Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 Jerusalem's people, praise the Lord!
Yes, Zion's people, praise your God![a]
13 Praise him because he makes your city's gates strong.
He blesses the people who live there.
14 He causes your borders to be safe from your enemies.
He gives you lots of the best wheat to eat.
15 He sends his commands to reach all the earth.
Very soon the whole world knows what he wants.
16 He covers the earth with snow,
like a white blanket.
He puts white frost everywhere,
like ashes that the wind blows.
17 He throws hail from the sky,
like small stones.
When he sends a cold wind,
nobody can continue to stand.
18 Then he commands it all to melt.
He makes the warm wind blow,
and the ice becomes streams of water.
19 He sends his message to Jacob's descendants.
He gives his rules and laws to Israel's people.[b]
20 He has not done that for any other nation.
They do not know his laws.[c]
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
How proverbs help us
1 These are the proverbs of Solomon, David's son, king of Israel.
2 These are proverbs that will make you wise. They will help you to learn things and to understand good teaching. 3 They will help you to understand how to live a good life. They will teach you how to live as a person who is good, honest and fair.
4 They can cause even silly people to become clever. They teach young people what they should know, so that they can live well.
5 Wise people should also listen carefully, so that they learn something new. And people with clever minds can learn to live in a good way.
6 People will learn to understand what proverbs and picture stories mean. They will understand the teaching and clever messages of wise people.
Good teaching for life
7 If you want to know how to live in a good way, you must first learn to respect the Lord with fear.[a] Fools refuse to listen to wise teaching.
How to be wise
13 Do some of you think that you are wise? Do you think that you are clever? If so, show that you are wise by the way that you live. Be kind to other people. Do things that are good. That is what it means to be wise. 14 But if you live in a bad way, do not think that you are wise. Are you jealous of other people so that you hate them? Do you want to make yourself important? If you live like that, do not say that you are great and wise. You are not saying what is true. 15 You are not being wise in the way that God wants you to be wise. Instead, you are thinking like people who do not know God. Your thoughts do not come from God's Spirit. They come from demons. 16 If you are jealous of other people and you want to make yourself important, that will cause trouble. People will argue and fight against one another. They will do all kinds of bad things. 17 But if God makes you really wise, you will live in a completely good way. That is the most important thing. Also, you will live in a way that brings peace. You will be kind to other people so that they become your friends. You will listen to them and not argue. You will forgive them and do many good things to help them. You will not choose between people. And you will not be a hypocrite.
18 Those who bring peace to other people help them to live together in peace. As a result, people choose to do what is right and good.
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