Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹²¹ I have done justice and righteousness; leave me not to those who would oppress me.

¹²² Be surety for Your servant for good [as Judah was surety for the safety of Benjamin]; let not the proud oppress me.^(A)

¹²³ My eyes fail, watching for Your salvation and for the fulfillment of Your righteous promise.

¹²⁴ Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy and loving-kindness, and teach me Your statutes.

¹²⁵ I am Your servant; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension), that I may know (discern and be familiar with the character of) Your testimonies.

¹²⁶ It is time for the Lord to act; they have frustrated Your law.

¹²⁷ Therefore I love Your commandments more than [resplendent] gold, yes, more than [perfectly] refined gold.

¹²⁸ Therefore I esteem as right all, yes, all Your precepts; I hate every false way.

1 The proverbs (truths obscurely expressed, maxims, and parables) of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

^2 [a]That people may know skillful and godly ^[b]Wisdom and instruction, discern and comprehend the words of understanding and insight,

³ Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity,

⁴ That prudence may be given to the simple, and knowledge, discretion, and discernment to the youth—

⁵ The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]—^(A)

⁶ That people may understand a proverb and a figure of speech or an enigma with its interpretation, and the words of the wise and their dark sayings or riddles.

⁷ The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.^(B)

^20 [a]Wisdom cries aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the markets;

²¹ She cries at the head of the noisy intersections [in the chief gathering places]; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:

²² How long, O simple ones [open to evil], will you love being simple? And the scoffers delight in scoffing and [self-confident] fools hate knowledge?

²³ If you will turn (repent) and give heed to my reproof, behold, I [^[b]Wisdom] will pour out my spirit upon you, I will make my words known to you.^(A)

²⁴ Because I have called and you have refused [to answer], have stretched out my hand and no man has heeded it,^(B)

²⁵ And you treated as nothing all my counsel and would accept none of my reproof,

²⁶ I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when the thing comes that shall cause you terror and panic—

²⁷ When your panic comes as a storm and desolation and your calamity comes on as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

²⁸ Then will they call upon me [Wisdom] but I will not answer; they will seek me early and diligently but they will not find me.^(C)

²⁹ Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord,^(D)

³⁰ Would accept none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof,

³¹ Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices.

³² For the backsliding of the simple shall slay them, and the careless ease of [self-confident] fools shall destroy them.^(E)

³³ But whoso hearkens to me [Wisdom] shall dwell securely and in confident trust and shall be quiet, without fear or dread of evil.

³⁰ And He said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use to illustrate and explain it?

³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds upon the earth;

³² Yet after it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all garden herbs and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air are able to make nests and dwell in its shade.

³³ With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear and ^[a]to comprehend and understand.

³⁴ He did not tell them anything without a parable; but privately to His disciples (^[b]those who were peculiarly His own) He explained everything [fully].