Ecclesiastes 10

New International Version

10 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
    so a little folly^(A) outweighs wisdom and honor.
²The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
    but the heart of the fool to the left.
³Even as fools walk along the road,
    they lack sense
    and show everyone^(B) how stupid they are.
⁴If a ruler’s anger rises against you,
    do not leave your post;^(C)
    calmness can lay great offenses to rest.^(D)

⁵There is an evil I have seen under the sun,
    the sort of error that arises from a ruler:
⁶Fools are put in many high positions,^(E)
    while the rich occupy the low ones.
⁷I have seen slaves on horseback,
    while princes go on foot like slaves.^(F)

⁸Whoever digs a pit may fall into it;^(G)
whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.^(H)
⁹Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them;
whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.^(I)

¹⁰If the ax is dull
and its edge unsharpened,
more strength is needed,
but skill will bring success.

¹¹If a snake bites before it is charmed,
the charmer receives no fee.^(J)

¹²Words from the mouth of the wise are gracious,^(K)
    but fools are consumed by their own lips.^(L)
¹³At the beginning their words are folly;
    at the end they are wicked madness—
¹⁴    and fools multiply words.^(M)

No one knows what is coming—
who can tell someone else what will happen after them?^(N)

¹⁵The toil of fools wearies them;
they do not know the way to town.

¹⁶Woe to the land whose king was a servant^[a]^(O)
    and whose princes feast in the morning.
¹⁷Blessed is the land whose king is of noble birth
    and whose princes eat at a proper time—
    for strength and not for drunkenness.^(P)

¹⁸Through laziness, the rafters sag;
because of idle hands, the house leaks.^(Q)

¹⁹A feast is made for laughter,
wine^(R) makes life merry,
and money is the answer for everything.

²⁰Do not revile the king^(S) even in your thoughts,
or curse the rich in your bedroom,
because a bird in the sky may carry your words,
and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

Notas al pie

Ecclesiastes 10:16 Or king is a child

Romans 9

New International Version

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,^(A) my conscience confirms^(B) it through the Holy Spirit— ²I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself^(C) were cursed^(D) and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,^(E) those of my own race,^(F) ⁴the people of Israel.^(G) Theirs is the adoption to sonship;^(H) theirs the divine glory,^(I) the covenants,^(J) the receiving of the law,^(K) the temple worship^(L) and the promises.^(M) ⁵Theirs are the patriarchs,^(N) and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,^(O) who is God over all,^(P) forever praised!^[a]^(Q) Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶It is not as though God’s word^(R) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^(S) ⁷Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^[b]^(T) ⁸In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children,^(U) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.^(V) ⁹For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^[c]^(W)

¹⁰Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.^(X) ¹¹Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad^(Y)—in order that God’s purpose^(Z) in election might stand: ¹²not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”^[d]^(AA) ¹³Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”^[e]^(AB)

¹⁴What then shall we say?^(AC) Is God unjust? Not at all!^(AD) ¹⁵For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^[f]^(AE)

¹⁶It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^(AF) ¹⁷For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^[g]^(AG) ¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(AH)

¹⁹One of you will say to me:^(AI) “Then why does God still blame us?^(AJ) For who is able to resist his will?”^(AK) ²⁰But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(AL) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(AM) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^[h]^(AN) ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(AO)

²²What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(AP) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^(AQ) ²³What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(AR) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(AS)— ²⁴even us, whom he also called,^(AT) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^(AU) ²⁵As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”^[i]^(AV)

²⁶and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”^[j]^(AW)

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,^(AX)
only the remnant will be saved.^(AY)
²⁸For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”^[k]^(AZ)

²⁹It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty^(BA)
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”^[l]^(BB)

Israel’s Unbelief

³⁰What then shall we say?^(BC) That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;^(BD) ³¹but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness,^(BE) have not attained their goal.^(BF) ³²Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.^(BG) ³³As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”^[m]^(BH)

Notas al pie

Romans 9:5 Or Messiah, who is over all. God be forever praised! Or Messiah. God who is over all be forever praised!
Romans 9:7 Gen. 21:12
Romans 9:9 Gen. 18:10,14
Romans 9:12 Gen. 25:23
Romans 9:13 Mal. 1:2,3
Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19
Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16
Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9
Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23
Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10
Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22,23 (see Septuagint)
Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9
Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14; 28:16

Psalm 124

New International Version

Psalm 124

A song of ascents. Of David.

¹If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say^(A)—
²if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
³they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
⁴the flood^(B) would have engulfed us,
    the torrent^(C) would have swept over us,
⁵the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

⁶Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
⁷We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;^(D)
the snare has been broken,^(E)
    and we have escaped.
⁸Our help is in the name^(F) of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven^(G) and earth.