Wisdom of Solomon 1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Exhortation to Uprightness
1 Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth;
think of the Lord in goodness
and seek him with sincerity of heart,(A)
2 because he is found by those who do not put him to the test
and manifests himself to those who do not distrust him.(B)
3 For perverse thoughts separate people from God,
and when his power is tested, it exposes the foolish,(C)
4 because wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul
or dwell in a body enslaved to sin.
5 For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit
and will leave foolish thoughts behind
and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.(D)
6 For wisdom is a kindly spirit,
but it will not free blasphemers from the guilt of their words,
because God is witness of their inmost feelings
and a true observer of their hearts and a hearer of their tongues.(E)
7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world
and that which holds all things together knows what is said,(F)
8 therefore those who utter unrighteous things will not escape notice,
and justice, when it punishes, will not pass them by.
9 For inquiry will be made into the counsels of the ungodly,
and a report of their words will come to the Lord,
to convict them of their lawless deeds,
10 because a jealous ear hears all things,
and the sound of grumbling does not go unheard.(G)
11 Beware, then, of useless grumbling,
and keep your tongue from slander,
because no secret word is without result,[a]
and a lying mouth destroys the soul.(H)
12 Do not court death by the error of your life
or bring on destruction by the works of your hands,(I)
13 because God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the destruction of the living.(J)
14 For he created all things so that they might exist;
the generative forces[b] of the world are wholesome,
and there is no destructive poison in them,
and the dominion[c] of Hades is not on earth.(K)
15 For righteousness is immortal.[d]
Life as the Ungodly See It
Matthew 5:1-16
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Beatitudes
5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.(A) 2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(B)
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.(C)
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.(D)
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.(E)
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.(F)
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.(G)
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account.(H) 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.(I)
Salt and Light
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot.(J)
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.(K) 15 People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.(L) 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.(M)
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Wisdom of Solomon 2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
“Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
2 For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;(A)
3 when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.(B)
4 Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.(C)
5 For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.(D)
6 “Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that exist
and make use of the creation to the full as in youth.(E)
7 Let us take our fill of costly wine and perfumes,
and let no flower of spring pass us by.
8 Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
9 Let no meadow be free from our revelry;
everywhere let us leave signs of enjoyment,
because this is our portion, and this our lot.(F)
10 Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
let us not spare the widow
or regard the gray hairs of the aged.
11 But let our might be our law of right,
for what is weak proves itself to be useless.
12 “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law
and accuses us of sins against our training.(G)
13 He professes to have knowledge of God
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
14 He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us,
15 because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.(H)
16 We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy
and boasts that God is his father.(I)
17 Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life,
18 for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.(J)
19 Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how reasonable he is
and make trial of his forbearance.(K)
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.”
Error of the Wicked
21 Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,(L)
22 and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls,(M)
23 for God created us for incorruption
and made us in the image of his own eternity,[a](N)
24 but through an adversary’s[b] envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it.(O)
Revelation 1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Introduction and Salutation
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place, and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,(A) 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.(B)
3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,(C) 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed[a] us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests serving[b] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.(D)
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
So it is to be. Amen.(E)
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.(F)
A Vision of Christ
9 I, John, your brother who share with you the persecution and the kingdom and the endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.[c](G) 10 I was in the spirit[d] on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet(H) 11 saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,(I) 13 and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.(J) 14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire;(K) 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.(L) 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.(M)
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last(N) 18 and the Living One. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.(O) 19 Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.(P)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.