2913 verses about Truth

O Israel, happy are we: for the things that are pleasing to God are made known to us.

For their tongue is polished by the workman, and they themselves are overlaid with gold and with silver; yet are they but false, and can’t speak.

Whatsoever is done among them is false: how should a man then think or say that they are gods?

For they have left lies and reproaches to those who come after.

and it shall be manifest to all nations and kings that they are no gods, but the works of men’s hands, and that there is no work of God in them.

For you are righteous in all the things that you have done: yes, true are all your works, and your ways are right, and all your judgements truth.

In all the things that you have brought upon us, and upon the holy city of our fathers, even Jerusalem, you have executed true judgements: for according to truth and justice have you brought all these things upon us because of our sins.

Wherefore all that you have brought upon us, and everything that you have done to us, you have done in true judgement.

If you will not, we will bear witness against you, that a young man was with you: and therefore you did send away your maids from you.

With that Susanna cried with a loud voice: and the two elders cried out against her.

But when the elders had told their tale, the servants were greatly ashamed: for there was never such a report made of Susanna.

And the elders said, As we walked in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, and shut the garden doors, and sent the maids away.

And we, being in a corner of the garden, saw this wickedness, and ran to them.

But having taken this woman , we asked who the young man was, but she would not tell us: these things do we testify.

Then the assembly believed them, as those that were elders of the people and judges: so they condemned her to death.

Then Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, O everlasting God, that know the secrets, that know all things before they be:

you know that they have borne false witness against me, and, behold, I must die; whereas I never did such things as these men have maliciously invented against me.

Then all the people turned them toward him, and said, What mean these words that you have spoken?

So he standing in the midst of them said, Are you⌃ such fools, you⌃ sons of Israel, that without examination or knowledge of the truth you⌃ have condemned a daughter of Israel?

Return again to the place of judgement: for these have borne false witness against her.

Wherefore all the people turned again in haste, and the elders said to him, Come, sit down among us, and show it us, seeing God has given you the honor of an elder.

Then said Daniel to them, Put them asunder one far from another, and I will examine them.

So when they were put asunder one from another, he called one of them, and said to him, O you that have become old in wickedness, now are your sins come home to you which you have committed aforetime,

in pronouncing unjust judgement, and condemning the innocent, and letting the guilty go free; albeit the Lord says, The innocent and righteous shall you not kill.

Now then, if you saw her, tell me, Under what tree saw you them companying together? Who answered, Under a mastick tree.

And Daniel said, Right well have you lied against your own head; for even now the angel of God has received the sentence of God and shall cut you in two.

Now therefore tell me, Under what tree did you take them companying together? Who answered, Under a holm tree.

Then said Daniel to him, Right well have you also lied against your own head: for the angel of God waits with the sword to cut you in two, that he may destroy you.

And they arose against the two elders, for Daniel had convicted them of false witness out of their own mouth:

and according to the law of Moses they did to them in such sort as they maliciously intended to do to their neighbor: and they put them to death, and the innocent blood was saved the same day.

And from that day forth was Daniel had in great reputation in the sight of the people.

And he said, Because I may not do honor to idols made with hands, but to the living God, who has created the heaven and the earth, and has sovereignty over all flesh.

Then Daniel laughed, and said, O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink anything.

But if you⌃ can show me that Bel devours them, then Daniel shall die: for he has spoken blasphemy against Bel. And Daniel said to the king, Let it be according to your word.

and when you come in the morning, if you find not that Bel has eaten up all, we will suffer death: or else Daniel, that speaks falsely against us.

And it came to pass, when they were gone forth, the king set the meat before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and they strewed all the temple with them in the presence of the king alone: then they went out, and shut the door, and sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.

And the king said, Daniel, are the seals whole? And he said, Yes, O king, they be whole.

And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice, Great are you, O Bel, and with you is no deceit at all.

Then laughed Daniel, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.

