Proverbs 2

New American Standard Bible

The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security

2 My son, if you will ^(A)receive my words
And ^(B)treasure my commandments within you,
²^(C)Make your ear attentive to wisdom;
Incline your heart to understanding.
³For if you cry out for insight,
And ^[a]raise your voice for understanding;
⁴If you seek her as ^(D)silver
And search for her as for ^(E)hidden treasures;
⁵Then you will understand the ^(F)fear of the Lord,
And discover the knowledge of God.
⁶For ^(G)the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
He is a ^(H)shield to those who walk in integrity,
⁸Guarding the paths of justice,
And He ^(I)watches over the way of His godly ones.
⁹Then you will discern ^(J)righteousness, justice,
And integrity, and every ^(K)good path.
¹⁰For ^(L)wisdom will enter your heart,
And ^(M)knowledge will be delightful to your soul;
¹¹Discretion will ^(N)watch over you,
Understanding will guard you,
¹²To ^(O)rescue you from the way of evil,
From a person who speaks ^(P)perverse things;
¹³From those who ^(Q)leave the paths of uprightness
To walk in the ^(R)ways of darkness;
¹⁴Who ^(S)delight in doing evil
And rejoice in the perversity of evil;
¹⁵Whose paths are ^(T)crooked,
And who are devious in their ways;
¹⁶To ^(U)rescue you from the strange woman,
From the ^(V)foreign woman who flatters with her words,
¹⁷Who leaves the ^(W)companion of her youth
And forgets the ^(X)covenant of her God;
¹⁸For ^(Y)her house sinks down to death,
And her tracks lead to the ^[b]dead;
¹⁹None ^(Z)who go to her return,
Nor do they reach the ^(AA)paths of life.
²⁰So you will ^(AB)walk in the way of good people
And keep to the ^(AC)paths of the righteous.
²¹For ^(AD)the upright will live in the land,
And ^(AE)the blameless will remain in it;
²²But ^(AF)the wicked will be eliminated from the land,
And ^(AG)the treacherous will be ^(AH)torn away from it.

Footnotes

Proverbs 2:3 Lit give
Proverbs 2:18 Lit departed spirits

Galatians 1

New American Standard Bible

Introduction

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle (^(B)not sent from men nor through human agency, but ^(C)through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who ^(D)raised Him from the dead), ²and all ^(E)the brothers who are with me,

To ^(F)the churches of Galatia:

³^(G)Grace to you and peace from ^[a]God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who ^(H)gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from ^(I)this present evil ^[b]age, according to the will of ^(J)our God and Father, ⁵^(K)to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Distortion of the Gospel

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting ^(L)Him who called you ^[c]by the grace of Christ, for a ^(M)different gospel, ⁷which is not just another account; but there are some who are ^(N)disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we, or ^(O)an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be ^[d]^(P)accursed! ⁹As we ^(Q)have said before, even now I say again: ^(R)if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be ^[e]^(S)accursed!

¹⁰For am I now ^(T)seeking the favor of people, or of God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a ^(U)bond-servant of Christ.

Paul Defends His Ministry

¹¹For ^(V)I would have you know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel which was preached by me is ^(W)not ^[f]of human invention. ¹²For ^(X)I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a ^(Y)revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of ^(Z)my former way of life in Judaism, how I ^(AA)used to persecute ^(AB)the church of God beyond measure and ^(AC)tried to destroy it; ¹⁴and I ^(AD)was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my ^[g]countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ^(AE)ancestral traditions. ¹⁵But when ^[h]He who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and ^(AF)called me through His grace was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might ^(AG)preach Him among the Gentiles, ^(AH)I did not immediately consult with ^[i]^(AI)flesh and blood, ¹⁷^(AJ)nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to ^(AK)Damascus.

¹⁸Then ^(AL)three years later I went up ^(AM)to Jerusalem to ^[j]become acquainted with ^[k]^(AN)Cephas, and stayed with him for fifteen days. ¹⁹But I did not see another one of the apostles except ^[l]^(AO)James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰(Now in what I am writing to you, ^[m]I assure you ^(AP)before God that I am not lying.) ²¹Then ^(AQ)I went into the regions of ^(AR)Syria and ^(AS)Cilicia. ²²I was still unknown by ^[n]sight to ^(AT)the churches of Judea which are ^(AU)in Christ; ²³but they only kept hearing, “The man who once persecuted us is now preaching ^(AV)the faith which he once ^(AW)tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they ^(AX)were glorifying God ^[o]because of me.