Proverbs 3; Proverbs 4; Proverbs 5; 2 Corinthians 1

Proverbs 3

1 My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my commandments.

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

3 Let not mercy aud truth leave thee, put them about thy neck, and write them in the tables of thy heart.

4 And thou shalt find grace, and good understanding before God and men.

5 Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence.

6 In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.

7 Be not wise in thy own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil:

8 For it shall be health to thy navel, and moistening to thy bones.

9 Honour the Lord with thy substance, and give him of the first of all thy fruits;

10 And thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine.

11 My son, reject not the correction of the Lord: and do not faint when thou art chastised by him:

12 For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth: and as a father in the son he pleaseth himself.

13 Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and is rich in prudence:

14 The purchasing thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and her fruit than the chief and purest gold:

15 She is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired, are not to be compared to her.

16 Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory.

17 Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable.

18 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed.

19 The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, hath established the heavens by prudence.

20 By his wisdom the depths have broken out, and the clouds grow thick with dew.

21 My son, let not these things depart from thy eyes: keep the law and counsel:

22 And there shall be life to thy soul, and grace to thy mouth.

23 Then shalt thou walk confidently in thy way, and thy foot shall not stumble:

24 If thou sleep, thou shalt not fear: thou shalt rest, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

25 Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor of the power of the wicked falling upon thee.

26 For the Lord will be at thy side, and will keep thy foot that thou be not taken.

27 Do not withhold him from doing good, who is able: if thou art able, do good thyself also.

28 Say not to thy friend: Go, and come again: and to morrow I will give to thee: when thou canst give at present.

29 Practise not evil against thy friend, when he hath confidence in thee.

30 Strive not against a man without cause, when he hath done thee no evil.

31 Envy not the unjust man, and do not follow his ways.

32 For every mocker is an abomination to the Lord, and his communication is with the simple.

33 Want is from the Lord in the house of the wicked: but the habitations of the just shall be blessed.

34 He shall scorn the scorners, and to the meek he will give grace.

35 The wise shall possess glory: the promotion of fools is disgrace.

Proverbs 4

1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend, that you may know prudence.

2 I will give you a good gift, forsake not my law.

3 For I also was my father’s son, tender, and as an only son in the sight of my mother:

4 And he taught me, and said: Let thy heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt live.

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

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

7 The beginning of wisdom, get wisdom, and with all thy possession purchase prudence.

8 Take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee: thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her.

9 She shall give to thy head increase of graces, and protect thee with a noble crown.

10 Hear, O my son, and receive my words, that years of life may be multiplied to thee.

11 I will shew thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by the paths of equity:

12 Which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps shall not be straitened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not meet a stumblingblock.

13 Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it, because it is thy life.

14 Be not delighted in the paths of the wicked, neither let the way of evil men please thee.

15 Flee from it, pass not by it: go aside, and forsake it.

16 For they sleep not, except they have done evil: and their sleep is taken away unless they have made some to fall.

17 They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.

18 But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.

19 The way of the wicked is darksome: they know not where they fall.

20 My son, hearken to my words, and incline thy ear to my sayings.

21 Let them not depart from thy eyes, keep them in the midst of thy heart:

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

23 With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.

24 Remove from thee a froward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee.

25 Let thy eyes look straight on, and let thy eyelids go before thy steps.

26 Make straight the path for thy feet, and all thy ways shall be established.

27 Decline not to the right hand, nor to the left: turn away thy foot from evil. For the Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right hand: but those are perverse which are on the left hand. But he will make thy courses straight, he will bring forward thy ways in peace.

Proverbs 5

1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence,

2 That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.

3 For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.

4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.

6 They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.

7 Now, therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.

9 Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.

10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,

11 And thou mourn at the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say;

12 Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,

13 And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?

14 I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.

15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:

16 Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.

17 Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

18 Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:

19 Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times: be thou delighted continually with her love.

20 Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?

21 The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.

22 His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.

23 He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.

2 Corinthians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother: to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in all Achaia:

2 Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort:

4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us: so also by Christ doth our comfort abound.

6 Now whether we be in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation: or whether we be exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which worketh the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.

7 That our hope for you may be steadfast: knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation.

8 For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, of our tribulation which came to us in Asia: that we were pressed out of measure above our strength, so that we were weary even of life.

9 But we had in ourselves the answer of death, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.

10 Who hath delivered and doth deliver us out of so great dangers: in whom we trust that he will yet also deliver us,

11 You helping withal in prayer for us. That for this gift obtained for us, by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many in our behalf.

12 For our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity of heart and sincerity of God, and not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have conversed in this world: and more abundantly towards you.

13 For we write no other things to you than what you have read and known. And I hope that you shall know unto the end.

14 As also you have known us in part, that we are your glory: as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 And in this confidence I had a mind to come to you before, that you might have a second grace:

16 And to pass by you into Macedonia: and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be brought on my way towards Judea.

17 Whereas then I was thus minded, did I use lightness? Or, the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that there should be with me, It is, and It is not?

18 But God is faithful: for our preaching which was to you, was not, It is, and It is not.

19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Sylvanus and Timothy, was not: It is and It is not. But, It is, was in him.

20 For all the promises of God are in him, It is. Therefore also by him, amen to God, unto our glory.

21 Now he that confirmeth us with you in Christ and that hath anointed us, is God:

22 Who also hath sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

23 But I call God to witness upon my soul that to spare you, I came not any more to Corinth: not because we exercise dominion over your faith:

24 (1:23) but we are helpers of your joy. For in faith you stand.