At first what they say is foolish. In the end their words are very evil.

他口中的言语起头是愚昧；他话的末尾是奸恶的狂妄。

他口中的话语起头是愚昧，终局是邪恶的狂妄。

他口中的话语起头是愚昧，终局是邪恶的狂妄。

愚人开口是愚昧，闭口是邪恶狂妄。

愚昧人的话开头是愚昧，结尾是邪恶狂妄。

他口中话语的开头是愚昧，尽头是邪恶的狂妄。

他口中的言語起頭是愚昧；他話的末尾是奸惡的狂妄。

他口中的話語起頭是愚昧，終局是邪惡的狂妄。

他口中的話語起頭是愚昧，終局是邪惡的狂妄。

愚人開口是愚昧，閉口是邪惡狂妄。

愚昧人的話開頭是愚昧，結尾是邪惡狂妄。

他口中的話起頭就愚昧；他口中說的、末尾是惡性的狂妄。

他口中話語的開頭是愚昧，盡頭是邪惡的狂妄。

其口所言、始則愚昧、終則狂妄、

其言也始則拙、終則狂。

其口之言、始則愚拙、終則狂妄、

At the beginning their words are folly; at the end they are wicked madness—

The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness.

Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions, so their conclusions will be wicked madness;

The beginning of the words from his mouth is folly, but the end of his speaking is evil madness;

the beginning of his talking is foolishness, and the end of it is evil insanity.

The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, And the end of his talk is raving madness.

The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly, but the end of his speaking is evil madness.

The beginning of the words of his mouth[ is] foolishness: and the end of his talk[ is] mischievous madness.

At the beginning his words are foolish and at the end his talk is wicked madness,

The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

Nabal answered David’s servants,“ Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are running away from their masters these days.Why should I give away my bread and water? Why should I give away the meat I’ve prepared for those who clip the wool off my sheep? Why should I give food to men who come from who knows where?”

Then Herod secretly called for the Wise Men. He found out from them exactly when the star had appeared.He sent them to Bethlehem. He said,“ Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report it to me. Then I can go and worship him too.”

Soon all the men of Israel were coming to the king. They were saying to him,“ Why did the men of Judah take you away from us? They are our relatives. What right did they have to bring you and your family across the Jordan River? What right did they have to bring all your men over with you?”All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel. They said,“ We did that because the king is our close relative. So why should you be angry about what happened? Have we eaten any of the king’s food? Have we taken anything for ourselves?”Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah. They said,“ We have ten of the 12 tribes in the kingdom. So we have a stronger claim on David than you have. Why then are you acting as if you hate us? Weren’t we the first ones to talk about bringing back our king?” But the men of Judah argued their side even more forcefully than the men of Israel.An evil man who always stirred up trouble happened to be in Gilgal. His name was Sheba, the son of Bikri. Sheba was from the tribe of Benjamin. He blew his trumpet. Then he shouted,“ We don’t have any share in David’s kingdom! Jesse’s son is not our king! Men of Israel, every one of you go back home!”

But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were very angry. They began to talk to one another about what they might do to Jesus.

Saul said to them,“ Men of Benjamin, listen to me! Do you think Jesse’s son will give all of you fields and vineyards? Do you think he’ll make some of you commanders of thousands of men? Do you think he’ll make the rest of you commanders of hundreds?Is that why all of you have joined together against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with Jesse’s son. None of you is concerned about me. No one tells me that my son has stirred up Jesse’s son to hide and wait to attack me. But that’s exactly what’s happening now.”

“ We gave you clear orders not to teach in Jesus’ name,” he said.“ But you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. You want to make us guilty of this man’s death.”Peter and the other apostles replied,“ We must obey God instead of people!You had Jesus killed by nailing him to a cross. But the God of our people raised Jesus from the dead.Now Jesus is Prince and Savior. God has proved this by giving Jesus a place of honor with him. He did it to turn Israel away from their sins and forgive them.We are telling people about these things. And so is the Holy Spirit. God has given the Spirit to those who obey him.”When the leaders heard this, they became very angry. They wanted to put the apostles to death.

