Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

73 How good God is to Israel—to those whose hearts are pure. ² But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. ³ For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked. ⁴ Yes, all through life their road is smooth!^[a] They grow sleek and fat. ⁵ They aren’t always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else, ⁶ so their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty! ⁷ These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! ⁸ They scoff at God and threaten his people. How proudly they speak! ⁹ They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.

¹⁰ And so God’s people are dismayed and confused and drink it all in. ¹¹ “Does God realize what is going on?” they ask. ¹² “Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a finger—theirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.”

¹³ Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure? ¹⁴ All I get out of it is trouble and woe—every day and all day long! ¹⁵ If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to your people. ¹⁶ Yet it is so hard to explain it—this prosperity of those who hate the Lord. ¹⁷ Then one day I went into God’s sanctuary to meditate and thought about the future of these evil men. ¹⁸ What a slippery path they are on—suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction: ¹⁹ an instant end to all their happiness, an eternity of terror. ²⁰ Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!

14 A wise woman builds her house, while a foolish woman tears hers down by her own efforts.

² To do right honors God; to sin is to despise him.

³ A rebel’s foolish talk should prick his own pride! But the wise man’s speech is respected.

⁴ An empty stable stays clean—but there is no income from an empty stable.

⁵ A truthful witness never lies; a false witness always lies.

⁶ A mocker never finds the wisdom he claims he is looking for, yet it comes easily to the man with common sense.

⁷ If you are looking for advice, stay away from fools.

⁸ The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and won’t face facts.

⁹ The common bond of rebels is their guilt.^[a] The common bond of godly people is goodwill.

¹⁴ When they arrived at the bottom of the hill, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, ¹⁵ “Sir, have mercy on my son, for he is mentally deranged and in great trouble, for he often falls into the fire or into the water; ¹⁶ so I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t cure him.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Oh, you stubborn, faithless people! How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to me.” ¹⁸ Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy and it left him, and from that moment the boy was well.

¹⁹ Afterwards the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast that demon out?”

²⁰ “Because of your little faith,” Jesus told them. “For if you had faith even as small as a tiny mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move!’ and it would go far away. Nothing would be impossible. ²¹ But this kind of demon won’t leave unless you have prayed and gone without food.”^[a]