Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹²¹ [Ain]. I did doom and rightwiseness; betake thou not me to them that falsely challenge me. (I did what is just and right; so do not thou deliver me up to those who will oppress me.)

¹²² Take up thy servant into goodness; they that be proud challenge not me. (Yea, protect thy servant; let not those who be proud oppress me.)

¹²³ Mine eyes failed into thine health; and into the speech of thy rightfulness. (My eyes fail looking for thy salvation, or for thy deliverance; and for the word of thy righteousness.)

¹²⁴ Do thou with thy servant after thy mercy; and teach thou me thy justifyings. (Do thou with thy servant according to thy love; and teach thou me thy statutes.)

¹²⁵ I am thy servant; give thou understanding to me, that I know thy witnessings (so that I can know thy teachings).

¹²⁶ Lord, it is time to do; they have destroyed thy law. (Lord, it is time to act; for they have destroyed thy Law.)

¹²⁷ Therefore I loved thy commandments; more than gold and topaz. (Truly I love thy commandments; yea, more than gold and topaz.)

¹²⁸ Therefore I was (ad)dressed to all thy behests; I hated all wicked way. (And so I am directed, or guided, by all thy precepts; and I hate all wicked ways.)

1 The parables of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel; (The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel;)

² to know wisdom and knowing (to know wisdom and knowledge); to understand the words of prudence;

³ and to take the learning of teaching; to take rightfulness, and doom, and equity; (and to receive learning from teaching, or from instruction; to gain righteousness, and judgement, or justice, and fairness;)

⁴ that fellness, or wariness, be given to little children, and knowing and understanding to a young waxing man. (so that cleverness, and caution, be given to people of little wit, or of low intelligence, and knowledge and understanding to a young growing man.)

⁵ A wise man hearing shall be the wiser; and a man (of) understanding shall hold governance. (A wise person listening shall become wiser; and a person understanding shall gain skills, or abilities.)

⁶ He shall perceive a parable, and the expounding; the words of wise men, and the dark figurative speeches of them. (He shall understand a proverb, and its expounding, or its explanation; yea, the words of the wise, and their riddles.)

⁷ The dread of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and teaching. (The fear of the Lord/Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; but fools despise wisdom and teaching.)

²⁰ Wisdom preacheth withoutforth; in streets it giveth his voice. (Wisdom preacheth outside; yea, it raiseth up its voice in the streets.)

²¹ It crieth oft in the head of companies; in the leaves of [the] gates of the city it bringeth forth his words, and saith, (It crieth often at the tops of the streets; and at the leaves of the gates of the city, it bringeth forth its words, and saith,)

²² How long, little men in wit, love young childhood, and fools shall covet those things, that be harmful to themselves, and unprudent men shall hate knowing? (How long, ye of little wit, or of low intelligence, shall ye love foolishness, and shall fools desire those things that be harmful to themselves, and shall the imprudent hate knowledge, or understanding?)

²³ Be ye converted at my reproving (Be ye changed by my rebukes); lo, I shall bring forth to you my spirit, and I shall show (you) my words.

²⁴ For I called, and ye forsook; I held forth mine hand, and none there was that beheld. (For I called, but you would not listen to me; I held forth my hand, but no one paid any attention to it.)

²⁵ Ye have despised all my counsel; and charged not my blamings (and would not listen to my rebukes).

²⁶ And I shall laugh in your perishing; and I shall scorn you, when that, that ye dread, cometh to you. (And so I shall laugh at your misfortune, or at your tribulation; and I shall scorn you, when what ye fear, cometh to you.)

²⁷ When sudden wretchedness falleth in, and perishing befalleth as (a) tempest; when tribulation and anguish cometh [up]on you.

²⁸ Then they shall call me, and I shall not hear (but I shall not answer them); they shall rise early, and they shall not find me.

²⁹ For they hated teaching, and they took not the dread of the Lord, (For they hated instruction, and they chose not to fear the Lord/and they chose not to have reverence for the Lord,)

³⁰ neither they assented to my counsel, and they depraved all mine amending. (nor would they assent to my advice, and they have spurned all of my correction.)

³¹ Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their (own) way; and they shall be filled with their (own) counsels.

³² The turning away of little men in wit shall slay them; and the prosperity of fools shall lose them. (This turning away by those with little wit, or with low intelligence, shall lead to their own slaughter, yea, the prosperity of fools shall bring about their own destruction.)

³³ But he that heareth me, shall rest without dread; and he shall use abundance, when the dread of evils is taken away. (But he who listeneth to me, shall rest without fear; and he shall enjoy his abundance, when the fear of evil is taken away.)

³⁰ And he said, To what thing shall we liken the kingdom of God? or to what parable shall we comparison it?

³¹ As a corn of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, is less than all seeds that be in the earth;

³² and when it is sprung up, it waxeth into a tree, and is made greater than all herbs [and when it is sown, it waxeth into a tree, and is made more than all worts, or herbs]; and it maketh great branches, so that [the] birds of heaven may dwell [be able to dwell] under the shadow thereof.

³³ And in many such parables he spake to them the word, as they might hear;

³⁴ and he spake not to them without parable. But he expounded to his disciples all things by themselves^[a].