Old/New Testament
In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him
3 My son, do not forget my teaching,[a]
but let your heart keep my mitzvot.
2 For length of days and years of life,
and shalom they will add to you.
3 Let kindness and truth never leave you—
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will gain favor and a good name
in the eyes of God and man.
5 Trust in Adonai with all your heart,
lean not on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear Adonai and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body
and refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor Adonai with your wealth
and with the first of your entire harvest.
10 Then your barns will be filled with plenty,
your vats will overflow with new wine.
Discipline as the Father’s Love
11 My son, never despise Adonai’s discipline
or dread His correction.
12 For Adonai loves those He reproves,
even as a father, the son in whom he delights.[b]
Precious Pearls, A Tree of Life
13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom
and the man who gains understanding.
14 For her trade-value is better than silver,
and her yield better than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels
and nothing you desire compares to her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand.
In her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all of her paths are shalom.
18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her,
and blessed will be all who hold firmly to her.
19 By wisdom Adonai founded the earth.
By understanding He established the heavens.
20 By His knowledge the deeps were divided,
and the clouds drip dew.
21 My son, hold on to sound wisdom and discernment,
do not let them out of your sight.
22 They will be life to your soul,
and an ornament to grace your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way in safety,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Have no fear of sudden terror,
or of the devastation of the wicked when it comes.
26 For Adonai will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from a snare.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to act.
28 Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back later—I’ll give it tomorrow,”
when you have it with you.
29 Do not plot evil against your neighbor
while he lives trustfully beside you.
30 Do not quarrel with a man for no reason
—if he has done you no harm.
31 Do not envy a violent man
or choose any of his ways.
32 For the devious are detestable to Adonai,
but He takes the upright into His confidence.
33 Adonai’s curse is on a wicked house,
but He blesses a righteous home.
34 Though He scoffs at the scoffers,
He gives grace to the humble.[c]
35 The wise inherit honor,
but fools are held up in disgrace.
A Father’s Lesson: Get Wisdom!
4 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction.
Pay attention, to gain understanding.
2 For I give you sound learning—
do not forsake my instruction.
3 When I was a son to my father,
tender and special to my mother,
4 he taught me and said to me:
“Lay hold of my words in your heart,
keep my commands and you will live!
5 Get wisdom! Get understanding!
Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will guard you.
Love her, and she will watch over you.
7 Wisdom is supreme—acquire wisdom!
With all your acquisitions, get understanding.
8 Prize her, and she will exalt you.
She will honor you when you embrace her.
9 She will set a garland of grace on your head.
She will give you a crown of glory.”
Ways of Wisdom and Wickedness
10 Listen, my son, and accept my words,
so the years of your life will be many.
11 I instructed you in the way of wisdom.
I have guided you along straight paths.
12 When you walk, your step will not be hindered,
and when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on tightly to instruction, do not let it go—
guard it, for it is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evil people.
15 Avoid it—do not travel on it—
turn away from it and pass by.
16 For they cannot sleep until they do evil.
They are robbed of sleep until they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
shining brighter and brighter until the full day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness.
They do not know what makes them stumble.
20 My son, pay attention to my words—
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them
and health to their whole body.
23 Guard your heart diligently,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away perversity from your mouth,
and keep devious lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly ahead,
and fix your gaze straight in front of you.
26 Clear a level path for your feet,
so all your ways will be firm.
27 Do not turn to the right or to the left.
Divert your foot from evil.
Beware Seduction
5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Incline your ear to my insight,
2 that you may maintain discretion
and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For a seducing woman’s lips drip honey
and her mouth is smoother than oil.
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death,
her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She does not keep straight to the path of life,
her paths are crooked
—but she does not know it.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me
and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far from her
and do not go near the door of her house—
9 lest you give your strength to others
and your years to one who is cruel;
10 lest strangers feast on your strength,
your labors go to a foreigner’s house.
11 At the end of your life, you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent—
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline!
How my heart spurned reproof!
13 I would not listen to my teacher’s voice
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I was almost in utter ruin amid
the community and congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern
and running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs flow in the streets,
your streams of water in public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone
and not shared with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed
and may you delight in the wife of your youth.
19 A lovely hind, a graceful doe—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you always be captivated by her love.
20 Why, my son, be captivated by a seducing woman?
Why embrace a foreigner’s bosom?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of Adonai,
and He observes all his paths.
22 The iniquities of a wicked man will ensnare him.
The cords of his sin will hold him down.
23 He will die for lack of discipline,
led astray by his own great folly.
Greetings
1 Paul, an emissary of Messiah Yeshua through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To God’s community at Corinth, with all the kedoshim who are throughout Achaia:
2 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
Encouragement Through Hardships
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement. 4 He encourages us in every trouble, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any trouble, through the very encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Messiah overflow into us, so also through Messiah our encouragement overflows. 6 If we are suffering hardship, it is for your encouragement and salvation. Or if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which produces in you the patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7 Our hope for you is firm, since we know that as you are partners in our sufferings, so also in our encouragement.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our trouble that happened in Asia.[a] We were under great pressure—so far beyond our strength that we despaired even of living. 9 In fact, we had within ourselves the death sentence—so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. 10 He who rescued us from so great a danger of death will continue to rescue us—we have set our hope on Him that He will rescue us again. 11 You also are helping by your prayer for us, so that from many people thanks may be given on our behalf for the gracious gift given us through the help of many.
12 For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world, and most especially toward you, with simplicity and godly sincerity—not by human wisdom but by the grace of God. 13 For we write nothing to you other than what you can read and understand—and I hope you will understand in full 14 just as you understood us in part, so that we are your reason for boasting just as you also are ours in the Day of our Lord Yeshua.
Paul’s Change of Plans
15 Because of this confidence, I was planning to come to you first, so that you might have a second benefit— 16 to pass by you on my way to Macedonia and again from Macedonia to come back to you, and to be helped by you on my journey to Judea. 17 So when I was planning to do this, I didn’t do so lightly, did I? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh—so it might be with me “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 But as God is faithful, our message to you is not both “Yes” and “No.” [b] 19 For Ben-Elohim—Yeshua the Messiah, who was proclaimed among you by us, by myself and Silvanus[c] and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No.” Rather, in Him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For in Him all the promises of God are “Yes.” Therefore also through Him is the “Amen” by us, to the glory of God. [d] 21 Now it is God who establishes us with you in Messiah. He anointed us, 22 set His seal on us, and gave us the Ruach in our hearts as a pledge.
23 But I call God as my witness[e]—to spare you, I didn’t come to Corinth again. 24 Not that we lord it over you in matters of faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy—for in the faith you are standing firm.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.