And the king said to Daniel, Wilt you also say that this is of brass? behold, he lives, and eats and drinks; you can not say that he is no living god: therefore worship him.

Then cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great are you, O Lord, you God of Daniel, and there is none other beside you.

And Mattathias answered and said with a loud voice, If all the nations that are in the house of the king’s dominion hearken to him, to fall away each one from the worship of his fathers, and have made choice to follow his commandments,

Heaven forbid that we should forsake the law and the ordinances.

And call to remembrance the deeds of our fathers which they did in their generations; and receive great glory and an everlasting name.

and laid open the book of the law, concerning which the Gentiles were wont to inquire, seeking the likenesses of their idols.

But the strangers, as many as had escaped, came and told Lysias all the things that had happened:

And he spoke with them words of peace, and sware to them, saying, We will seek the hurt neither of you nor your friends.

And the fear and the dread of them fell upon all the people, for they said, There is neither truth nor judgement in them; for they have broken the covenant and the oath which they sware.

And the thing was known to Judas, to wit, that he came to him with deceit, and he was sore afraid of him, and would see his face no more.

and to those who are confederates with their foes there shall not be given food, arms, money, or ships, as it has seemed good to Rome; and they shall keep these ordinances, and that without deceit.

But if hereafter the one party and the other shall take counsel to add or diminish anything, they shall do it at their pleasure, and whatever they shall add or take away shall be established.

And he removed, and came with a great army, and sent letters privily to all his confederates that were in Judea, that they should lay hands on Jonathan and those that were with him: and they could not, because their counsel was known to them.

Now when Jonathan and the people heard these words, they gave no credence to them, nor received them, because they remembered the great evil which he had done in Israel, and that he had afflicted them very sore.

Forasmuch as I am returned to my kingdom, and am set on the throne of my fathers, and have gotten the dominion, and have overthrown Demetrius, and have gotten possession of our country;

Ask and learn who I am, and the rest that help us; and they say, Your foot can’t stand before our face; for your fathers have been twice put to flight in their own land.

The copy of the letter which we wrote to Lasthenes our kinsman concerning you, we have written also to you, that you⌃ may see it.

Now therefore be careful to make a copy of these things, and let it be given to Jonathan, and let it be set up on the holy mount in a meet and conspicuous place.

Even before this time were letters sent to Onias the high priest from Arius, who was reigning among you, to signify that you⌃ are our kindred, as the copy here underwritten shows.

And now you⌃ shall do well if you⌃ give us an answer thereto.

It has been found in writing, concerning the Spartans and the Jews, that they are kindred, and that they are of the stock of Abraham:

And he sent the children and the hundred talents. And he dealt falsely, and did not set Jonathan at liberty.

And they wrote on tables of brass, and set them upon pillars in mount Sion: and this is the copy of the writing: On the eighteenth day of Elul, in the hundred and seventy and second year, and this is the third year of Simon the high priest,

in Asaramel, in a great congregation of priests and people and princes of the nation, and of the elders of the country, was it notified to us:

and that the Jews and the priests were well pleased that Simon should be their leader and high priest forever, until there should arise a faithful prophet;

But the copy hereof they wrote to Simon the high priest.

And Simon answered, and said to him, We have neither taken other men’s land, nor have we possession of that which appertains to others, but of the inheritance of our fathers; howbeit, it was had in possession of our enemies wrongfully for a certain time.

and the son of Abubus received them deceitfully into the little stronghold that is called Dok, which he had built, and made them a great banquet, and hid men there.

Here then let us begin the narration, only adding thus much to that which has been already said; for it is a foolish thing to make a long prologue to the history, and to abridge the history itself.

So forthwith Heliodorus took his journey, under a color of visiting the cities of Coelesyria and Phoenicia, but in fact to execute the king’s purpose.

And when he was come to Jerusalem, and had been courteously received by the high priest of the city, he laid before them an account of the information which had been given him, and declared wherefore he was come; and he inquired if in truth these things were so.

