Proverbs 2
New King James Version
The Value of Wisdom
2 My son, if you receive my words,
And (A)treasure my commands within you,
2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
4 (B)If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 (C)Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.
6 (D)For the Lord gives wisdom;
From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
(E)He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8 He guards the paths of justice,
And (F)preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice,
Equity and every good path.
10 When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you;
(G)Understanding will keep you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil,
From the man who speaks perverse things,
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness
To (H)walk in the ways of darkness;
14 (I)Who rejoice in doing evil,
And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15 (J)Whose ways are crooked,
And who are devious in their paths;
16 To deliver you from (K)the immoral woman,
(L)From the seductress who flatters with her words,
17 Who forsakes the companion of her youth,
And forgets the covenant of her God.
18 For (M)her house [a]leads down to death,
And her paths to the dead;
19 None who go to her return,
Nor do they [b]regain the paths of life—
20 So you may walk in the way of goodness,
And keep to the paths of righteousness.
21 For the upright will dwell in the (N)land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
22 But the wicked will be [c]cut off from the [d]earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 2:18 sinks
- Proverbs 2:19 Lit. reach
- Proverbs 2:22 destroyed
- Proverbs 2:22 land
Hosea 1
New King James Version
Hosea’s Unfaithful Wife
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of (A)Uzziah, (B)Jotham, (C)Ahaz, and (D)Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of (E)Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
(F)“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For (G)the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
“Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
(H)I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
(I)And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
5 (J)It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:
“Call her name [b]Lo-Ruhamah,
(K)For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
[c]But I will utterly take them away.
7 (L)Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And (M)will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”
8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then God said:
“Call his name [d]Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.
The Restoration of Israel
10 “Yet (N)the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
(O)And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are [e]not My (P)people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘You are (Q)sons of the living God.’
11 (R)Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together,
And appoint for themselves one head;
And they shall come up out of the land,
For great will be the day of Jezreel!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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