Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted.†7 Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand.9 Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents.†10 Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.11 Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come.12 Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.13 Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.
I commend the Churches, in which I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, "who is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe;" by whose blood ye were redeemed; by whom ye have known God, or rather have been known by Him; in whom enduring, ye shall escape all the assaults of this world: for "He is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able."
And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying:42 If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes.†43 For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side,†44 And beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.45 And entering into the temple, he began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought.46 Saying to them: It is written: My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves.†47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. And the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people sought to destroy him:
All the blessings which Jesus pronounced in His Gospel He confirms by His own example, as having declared, Blessed are the meek; He afterwards sanctions it by saying, Learn of me, for I am meek; and because He had said, Blessed are they that weep, He Himself also wept over the city.
I do not deny then that the former Jerusalem was destroyed because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but I ask whether the weeping might not perhaps concern this your spiritual Jerusalem. For if a man has sinned after receiving the mysteries of truth, he will be wept over. Moreover, no Gentile is wept over, but he only who was of Jerusalem, and has ceased to be.
But our Jerusalem is also wept over, because after sin enemies surround it, (that is, wicked spirits,) and cast a trench round it to besiege it, and leave not a stone behind; especially when a man after long continency, after years of chastity, is overcome, and enticed by the blandishments of the flesh, has lost his fortitude and his modesty, and has committed fornication, they will not leave on him one stone upon another, according to Ezekiel, His former righteousness I will not remember. (Ezek 18:24.)
If any then sells, let him be cast out, and especially if he sells doves. For of those things which have been revealed and committed to me by the Holy Spirit, I either sell for money to the people, or do not teach without hire, what else do I but sell a dove, that is, the Holy Spirit?
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)