. 20 Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 21 Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God, 22 and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
1 Esdras 4:32–41
4/10 · fair
32 O sirs, how can it not be that women are strong, seeing they do this?” (WEB) 33 Then the king and the nobles looked at one another. So he began to speak concerning truth. (WEB) 34 “O sirs, aren’t women strong? The earth is great. The sky is high. The sun is swift in its course, for it circles around the sky, and returns on its course again in one day. (WEB) 35 Isn’t he who makes these things great? Therefore the truth is great, and stronger than all things. (WEB) 36 All the earth calls upon truth, and the sky blesses truth. All works shake and tremble, but with truth there is no unrighteous thing. (WEB) 37 Wine is unrighteous. The king is unrighteous. Women are unrighteous. All the children of men are unrighteous, and all their works are unrighteous. There is no truth in them. They shall also perish in their unrighteousness. (WEB) 38 But truth remains, and is strong forever. Truth lives and conquers forevermore. (WEB) 39 With truth there is no partiality toward persons or rewards, but truth does the things that are just, instead of any unrighteous or wicked things. All men approve truth’s works. (WEB) 40 In truth’s judgment is not any unrighteousness. Truth is the strength, the kingdom, the power, and the majesty of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth!” (WEB) 41 With that, he stopped speaking. Then all the people shouted and said, “Great is truth, and strong above all things!” (WEB)
Sirach 4:28
2/10 · weak
28 Strive for the truth to death, and the Lord God will fight for you. (WEB)
Habakkuk 1:1–7
3/10 · fair
1 This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision: 2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save? 3 Why do You make me see iniquity? Why do You tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. 5 “Look at the nations and observe— be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans — that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and feared; from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.
Isaiah 59:8–18
4/10 · fair
8 The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead. 11 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart. 14 So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. 15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him. 17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of ven…
4 Maccabees 9:13–18
3/10 · fair
13 The noble youth, extended upon this, became dislocated. (WEB) 14 With every member disjointed, he denounced the tyrant, saying, (WEB) 15 “O most accursed tyrant, and enemy of heavenly justice, and cruel-hearted, I am no murderer, nor sacrilegious man, whom you torture, but a defender of the Divine law.” (WEB) 16 And when the spearmen said, “Consent to eat, that you may be released from your tortures,” (WEB) 17 he answered, “Not so powerful, O accursed lackeys, is your wheel, as to stifle my reasoning. Cut my limbs, and burn my flesh, and twist my joints. (WEB) 18 For through all my torments I will convince you that the children of the Hebrews are alone unconquered on behalf of virtue.” (WEB)
Psalms 82:1–8
3/10 · fair
1 A Psalm of Asaph. God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. 4 Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. 5 They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I have said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’ 7 But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your inheritance.
4 Maccabees 11:27
3/10 · fair
27 For the guards not of a tyrant but of a divine law are our defenders. Through this we keep our reasoning unconquered.” (WEB)
4 Maccabees 7:8–9
2/10 · weak
8 Of such a character ought those to be who perform the duties of the law at the risk of their own blood, and defend it with generous sweat by sufferings even to death. (WEB) 9 You, father, have gloriously established our right government by your endurance; and making of much account our past service, prevented its destruction, and by your deeds, have made credible the words of philosophy. (WEB)