Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
21 I was very upset,
and my thoughts were confused.
22 I was stupid,
and I did not understand you properly.
I was no better than an animal.
23 But I am always near to you.
You hold my right hand,
as my guide.
24 You teach me the right way to go,
and you will lead me to glory.[a]
25 You are the only one in heaven or on earth
that I need to help me.
You are the only one that I want.
26 My body and my mind may become weak,
but God will always keep me safe and strong.
27 Those people who stay far away from you will die.
You destroy everybody who turns away from you.
28 But as for me, it is good for me to stay near to God.
I have gone to the Almighty Lord
as the place where I can be safe.
I will tell people about the great things that you have done.
22 It is better to receive honour from people than to be very rich.
If people respect you, that is better than silver or gold.
2 This is true about rich people and poor people:
The Lord created them all.
3 A careful person can see danger and he will hide himself.
But a silly person never stops, and he walks into trouble.
4 You should be humble. You should respect and obey the Lord.
Then you will receive riches, honour and a long life.
5 Wicked people go through a lot of trouble,
like thorn bushes and traps in their way.
So be careful to keep far away from them.
6 If you teach children the right way to live,
they will not forget it when they are older.
7 Rich people have authority over poor people.
People who borrow money have to serve those who lend it to them.
8 If you plant evil things,
your harvest will be trouble.
If you are angry and you hurt people,
it will never help you.
9 If you are kind to poor people and you share your food with them,
God will bless you.
10 If someone laughs at what is right, send him away.
Then there will be no more arguments, quarrels and insults.
11 If you live in a pure way, and you speak kind words,
you will have the king as your friend.
12 The Lord watches over truth, to keep it safe.
But when people tell lies, he makes them useless.
13 A lazy person stays in his house.
He says, ‘There is a lion outside in the street!
If I go out, it will kill me!’
14 The mouth of an adulteress is like a deep hole.
If you make the Lord angry, you will fall into it!
15 Children love to do foolish things.
To stop them, you must warn and punish them.
16 Someone may be cruel to poor people to make himself rich.
Someone else may give gifts to rich people to make them his friends.
But both those people will become poor in the end.
30 wise thoughts
17 Listen carefully. I will teach you what wise people have said. Think about the things that I am teaching you. 18 If you remember these things, you will be happy. Tell them to other people. 19 I want you to trust in the Lord. So I will tell you these things today. They are for you.
20 I have written down 30 wise thoughts for you.[a] They will teach you what is right, so that you know how to live well. 21 You can trust these words because they are true. Then you can give a good answer to the people who sent you to me.
Nobody is right with God
9 So then, what do we learn from that? We cannot say that we Jews are better than other people. No, certainly we cannot say that! I have said already that sin has power over everyone. That is true for both Jews and Gentiles. 10 This is written in the Bible:
‘There is nobody who is right with God.
There is not even one person who is like that.
11 There is nobody who understands what is true.
There is nobody who wants to worship God.
12 Everyone has turned away from God.
All people have become completely bad.
Nobody does what is good or kind.
There is not even one person who is like that.[a]
13 Bad words come out of their mouth, like a very bad smell.
They tell lies all the time,
so that people do wrong things.
The things that they say hurt people, like a snake's poison.[b]
14 They are always saying bad things against people,
because they want to cause trouble for them.[c]
15 They hurry to kill people.
16 Everywhere they go, they destroy things.
They only make people very sad.
17 They have never known how to live in peace.[d]
18 They refuse to respect God in any way.’[e]
19 So, we know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘God should not punish me.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them. 20 God's Law shows people clearly that they have done wrong things. Nobody can become right with God because they obey that Law.
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