Thus saith the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four I will not convert him: because he hath sold the just man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of shoes.7 They bruise the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the humble: and the son and his father have gone to the same young woman, to profane my holy name.8 And they sat down upon garments laid to pledge by every altar: and drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.9 Yet I cast out the Amorrhite before their face: whose height was like the height of cedars, and who was strong as an oak: and I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots beneath.10 It is I that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and I led you forty years through the wilderness, that you might possess the land of the Amorrhite.13 Behold, I will screak under you as a wain screaketh that is laden with hay.14 And flight shall perish from the swift, and the valiant shall not possess his strength, neither shall the strong save his life.15 And he that holdeth the bow shall not stand, and the swift of foot shall not escape, neither shall the rider of the horse save his life.16 And the stout of heart among the valiant shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.
Many, truly, are the shoes of the sinful soul, by which it is bound and cramped. For each man is cramped by the cords of his own sins. Accordingly, Abraham swears to the king of Sodom, "I will not take of all that is thine, from a thread to a shoe-latchet." On account of these being defiled and polluted on the earth, every kind of wrong and selfishness engrosses life. As the Lord reproves Israel by Amos, saying, "For three iniquities of Israel, yea, for four, I will not turn him back; because they have given away the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, which tread upon the dust of the ground."
But to the sinner God hath said: Why dost thou declare my justices, and take my covenant in thy mouth?17 Seeing thou hast hated discipline: and hast cast my words behind thee.18 If thou didst see a thief thou didst run with him: and with adulterers thou hast been a partaker.19 Thy mouth hath abounded with evil, and thy tongue framed deceits.20 Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother’s son:21 These things hast thou done, and I was silent. Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face.22 Understand these things, you that forget God; lest he snatch you away, and there be none to deliver you.23 The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me: and there is the way by which I will shew him the salvation of God.
Let us … earnestly strive to be found in the number of those that wait for him, in order that we may share in his promised gifts. But how, beloved, shall this be done? If our understanding is fixed by faith toward God; if we earnestly seek the things that are pleasing and acceptable to him; if we do the things that are in harmony with his blameless will; and if we follow the way of truth, casting away from us all unrighteousness and iniquity, along with all covetousness, strife, evil practices, deceit, whispering and evil speaking, all hatred of God, pride and haughtiness, vainglory and ambition. For they that do such things are hateful to God; and not only they that do them, but also those that take pleasure in them that do them.
And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water.19 And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou shalt go.20 And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.†21 And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.22 But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.
Otherwise; This Scribe being one of the doctors of the Law, asks if he shall follow Him, as though it were not contained in the Law that this is He whom it were gain to follow. Therefore He discovers the feeling of unbelief under the diffidence of his enquiry. For the taking up of the faith is not by question but by following.
The disciple does not ask whether he shall follow Him; for he already believed that he ought to follow, but prays to be suffered first to bury his father.
Also, because we are taught in the beginning of the Lord’s prayer, first to say, Our Father, which art in heaven; and since this disciple represents the believing people; he is here reminded that he has one only Father in heaven (Mat. 23:9.), and that between a believing son and an unbelieving Father the filial relation does not hold good. We are also admonished that the unbelieving dead are not to be mingled with the memories of the saints, and that they are also dead who live out of God; and the dead are buried by the dead, because by the faith of God it behoves the living to cleave to the living (God.)
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.)