¹² If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it.

² Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?

²¹ Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

⁶ If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

⁷ If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

²⁶ He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

²² Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

²⁰ The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

³ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

⁴ And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

¹⁶ As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.