Selfishness

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningGenesis 4:9Numbers 32:6Psalms 38:11Proverbs 11:26Proverbs 18:17Proverbs 24:11Proverbs 24:12Proverbs 28:27Ezekiel 34:18Micah 3:11Haggai 1:4Haggai 1:9Haggai 1:10Zechariah 7:6Malachi 1:10Matthew 19:21Matthew 19:22Luke 6:32–34Romans 14:15Romans 15:1–3
• See Liberality
• See Poor
• See Unselfishness

The passages, in Bible order (30)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 4:9

   And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Numbers 32:6

   But Moses asked the Gadites and Reubenites, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Psalms 38:11

   My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Proverbs 11:26

   The people will curse the hoarder of grain, but blessing will crown the one who sells it.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 11:262 voices

   “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him,.... That hoards it up for a better price, in hopes of a better market; and does not bring it out, and expose it to sale, when there is a scarcity of it; so the Targum adds, ‘in famine’; or, ‘in straits’, as the Syriac version; in a time of distress through, famine: this will bring the curse of the poor upon him, who will imprecate the most dreadful things on him and his family.”

   “He that withholdeth corn - Who refuses to sell because he hopes for a dearth, and then he can make his own price. The people shall curse him - Yes, and God shall curse him also; and if he do not return and repent, he will get God’s curse, and the curse of the poor, which will be a canker in his money during time, and in his soul throughout eternity.”

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 11:26→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Proverbs 18:17

   The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 18:171 voice

   “A protest against another fault in judging. Haste is hardly less evil than corruption. ‘Audi alteram partern ‘should be the rule of every judge. His neighbor - The other party to the suit ‘searcheth,’ i. e., scrutinizes and detects him.”

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 18:17→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Proverbs 24:11

   Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 24:112 voices

   “And so learn from your own experience to sympathize with those in trouble, and never to terrify with destructive despair those who are in danger, nor harden them with severe speeches, but rather restore them with gentle and kindly consolations, and as the wise Solomon says, ‘Spare not to deliver those who are led forth to death, and to redeem those who are to be slain,’ and after the example of our Saviour, break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, and ask of the Lord that grace, by means of which you yourself may faithfully learn both in deed and power to sing: ‘the Lord hath given me a learned tongue that I should know how to uphold by word him that is weary.’”

   “Literally: ‘Deliver those that are drawn unto death, And those who totter to the slaughter - if Thou withdraw ...’ i. e., ‘O withdraw them,’ save them from their doom; in contrast to Pro 24:10. The structure and meaning are both somewhat obscure; but the sentence is complete in itself, and is not a mere hypothesis concluded in the following verses.”

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 24:11→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Proverbs 24:12

   If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” does not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds?

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 24:121 voice

   “As Pro 24:11 warned men against acquiescing in an unrighteous tyranny, so this denounces the tendency to hush up a wrong with the false plea of ignorance. Compare Ecc 5:8. Pro 24:10-12 thus forms a complete and connected whole.”

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 24:12→

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8. Proverbs 28:27

   Whoever gives to the poor will not be in need, but he who hides his eyes will receive many curses.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 28:271 voice

   “Whenever you gather the harvest or vintage, calculate your expenses and those of all who pertain to you and include what you will put into your purse. Then, of what remains, because it was not really given to you, as was already said, but was …”

   Everything gathered on Proverbs 28:27→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Ezekiel 34:18

   Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink the clear waters? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?

   ›Commentary on Ezekiel 34:182 voices

   “Have eaten up the good pasture - Arrogate to yourselves all the promises of God, and will hardly permit the simple believer to claim or possess any token of God’s favor. Ye must foul the residue with your feet? - Ye abuse God’s mercies; you consume much upon yourselves, and ye spoil more, on which the poor would have been glad to feed.”

