Go and make sure once more; find out for certain where he is and who has seen him there. I hear that he is very cunning.

Find out exactly the places where he hides, and be sure to bring back a report to me right away. Then I will go with you, and if he is still in the region, I will hunt him down, even if I have to search the whole land of Judah."

Absalom and all the Israelites said, "Hushai's advice is better than Ahithophel's." The LORD had decided that Ahithophel's good advice would not be followed, so that disaster would come on Absalom.

She sent a message to Elijah: "May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don't do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets."

He upsets the plans of cunning people, and traps the wise in their own schemes, so that nothing they do succeeds;

(SEE 5:12)

The LORD frustrates the purposes of the nations; he keeps them from carrying out their plans.

But his plans endure forever; his purposes last eternally.

Human wisdom, brilliance, insight---they are of no help if the LORD is against you.

The will of the Lord alone is always carried out.

For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, "God traps the wise in their cleverness";

and another scripture says, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless."

The traitor had given the crowd a signal: "The man I kiss is the one you want. Arrest him!"

Judas went straight to Jesus and said, "Peace be with you, Teacher," and kissed him.

After four years Absalom said to King David, "Sir, let me go to Hebron and keep a promise I made to the LORD.

"Go in peace," the king said. So Absalom went to Hebron.

There were two hundred men who at Absalom's invitation had gone from Jerusalem with him; they knew nothing of the plot and went in all good faith.

Jehu called the people of Samaria together and said, "King Ahab served the god Baal a little, but I will serve him much more.

Call together all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers, and all his priests. No one is excused; I am going to offer a great sacrifice to Baal, and whoever is not present will be put to death." (This was a trick on the part of Jehu by which he meant to kill all the worshipers of Baal.)

The enemies of the people of Judah and Benjamin heard that those who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple of the LORD, the God of Israel.

So they went to see Zerubbabel and the heads of the clans and said, "Let us join you in building the Temple. We worship the same God you worship, and we have been offering sacrifices to him ever since Emperor Esarhaddon of Assyria sent us here to live."

All of them lie to one another; they deceive each other with flattery.

Silence those flattering tongues, O LORD! Close those boastful mouths that say,

There is destruction everywhere; the streets are full of oppression and fraud.

But it is you, my companion, my colleague and close friend.

May my enemies die before their time; may they go down alive into the world of the dead! Evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

A hypocrite hides hate behind flattering words.

They may sound fine, but don't believe him, because his heart is filled to the brim with hate.

eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and gashed themselves. They were taking grain and incense to offer in the Temple.

As soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael and his men killed them and threw their bodies in a well.

So they looked for an opportunity. They bribed some men to pretend they were sincere, and they sent them to trap Jesus with questions, so that they could hand him over to the authority and power of the Roman Governor.

These spies said to Jesus, "Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is right. We know that you pay no attention to anyone's status, but teach the truth about God's will for people.