Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

² But as for me, my feet almost stumbled;
    my steps had almost slipped.
³ For I was envious at the boastful;
    I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴ For there are no pains in their death;
    their bodies are fat.
⁵ They are not in trouble as other people;
    nor are they plagued like others.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace;
    violence covers them as a garment.
⁷ Their eyes bulge with fatness;
    they have more than a heart could wish.
⁸ They mock and speak with evil oppression;
    they speak loftily.
⁹ They set their mouth against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
¹⁰ Therefore people turn to them,
    and abundant waters are drunk by them.
¹¹ They say, “How does God know?
    And is there knowledge with the Most High?”

¹² Observe, these are the wicked, always at ease;
    they increase in riches.

¹³ Surely I have kept my heart pure for nothing,
    and washed my hands in innocence.
¹⁴ For all the day long I am plagued,
    and chastened every morning.

¹⁵ If I said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
¹⁶ When I thought to understand this,
    it was troublesome in my eyes,
¹⁷ until I went into the sanctuary of God;
    then I understood their end.

¹⁸ Surely You have set them in slippery places;
    You have brought them down to ruin.
¹⁹ How they come to desolation, as in a moment!
    They have come to an end, utterly consumed with terrors.
²⁰ As a dream when one awakes,
    so, O Lord, when You awake,
    You will despise their form.

14 Every wise woman builds her house,
    but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

² He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord,
    but he who is perverse in his ways despises Him.

³ In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride,
    but the lips of the wise will preserve them.

⁴ Where no oxen are, the crib is clean;
    but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

⁵ A faithful witness will not lie,
    but a false witness will utter lies.

⁶ A scorner seeks wisdom and does not find it,
    but knowledge is easy to him who understands.

⁷ Go from the presence of a foolish man,
    when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.

⁸ The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,
    but the folly of fools is deceit.

⁹ Fools make a mock at sin,
    but among the righteous there is favor.