Add parallel Print Page Options

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:(A)

Prologue

For learning about wisdom and instruction,
    for understanding words of insight,
for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
    righteousness, justice, and equity;(B)
to teach shrewdness to the simple,
    knowledge and prudence to the young—(C)
let the wise, too, hear and gain in learning
    and the discerning acquire skill,(D)
to understand a proverb and a figure,
    the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction.(E)

Warnings against Evil Companions

Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teaching,(F)
for they are a fair garland for your head
    and pendants for your neck.(G)
10 My child, if sinners entice you,
    do not consent.(H)
11 If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
    let us wantonly ambush the innocent;(I)
12 like Sheol let us swallow them alive
    and whole, like those who go down to the Pit.(J)
13 We shall find all kinds of costly things;
    we shall fill our houses with spoil.
14 Throw in your lot among us;
    we will all have one purse”—
15 my child, do not walk in their way;
    keep your foot from their paths,(K)
16 for their feet run to evil,
    and they hurry to shed blood.(L)
17 For in vain is the net baited
    while the bird is looking on;
18 yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves!
    and set an ambush—for their own lives!
19 Such is the end[a] of all who are greedy for gain;
    it takes away the life of its possessors.(M)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 1.19 Gk: Heb are the ways

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he[a] is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.(A) And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.(B) You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.(C) No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children,[b] let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil.(D) Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them;[c] they cannot sin because they have been born of God.(E) 10 The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.(F)

Love One Another

11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.(G) 12 We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 3.2 Or it
  2. 3.7 Other ancient authorities read Children
  3. 3.9 Or because the children of God abide in him

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)

Read full chapter

Jesus’s Authority Is Questioned

27 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him 28 and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.” 31 They argued with one another, “What should we say?[a] If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.(A) 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

12 Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went away.(B) When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;[b](C)
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

12 When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.(D)

Footnotes

  1. 11.31 Other ancient authorities lack What should we say?
  2. 12.10 Or keystone (in an arch)