Proverbs 3

²¹Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

¹⁶I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

⁸Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

⁹³I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have revived me.

¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

²“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),

¹⁰Listen, my son, and receive my words, and the years of your life will be many.

¹⁶With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

⁶that you may see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!

¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹¹For through wisdom your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

³It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”

¹⁸Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

¹⁹Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

²¹Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

⁵²And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

²⁶And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with man.

¹⁸For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

²And the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

³When his master saw that the Lord was with him and made him prosper in all he did,

²¹the Lord was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

⁵Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will do it.

⁷But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.

⁸He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.

²⁶He who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

³Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

⁸Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

³You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever, because God the Lord is the Rock eternal.

³Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be achieved.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

⁶Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

⁹A man’s heart plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

²³I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

²⁸And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.

¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

⁶By loving devotion and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns aside from evil.

¹There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.

¹³When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.

³He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

²⁴Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

²⁴His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

⁴On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.

⁵No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.

⁶From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

²you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name,

³to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have entered the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.”

²On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed.

³¹Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

¹⁹Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

¹⁷Not that I am seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account.

¹⁸I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

⁸Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.

⁹You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will repay the lender.

⁸The Lord will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.

²⁴One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.

²⁵A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

²⁴The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

⁹A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

⁷Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

¹⁷Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

¹²Blessed is the man You discipline, O Lord, and teach from Your law,

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.

³¹But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

⁵So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

¹⁷Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will bring delight to your soul.

²⁴He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

³²Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; do not ignore it.

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn from them.

⁶Do not forsake wisdom, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you.

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

⁴if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions.

²She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large caravan—with camels bearing spices, gold in great abundance, and precious stones. And she came to Solomon and spoke to him all that was on her mind.

²³So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²⁴The whole world sought an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.

¹⁰Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁶How much better to acquire wisdom than gold! To gain understanding is more desirable than silver.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, pure gold, and my harvest surpasses choice silver.

¹³No man can know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’ while the sea declares, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁸I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

⁴if you seek it like silver and search it out like hidden treasure,

¹¹For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.

¹⁰A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.

¹⁸Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You.

²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

³Because Your loving devotion is better than life, my lips will glorify You.

²for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life.

¹⁰sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

⁴The rewards of humility and the fear of the Lord are wealth and honor and life.

¹³Moreover, I will give you what you did not request—both riches and honor—so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.

⁸For physical exercise is of limited value, but godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for the present life and for the one to come.

³⁰will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

⁷⁹to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

³You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.

⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight your soul.

¹⁶⁵Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble.

¹⁸for it is pleasing when you keep them within you and they are constantly on your lips.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

⁴A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.

⁹Out of the ground the Lord God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

²²Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever...”

²⁴How many are Your works, O Lord! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.

¹²The Lord made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

³Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

¹⁵The Lord made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

⁵By His insight He made the heavens. His loving devotion endures forever.

²⁷I was there when He established the heavens, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

²⁸when He established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep gushed forth,

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

⁹You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.

¹⁰You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth.

²⁷For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,

²⁸which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind.

⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.

²⁸May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth—an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

⁶These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts.

⁷And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

⁴⁷For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

²¹Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

¹We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

²For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,

⁹Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body.

⁹For they are a garland of grace on your head and a pendant around your neck.

¹⁶O Lord, by such things men live, and in all of them my spirit finds life. You have restored me to health and have let me live.

⁴⁹I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it.

⁵⁰And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.

⁹He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.

³He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

¹¹For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

¹²They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

³¹The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not falter.

⁸The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

⁸I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

⁵I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

¹⁹You will lie down without fear, and many will court your favor.

⁴Behold, the Protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is the shade on your right hand.

²⁶At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹¹Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.

⁷He does not fear bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.”

⁵You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

¹²“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.

¹³The Lord of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

¹For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.

²Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas,

³Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly plague.

²⁶He who fears the Lord is secure in confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.

⁹He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.

⁹Because you have made the Lord your dwelling—my refuge, the Most High—

¹⁰no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent.

¹⁷Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

¹⁸yet I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.

¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

¹⁶If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that?

⁷Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

²⁹I have power to do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’

¹Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

¹³You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

¹²If he is a poor man, you must not go to sleep with the security in your possession;

¹³be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the Lord your God.

¹¹Now finish the work, so that you may complete it with the same eager desire, according to your means.

¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

⁶Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.

¹⁸Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share,

¹⁴With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

²⁰My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

¹Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

²They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.

²⁹A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him down a path that is not good.

³⁰He who winks his eye devises perversity; he who purses his lips is bent on evil.

³See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O Lord.

²⁰For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.

²⁴And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²²An angry man stirs up dissension, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression.

¹⁸If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.

¹⁹Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

⁸do not bring hastily to court. Otherwise, what will you do in the end when your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,

⁶A fool’s lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating.

¹⁴To start a quarrel is to release a flood; so abandon the dispute before it breaks out.

¹Do not envy wicked men or desire their company;

¹Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the Lord.

¹⁹Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked.

²⁰For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.

¹⁴The Lord confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

²⁰The perverse in heart are an abomination to the Lord, but the blameless in their walk are His delight.

¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the Lord.

¹³To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

²¹Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”

²²Surely those He blesses will inherit the land, but the cursed will be destroyed.

¹⁴If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

¹⁵and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

¹⁰no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent.

⁶if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate.

⁷Though your beginnings were modest, your latter days will flourish.

²If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the Lord of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

²⁶And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.

⁶But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁶Though the Lord is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise to your own advantage; but if you scoff, you alone will bear the consequences.

¹⁵For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

²⁴Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man—of him who acts with excessive pride.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

¹⁴My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart and wail with a broken spirit.

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

²And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.

³Then the wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever.

²⁴You guide me with Your counsel, and later receive me in glory.

⁸Prize her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.