PROVERBS 04

4  Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

²  For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

³  For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.

⁴  He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

⁵  Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

⁶  Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

⁷  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

⁸  Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.

⁹  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.

¹⁰  Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.

¹¹  I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.

¹²  When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

¹³  Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.

¹⁴  Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.

¹⁵  Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

¹⁶  For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

¹⁷  For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸  But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

¹⁹  The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

²⁰  My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

²¹  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

²²  For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

²³  Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

²⁴  Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

²⁵  Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

²⁶  Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

²⁷  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

3  My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

²  For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

³  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

⁴  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

⁵  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

⁶  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

⁷  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

⁸  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

⁹  Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

¹⁰  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

¹¹  My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:

¹²  For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

¹³  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

¹⁴  For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

¹⁵  She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

¹⁶  Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

¹⁷  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

¹⁸  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

¹⁹  The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

²⁰  By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.

²¹  My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:

²²  So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

²³  Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

²⁴  When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

²⁵  Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.

²⁶  For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

²⁷  Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

²⁸  Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

²⁹  Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee.

³⁰  Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.

³¹  Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.

³²  For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous.

³³  The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just.

³⁴  Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.

³⁵  The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

PROVERBS 02

2  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;

²  So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;

³  Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;

⁴  If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

⁵ Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶  For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

⁷  He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

⁸  He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.

⁹  Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

¹⁰  When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;

¹¹  Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

¹²  To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things;

¹³  Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴  Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;

¹⁵  Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths:

¹⁶  To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;

¹⁷  Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

¹⁸  For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.

¹⁹  None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

²⁰  That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹  For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

²²  But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

PROVERBS 01

1  The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;

²  To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

³  To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;

⁴  To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

⁵  A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

⁶  To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.

⁷  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

⁹  For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

¹⁰  My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

¹¹  If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

¹²  Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

¹³  We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil:

¹⁴  Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse:

¹⁵  My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

¹⁶  For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

¹⁷  Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

¹⁸  And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives.

¹⁹  So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.

²⁰  Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

²¹  She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

²²  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

²³  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

²⁴  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

²⁵  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

²⁶  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

²⁷  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

²⁸  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

²⁹  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:

³⁰  They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

³¹  Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

³²  For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

³³  But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

PSALM 10

10  Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

²  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

³  For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

⁴  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

⁵  His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

⁶  He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

⁷  His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

⁸  He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

⁹  He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

¹⁰  He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

¹¹  He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

¹²  Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

¹³  Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

¹⁴  Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵  Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

¹⁶  The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

¹⁷  Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

¹⁸  To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

PSALM 9

9  I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

²  I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

³  When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

⁴  For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

⁵  Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

⁶  O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

⁷  But the Lord shall endure for ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.

⁸  And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.

⁹  The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

^{1 0} And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

¹¹  Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

¹²  When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.

¹³  Have mercy upon me, O Lord; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:

¹⁴  That I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion: I will rejoice in thy salvation.

¹⁵  The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

¹⁶  The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.

¹⁷  The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸  For the needy shall not always be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

¹⁹  Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.

²⁰  Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

PSALM 8

8  O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

²  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

³  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

⁴  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

⁵  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

⁶  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

⁷  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

⁸  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

⁹  O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

PSALM 7

7  O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

²  Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

³  O Lord my God, If I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

⁴  If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)

⁵  Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

⁶  Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.

⁷  So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about: for their sakes therefore return thou on high.

⁸  The Lord shall judge the people: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.

⁹  Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

¹⁰  My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.

¹¹  God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

¹²  If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

¹³  He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

¹⁴  Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

¹⁵  He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.

¹⁶  His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.

¹⁷  I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.

Psalm 6

6 O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

² Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.

³ My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

⁴ Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.

⁵ For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

⁶ I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

⁷ Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

⁸ Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.

⁹ The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.

¹⁰ Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Psalms
Chapter 5

1 (To the chief Musician upon Nehiloth, A Psalm of David.) Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

2 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.

3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

10 Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.

11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.