The king replied,“ If the Lord doesn’t help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?”

But the king said,“ Ahimelek, you will certainly be put to death. You and your whole family will be put to death.”Then the king gave an order to the guards at his side. He said,“ Go and kill the priests of the Lord. They are on David’s side too. They knew he was running away from me. And they didn’t even tell me.” But the king’s officials wouldn’t raise a hand to strike down the priests of the Lord.Then the king ordered Doeg,“ You go and strike down the priests.” So Doeg, the Edomite, went and struck them down. That day he killed 85 priests who wore linen aprons.

But members of the group called the Synagogue of the Freedmen began to oppose him. Some of them were Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. Others were Jews from Cilicia and Asia Minor. They all began to argue with Stephen.But he was too wise for them. That’s because the Holy Spirit gave Stephen wisdom whenever he spoke.Then in secret they talked some men into lying about Stephen. They said,“ We heard Stephen speak evil things against Moses and against God.”

Some of the Pharisees said,“ It is against the Law to do this on the Sabbath day. Why are you doing it?”

But the Pharisee was surprised. He noticed that Jesus did not wash before the meal.

Saul didn’t say anything that day. He said to himself,“ Something must have happened to David to make him‘ unclean.’ That must be why he isn’t here.”But the next day, David’s place was empty again. It was the second day of the month. Finally, Saul spoke to his son Jonathan. He said,“ Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal? He hasn’t been here yesterday or today.”Jonathan replied,“ David begged me to let him go to Bethlehem.He said,‘ Let me go. Our family is offering a sacrifice in the town. My brother has ordered me to be there. Are you pleased with me? If you are, let me go and see my brothers.’ That’s why he hasn’t come to eat at your table.”Saul became very angry with Jonathan. He said to him,“ You are an evil son. You have refused to obey me. I know that you are on the side of Jesse’s son. You should be ashamed of that. And your mother should be ashamed of having a son like you.You will never be king as long as Jesse’s son lives on this earth. And you will never have a kingdom either. So send someone to bring the son of Jesse to me. He must die!”“ Why do you want to put him to death?” Jonathan asked his father.“ What has he done?”But Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father wanted to kill David.

So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus too.

Herod realized that the Wise Men had tricked him. So he became very angry. He gave orders about Bethlehem and the area around it. He ordered all the boys two years old and under to be killed. This agreed with the time when the Wise Men had seen the star.

Suppose a wise person goes to court with a foolish person. Then the foolish person gets mad and pokes fun, and there is no peace.

When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law strongly opposed him. They threw a lot of questions at him.They set traps for him. They wanted to catch him in something he might say.

On the fourth day they spoke to Samson’s wife.“ Get your husband to explain the riddle for us,” they said.“ If you don’t, we’ll burn you to death. We’ll burn up everyone in your family. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”

He said,“ I’ll cut the head of Shaphat’s son Elisha off his shoulders today. If I don’t, may God punish me greatly!”

There was a man named Demetrius who made things out of silver. He made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis. He brought in a lot of business for the other skilled workers there.One day he called them together. He also called others who were in the same kind of business.“ My friends,” he said,“ you know that we make good money from our work.You have seen and heard what this fellow Paul is doing. He has talked to large numbers of people here in Ephesus. Almost everywhere in Asia Minor he has led people away from our gods. He says that the gods made by human hands are not gods at all.Our work is in danger of losing its good name. People’s faith in the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be weakened. Now she is worshiped all over Asia Minor and the whole world. But soon she will be robbed of her greatness.”When they heard this, they became very angry. They began shouting,“ Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they became very angry. They were so angry they ground their teeth at Stephen.But he was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory. He saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand.“ Look!” he said.“ I see heaven open. The Son of Man is standing at God’s right hand.”When the Sanhedrin heard this, they covered their ears. They yelled at the top of their voices. They all rushed at him.They dragged him out of the city. They began to throw stones at him to kill him. The people who had brought false charges against Stephen took off their coats. They placed them at the feet of a young man named Saul.While the members of the Sanhedrin were throwing stones at Stephen, he prayed.“ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” he said.