Proverbs 1:20-33
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Call of Wisdom
20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.(A)
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?(B)
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.(C)
24 Because I have called and you refused,
have stretched out my hand and no one heeded,(D)
25 and because you have ignored all my counsel
and would have none of my reproof,(E)
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when panic strikes you,(F)
27 when panic strikes you like a storm
and your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently but will not find me.(G)
29 Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,(H)
31 therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way
and be sated with their own devices.(I)
32 For waywardness kills the simple,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;(J)
33 but those who listen to me will be secure
and will live at ease without dread of disaster.”(K)
Isaiah 50:4-9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication
4 The Lord God has given me
a trained tongue,[a]
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.(A)
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn backward.(B)
6 I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.(C)
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;(D)
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.(E)
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.(F)
Footnotes
- 50.4 Cn: Heb of those who are taught
James 3:1-12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Taming the Tongue
3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will face stricter judgment.(A) 2 For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature,[a] able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.(B) 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire!(C) 6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of life, and is itself set on fire by hell.[b](D) 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless[c] evil, full of deadly poison.(E) 9 With it we bless the Lord[d] and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God.(F) 10 From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
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Mark 8:27-38
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”(A) 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”(B) 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”[a](C) 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.(D)
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.(E) 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”(F)
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come[b] after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.(G) 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,[c] will save it.(H) 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words[d] in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”(I)
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