   “Another promise that God would in the fulness of time send the Messiah, to be the great and good Shepherd of the sheep, who should redress all grievances and set every thing to rights with the flock,”

   Everything gathered on Ezekiel 34:18→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Micah 3:11

    Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

    ›Commentary on Micah 3:112 voices

    “The Apostle Paul: Those who serve the altar, he says, partake of the altar and live by it (1 Corinthians 9:13). It is permitted for you, O priest, to live by the altar, not to indulge in luxury. The mouth of the ox that treads out the grain is not muzzled (ibid., 9). We know these things, and yet the Apostle does not abuse this permission: he is content with food and clothing. He labors night and day with his own hands so as not to be a burden to anyone.”

    “The heads thereof judge for reward - Every class was corrupted. One sin, the root of all evil 1Ti 6:10, covetousness, entered into all they did. It, not God, was their one end, and so their God.”

    Everything gathered on Micah 3:11→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Haggai 1:4

    “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”

    ›Commentary on Haggai 1:41 voice

    “Is it time for you - If the time be not come to rebuild the temple, it cannot be come for you to build yourselves comfortable houses: but ye are rebuilding your houses; why then do ye not rebuild the house of the Lord? The foundation of the temple had been laid fourteen years before, and some considerable progress made in the building; and it had been lying waste in that unfinished state to the present time.”

    Everything gathered on Haggai 1:4→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Haggai 1:9

    You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

    ›Commentary on Haggai 1:92 voices

    “Ye looked - , literally ‘a looking;’ as though he said, it has all been one looking, ‘for much,’ for increase, the result of all sowing, in the way of nature: ‘and behold it came to little,’ i. e., less than was sown; as Isaiah denounced to them of old by God’s word, Isa 5:10. ‘the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah,’ i. e., one tenth of what was sown. ‘And ye brought it home, and I blew upon it,’ so as to disperse it, as, not the wheat, but the chaff is blown before the wind.”

    “They were sensible of the smart of the judgment, and every one complained of the unseasonable weather, the great losses they sustained in their corn and cattle, and the decay of trade; but they were not sensible of the cause of the judgment, and the ground of God's controversy with them.”

    Everything gathered on Haggai 1:9→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Haggai 1:10

    Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops.

    ›Commentary on Haggai 1:101 voice

    “(Verse 10) Therefore, says the Lord of hosts, because my house is deserted, and each of you hastens to his own house, for this reason the heavens are withheld from you so that they do not give rain, and the earth withholds its produce. Not only, he says, did the heavens not give rain, by which the watered soil produces crops; but not even the morning and evening dew, so that the dry fields, at least, are tempered with a little moisture.”

    Everything gathered on Haggai 1:10→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Zechariah 7:6

    And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?

    ›Commentary on Zechariah 7:61 voice

    “And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink,.... Either at common meals, or at their festivals: did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? merely and only for their own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1Co 10:31.”

    Everything gathered on Zechariah 7:6→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. Malachi 1:10

    “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

    ›Commentary on Malachi 1:102 voices

    “Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought?.... Either of the temple, as the Targum and Jarchi; for at each of the gates of the temple there were porters appointed in David's time, 1Ch 26:1 and who were paid for their service: or of the court, as Kimchi; the court of the priests where the offerings were brought.”

    “Who is - among you - From this we learn that there was not one sincere or honest priest among them. They were selfish and worldly; and so basely so, that not one of them would even kindle a fire on the hearth of the altar unless he were paid for it.”

    Everything gathered on Malachi 1:10→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Matthew 19:21

    Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

    ›Commentary on Matthew 19:212 voices

    “These verses detail a conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and a young man who came to him to inquire about the way to eternal life. Like every conversation recorded in the Gospels between our Lord and an individual, it deserves special attention. Salvation is an individual business: every one who wishes to be saved must have private personal dealings with Christ about his own soul. We see for one thing from the case of this young man that a person may have desires after salvation, and yet not be saved.”

    “(Verse 21.) If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. It is in our power to choose to be perfect. However, whoever wishes to be perfect must sell what they have: and not sell only a portion, as Ananias and Sapphira did (Act. V); but sell everything: and when they have sold, give everything to the poor, and thus prepare for themselves treasure in the kingdom of heaven.”

    Everything gathered on Matthew 19:21→

    Verse page →Original language →