For circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.

And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who having the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and whose circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, and whose praise is not from men, but from God.

And Esau said, "Behold, I am at the point of dying. And what profit shall this birthright be to me?"

For what hath the wise more than the fool? What hath the poor, who knoweth how to walk before the living?

Seeing there are many things that increase vanity, how is man the better?

"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" saith the LORD. "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of hegoats.

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

Ye have said: `It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is there to me, if the dead rise not? "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited those who have been occupied therewith.