Psalms 101:4
A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know nothing of evil.
BSB
ASV
A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will know no evil thing.
KJV
A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.
A depraved heart did not cling to me. There was in me nothing difficult or anything perverse, but fairness and justice. As the malignant one turned aside from me, I did not know him: that is, if he was a friend to me or a neighbor, whether a bishop or a presbyter, or one established in any rank whatever: nevertheless, if he perverted his ways, I so fled from him that I made no mention of him at all.
A froward heart shall depart from me. He refers both to himself and to those round about him; he would neither be crooked in heart himself, nor employ persons of evil character in his house; if he found such in his court he would chase them away. He who begins with his own heart begins at the fountain head, and is not likely to tolerate evil compamons. We cannot turn out of our family all whose hearts are evil, but we can keep them out of our confidence, and let them see that we do not approve of their ways.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Matthew 7:23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
leads to
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the LORD has heard my weeping.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’
After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where…
But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’
Through
Proverbs 22:24Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man,
leads to
An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Through
Psalms 119:115Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God.
leads to
Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”