Proverbs 31

English Standard Version

The Words of King Lemuel

31 The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:

²What are you doing, my son?^[a] What are you doing, ^(A)son of my womb?
    What are you doing, ^(B)son of my vows?
³Do ^(C)not give your strength to women,
    your ways to those ^(D)who destroy kings.
⁴^(E)It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
    it is not for kings ^(F)to drink wine,
    or for rulers to take ^(G)strong drink,
⁵lest they drink and forget what has been decreed
    and ^(H)pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
⁶Give strong drink to the one who ^(I)is perishing,
    and wine to ^(J)those in bitter distress;^[b]
⁷^(K)let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.
⁸^(L)Open your mouth for the mute,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.^[c]
⁹Open your mouth, ^(M)judge righteously,
    ^(N)defend the rights of ^(O)the poor and needy.

The Woman Who Fears the Lord

¹⁰^[d] ^(P)An excellent wife who can find?
    She is far more precious than ^(Q)jewels.
¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her,
    and he will have no lack of gain.
¹²She does him good, and not harm,
    all the days of her life.
¹³She ^(R)seeks wool and flax,
    and works with willing hands.
¹⁴She is like the ships of the merchant;
    she brings her food from afar.
¹⁵She ^(S)rises while it is yet night
    and ^(T)provides food for her household
    and portions for her maidens.
¹⁶She considers a field and buys it;
    with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷She ^(U)dresses herself^[e] with strength
    and makes her arms strong.
¹⁸She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
    Her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹She puts her hands to the distaff,
    and her hands hold the spindle.
²⁰She ^(V)opens her hand to ^(W)the poor
    and reaches out her hands to ^(X)the needy.
²¹She is not afraid of snow for her household,
    for all her household are clothed in ^(Y)scarlet.^[f]
²²She makes ^(Z)bed coverings for herself;
    her clothing is ^(AA)fine linen and ^(AB)purple.
²³Her husband is known in ^(AC)the gates
    when he sits among the elders of the land.
²⁴She makes ^(AD)linen garments and sells them;
    she delivers sashes to the merchant.
²⁵^(AE)Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
²⁶She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
²⁷She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹“Many ^(AF)women have done ^(AG)excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰^(AH)Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates.

Footnotes

Proverbs 31:2 Hebrew What, my son?
Proverbs 31:6 Hebrew those bitter in soul
Proverbs 31:8 Hebrew are sons of passing away
Proverbs 31:10 Verses 10–31 are an acrostic poem, each verse beginning with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet
Proverbs 31:17 Hebrew She girds her loins
Proverbs 31:21 Or in double thickness

Numbers 32

English Standard Version

Reuben and Gad Settle in Gilead

32 Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of ^(A)Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. ²So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation, ³^(B)“Ataroth, ^(C)Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, ^(D)Nebo, and Beon, ⁴the land ^(E)that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? ⁷Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? ⁸Your fathers did this, ^(F)when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. ⁹For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. ¹⁰^(G)And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, ¹¹‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, ^(H)from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give ^(I)to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, ¹²none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the ^(J)Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for ^(K)they have wholly followed the Lord.’ ¹³And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them ^(L)wander in the wilderness forty years, until ^(M)all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. ¹⁴And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel! ¹⁵For if you ^(N)turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said, ^(O)“We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, ¹⁷but ^(P)we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸^(Q)We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, ^(R)because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.” ²⁰So ^(S)Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the Lord for the war, ²¹and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has ^(T)driven out his enemies from before him ²²and the land is subdued before the Lord; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and ^(U)this land shall be your possession before the Lord. ²³But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and ^(V)be sure your sin will find you out. ²⁴^(W)Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.” ²⁵And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands. ²⁶^(X)Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead, ²⁷^(Y)but your servants will pass over, every man who is ^(Z)armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord orders.”

²⁸So ^(AA)Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to ^(AB)Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. ²⁹And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. ³⁰However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” ³¹And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. ³²We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

³³And ^(AC)Moses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. ³⁴And the people of Gad built ^(AD)Dibon, ^(AE)Ataroth, ^(AF)Aroer, ³⁵Atroth-shophan, ^(AG)Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶^(AH)Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, ^(AI)fortified cities, and folds for sheep. ³⁷And the people of Reuben built ^(AJ)Heshbon, ^(AK)Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸^(AL)Nebo, and ^(AM)Baal-meon (^(AN)their names were changed), and ^(AO)Sibmah. And they gave other names to the cities that they built. ³⁹And the sons of ^(AP)Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. ⁴⁰And Moses ^(AQ)gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. ⁴¹And ^(AR)Jair the son of Manasseh went and captured their villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.^[a] ⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

Footnotes

Numbers 32:41 Havvoth-jair means the villages of Jair

1 Corinthians 6

English Standard Version

Lawsuits Against Believers

6 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous ^(A)instead of the saints? ²Or do you not know that ^(B)the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? ³Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! ⁴So if you have such cases, ^(C)why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? ⁵^(D)I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, ⁶but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? ⁷To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. ^(E)Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even ^(F)your own brothers!^[a]

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[b] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: ^(G)neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^[c] ¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And ^(H)such were some of you. But ^(I)you were washed, ^(J)you were sanctified, ^(K)you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Sexual Immorality

¹²^(L)“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. ¹³^(M)“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one ^(N)and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but ^(O)for the Lord, and ^(P)the Lord for the body. ¹⁴And ^(Q)God raised the Lord and ^(R)will also raise us up ^(S)by his power. ¹⁵Do you not know that ^(T)your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined^[d] to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ^(U)“The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord ^(V)becomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸^(W)Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin^[e] a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person ^(X)sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or ^(Y)do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? ^(Z)You are not your own, ²⁰^(AA)for you were bought with a price. ^(AB)So glorify God in your body.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 6:8 Or brothers and sisters
1 Corinthians 6:9 Or wrongdoers
1 Corinthians 6:9 The two Greek terms translated by this phrase refer to the passive and active partners in consensual homosexual acts
1 Corinthians 6:16 Or who holds fast (compare Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 10:20); also verse 17
1 Corinthians 6:18 Or Every sin