And he testified to all men the works of the great God which he had seen with his eyes.

But the aforesaid Simon, he who had given information of the money, and had betrayed his country, slandered Onias, saying that it was he who had incited Heliodorus, and made himself the author of these evils.

And him that was the benefactor of the city, and the guardian of his fellow countrymen, and a zealot for the laws, he dared to call a conspirator against the state.

Wherefore Menelaus, taking Andronicus apart, prayed him to kill Onias. And coming to Onias, and being persuaded to use treachery, and being received as a friend, Andronicus gave him his right hand with oaths of fidelity, and, though he was suspected by him, so persuaded him to come forth of the sanctuary; and forthwith he despatched him without regard of justice.

Howbeit let this that we have spoken suffice to put you in remembrance; but after these few words we must come to the narrative.

coming forward as men ought to come that are resolute to repel such things as not even for the natural love of life is it lawful to taste.

But he, having formed a high resolve, and one that became his years, and the dignity of old age, and the gray hairs which he had reached with honor, and his excellent education from a child, or rather that became the holy laws of God’s ordaining, declared his mind accordingly, bidding them quickly send him to Hades.

For it becomes not our years to dissemble, said he, that through this many of the young should suppose that Eleazar, the man of fourscore years and ten, had gone over to an alien religion;

But one of them made himself the spokesman and said, What would you ask and learn of us? for we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers.

The Lord God sees, and in truth is entreated for us, as Moses declared in his song, which witnesseth against the people to their faces, saying, And he shall be entreated for his servants.

But he answered in the language of his fathers and said to them, No. Wherefore he also underwent the next torture in succession, as the first had done.

But before she had yet ended speaking, the young man said, Whom wait you⌃ for? I obey not the commandment of the king, but I hearken to the commandment of the law that was given to our fathers through Moses.

For not yet have you escaped the judgement of the Almighty God that sees all things.

And he that had taken upon him to make tribute sure for the Romans by the captivity of the men of Jerusalem published abroad that the Jews had One who fought for them, and that because this was so the Jews were invulnerable, because they followed the laws ordained by him.

Menelaus informed us that your desire was to return home and follow your own business.

All therefore, blessing the works of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who makes manifest the things that are hid,

But Rhodocus, from the Jewish ranks, made known to the enemy the secrets of his countrymen. He was sought out, and taken, and shut up in prison.

And when they declared with oaths that they had no knowledge where the man was whom he sought,

And when the Jews that were compelled to follow him said, O destroy not so savagely and barbarously, but give due glory to the day which he that sees all things has honored and hallowed above other days;

And when he had roused their spirit, he gave them his commands, at the same time pointing out the perfidiousness of the heathen and their breach of their oaths.

And if I have written well and to the point in my story, this is what I myself desired; but if meanly and indifferently, this is all I could attain to.

saying, Thus says Cyrus king of the Persians; The Lord of Israel, the Most High Lord, has made me king of the whole world,

To king Artaxerxes our Lord, Your servants, Rathumus the storywriter, and Samellius the scribe, and the rest of their council, and the judges that are in Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

but to speak to our lord the king, to the intent that, if it be your pleasure, search may be made in the books of your fathers:

I have read the epistle which you⌃ have sent to me: therefore I commanded to make search, and it has been found that that city of old time has made insurrection against kings;

Let every one of us say one thing which shall be strongest: and he whose sentence shall seem wiser than the others, to him shall Darius the king give great gifts, and great honors in token of victory:

And then they wrote every one his sentence, and set to their seals, and laid the writing under king Darius his pillow,

and said, When the king is risen, some shall give him the writing; and of whose side the king and the three princes of Persia shall judge that his sentence is the wisest, to him shall the victory be given, as it is written.

The second wrote, The king is strongest.

The third wrote, Women are strongest: but above all things Truth bears away the victory.