Psalm 53:1–6 (NIV84)

¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. ²God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. ³ Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. ⁴ Will the evildoers never learn— those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on God? ⁵ There they were, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them. ⁶ Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

Psalm 140:1–13 (NIV84)

¹ Rescue me, O Lord, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, ² who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. ³ They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Selah ⁴ Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet. ⁵ Proud men have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. Selah ⁶ O Lord, I say to you, “You are my God.” Hear, O Lord, my cry for mercy. ⁷ O Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle— ⁸ do not grant the wicked their desires, O Lord; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah ⁹ Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused. ¹⁰ Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. ¹¹ Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence. ¹² I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. ¹³ Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you.

Deuteronomy 3:1–11 (NIV84)

¹ Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei. ² The Lord said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have handed him over to you with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.” ³ So the Lordour God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors. ⁴ At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ⁵ All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages. ⁶ We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children. ⁷ But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves. ⁸ So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon. ⁹ (Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.) ¹⁰ We took all the towns on the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan. ¹¹ (Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

Romans 3:21–31 (NIV84)

²¹ But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²²This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— ²⁶ he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. ²⁹ Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.