People who shut their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I needed clothes, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you looked after me, I was in prison, and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“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. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison, and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

This is what Sodom did which led to their destruction: they were full of pride, they filled themselves up with food, they were abundantly idle, and they did not provide help for the poor and needy. They were haughty. They committed abominations before God. Therefore, God took them away as He saw good.

Hear this, you cows of Bashan, who are in the mountains of Samaria: You oppress the poor. You crush the needy. And then you say to your masters, “Bring, and let us drink!” The Lord God has sworn by his holiness, that, indeed, the day will come that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. Every one of you cows will be dragged straight through the broken walls of your city; whichever wall is in front of you. You will be cast into Samaria, says the Lord.

This is just like you, O you children of Israel, says the Lord God: you say, “Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply your transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings.”

I have given you clean teeth in all your cities, and also hunger in all your places: yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. I have withheld rain from you when there was three months left until harvest. I caused it to rain on one city and not another. One place it rained and the other withered. So two or three cities wandered into one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied. And still, you did not return to me, says the Lord.

I have smitten you with blasting and mildew. When your gardens, vineyards, fig trees and olive trees produced food, I had the palmerworm devour them. And still, you did not return to me, says the Lord.

I have sent diseases in the same manner I sent them to Egypt: your young men I had slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses. I have made the stink of your camps come up to your nostrils. And still, you did not return to me, says the Lord.

I have overthrown some of you, just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were as a piece of burned wood, plucked out of the fire. And still, you did not return to me, says the Lord.

Because of this, this is what I will do to you, O Israel. And because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Behold that he forms the mountains, and the wind, and declares unto man His thoughts, and turns the morning into darkness, and treads upon the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name.

When I came to Jerusalem and understood the evil that Eliashib did for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. It made me incredibly sad. Therefore, I cast out of the chamber, all the household stuff, to Tobiah. Then I commanded, and they cleaned the chambers. Then I collected up the vessels of the house of the God: the meat offering and frankincense. I saw the Levites and the singers, everyone who was supposed to work in the temple, out in the fields. I knew that they had not been given their portion of the tithe because they fled to their fields to work outside the temple. Then I contended with the rulers and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered everything together and put everything in their proper place.