Proverbs 3-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Admonition to Trust and Honor God
3 My child, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,(A)
2 for length of days and years of life
and abundant welfare they will give you.(B)
3 Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.(C)
4 Then you will find favor and high regard
in the sight of God and of people.(D)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.(E)
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.(F)
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and turn away from evil.(G)
8 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.(H)
9 Honor the Lord with your substance
and with the first fruits of all your produce;(I)
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.
11 My child, do not despise the Lord’s discipline
or be weary of his reproof,(J)
12 for the Lord reproves the one he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.(K)
The True Wealth
13 Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
14 for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.(L)
15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.(M)
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.(N)
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace.(O)
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called happy.(P)
God’s Wisdom in Creation
19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
by understanding he established the heavens;(Q)
20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open,
and the clouds drop down the dew.(R)
The True Security
21 My child, do not let these escape from your sight:
keep sound wisdom and prudence,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.(S)
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.(T)
24 If you sit down,[a] you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Then you will not be afraid of sudden panic
or of the storm that strikes the wicked,(U)
26 for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,[b]
when it is in your power to do it.(V)
28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go and come again;
tomorrow I will give it,” when you have it with you.(W)
29 Do not plan harm against your neighbor
who lives trustingly beside you.(X)
30 Do not quarrel with anyone without cause,
when no harm has been done to you.(Y)
31 Do not envy the violent,
and do not choose any of their ways,(Z)
32 for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord,
but the upright are in his confidence.(AA)
33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the abode of the righteous.(AB)
34 Toward the scorners he is scornful,
but to the humble he shows favor.(AC)
35 The wise will inherit honor,
but stubborn fools, disgrace.
Parental Advice
4 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain[c] insight,(AD)
2 for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father,
tender and my mother’s favorite,(AE)
4 he taught me and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments and live.(AF)
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.(AG)
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.(AH)
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.(AI)
8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.(AJ)
9 She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”(AK)
Admonition to Keep to the Right Path
10 Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
11 I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.(AL)
12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.(AM)
13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers.(AN)
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.(AO)
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.(AP)
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what they stumble over.(AQ)
20 My child, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.(AR)
22 For they are life to those who find them
and healing to all their flesh.(AS)
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.(AT)
24 Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.(AU)
25 Let your eyes look directly forward
and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Keep straight the path of your feet,
and all your ways will be sure.(AV)
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.(AW)
Warning against Impurity and Infidelity
5 My child, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,(AX)
2 so that you may hold on to prudence,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman[d] drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,(AY)
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.(AZ)
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
6 She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, my child,[e] listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.(BA)
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,(BB)
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 and strangers take their fill of your wealth,
and your labors go to the house of an alien,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!(BC)
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 Now I am at the point of utter ruin
in the public assembly.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?(BD)
17 Let them be for yourself alone
and not for sharing with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,(BE)
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all times;
may you be intoxicated always by her love.(BF)
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman
and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?[f](BG)
21 For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,
and he examines all their paths.(BH)
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,
and they are caught in the coils of their sin.(BI)
23 They die for lack of discipline,
and because of their great folly they are lost.(BJ)
2 Corinthians 1
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Salutation
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God that is in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:(A)
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.(B)
Paul’s Thanksgiving after Affliction
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation,(C) 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.(D) 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.
8 We do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.(E) 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us;[a] on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again,(F) 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many may give thanks on our[b] behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.(G)
The Postponement of Paul’s Visit
12 Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with holiness[c] and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God—and all the more toward you.(H) 13 For we write you nothing other than what you can read and also understand; I hope you will understand until the end— 14 as you have already understood us in part—that on the day of the Lord Jesus we are your boast even as you are our boast.(I)
15 Since I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double favor;[d](J) 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on to Judea.(K) 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards,[e] ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you is not[f] “Yes and No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”(L) 20 For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God.(M) 21 But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us,(N) 22 who has put his seal on us and given[g] us his Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.(O)
23 But I call on God as witness against me: it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth.(P) 24 I do not mean to imply that we lord it over your faith; rather, we are workers with you for your joy because you stand firm in faith.(Q)
Footnotes
- 1.10 Other ancient authorities read is rescuing us or lack the phrase
- 1.11 Other ancient authorities read your
- 1.12 Other ancient authorities read simplicity
- 1.15 Other ancient authorities read joy
- 1.17 Gk according to the flesh
- 1.18 Other ancient authorities read was not
- 1.22 Other ancient authorities read by putting . . . and giving
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.