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

1 My son, don't forget my instruction. Let your heart guard my commands,

2 because they will help you live a long time and provide you with well-being.

3 Don't let loyalty and faithfulness leave you. Bind them on your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Then you will find favor and approval in the eyes of God and humanity.

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; don't rely on your own intelligence.

6 Know him in all your paths, and he will keep your ways straight.

7 Don't consider yourself wise. Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

8 Then your body will be healthy and your bones strengthened.

9 Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first of all your crops.

10 Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will burst with wine.

11 Don't reject the instruction of the LORD, my son; don't despise his correction.

12 The LORD loves those he corrects, just like a father who treats his son with favor.

13 Happy are those who find wisdom and those who gain understanding.

14 Her profit is better than silver, and her gain better than gold.

15 Her value exceeds pearls; all you desire can't compare with her.

16 In her right hand is a long life; in her left are wealth and honor.

17 Her ways are pleasant; all her paths are peaceful.

18 She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who hold her tight are happy.

19 The LORD laid the foundations of the earth with wisdom, establishing the heavens with understanding.

20 With his knowledge, the watery depths burst open, and the skies drop dew.

21 My son, don't let them slip from your eyes; hold on to sound judgment and discretion.

22 They will be life for your whole being, and an ornament for your neck.

23 Then you will walk safely on your path, and your foot won't stumble.

24 If you lie down, you won't be terrified. When you lie down, your sleep will be pleasant.

25 Don't fear sudden terror or the ruin that comes to the wicked.

26 The LORD will be your confidence; he will guard your feet from being snared.

27 Don't withhold good from someone who deserves it, when it is in your power to do so.

28 Don't say to your neighbor, "Go and come back; I'll give it to you tomorrow," when you have it.

29 Don't plan to harm your neighbor who trusts and lives near you.

30 Don't accuse anyone without reason, when they haven't harmed you.

31 Don't envy violent people or choose any of their ways.

32 Devious people are detestable to the LORD, but the virtuous are his close friends.

33 The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

34 He mocks mockers, but he shows favor to the humble.

35 The wise gain respect, but fools receive shame.

1 Hear, children, fatherly instruction; pay attention to gain understanding.

2 I'll teach you well. Don't abandon my instruction.

3 When I was a son to my father, tender and my mother's favorite,

4 he taught me and said to me: "Let your heart hold on to my words: Keep my commands and live.

5 Get wisdom; get understanding. Don't forget and don't turn away from my words.

6 Don't abandon her, and she will guard you. Love her, and she will protect you.

7 The beginning of wisdom: Get wisdom! Get understanding before anything else.

8 Highly esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her.

9 She will place a graceful wreath on your head; she will give you a glorious crown."

10 Listen, my son, and take in my speech, then the years of your life will be many.

11 I teach you the path of wisdom. I lead you in straight courses.

12 When you walk, you won't be hindered; when you run, you won't stumble.

13 Hold on to instruction; don't slack off; protect it, for it is your life.

14 Don't go on the way of the wicked; don't walk on the path of evil people.

15 Avoid it! Don't turn onto it; stay off of it and keep going!

16 They don't sleep unless they do evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

17 They eat the bread of evil, and they drink the wine of violence.

18 The way of the righteous is like morning light that gets brighter and brighter till it is full day.

19 The path of the wicked is like deep darkness; they don't know where they will stumble.

20 My son, pay attention to my words. Bend your ear to my speech.

21 Don't let them slip from your sight. Guard them in your mind.

22 They are life to those who find them, and healing for their entire body.

23 More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.

24 Have nothing to do with a corrupt mouth; keep devious lips far from you.

25 Focus your eyes straight ahead; keep your gaze on what is in front of you.

26 Watch your feet on the way, and all your paths will be secure.

27 Don't deviate a bit to the right or the left; turn your feet away from evil.

1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Bend your ear to what I know,

2 so you might remain discreet, and your lips might guard knowledge.

3 The lips of a mysterious woman drip honey, and her tongue is smoother than oil,

4 but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead to the grave.

6 She doesn't stay on the way of life. Her paths wander, but she doesn't know it.

7 Now children, listen to me, and don't deviate from the words of my mouth.

8 Stay on a path that is far from her; don't approach the entrance to her house.

9 Otherwise, you will give your strength to others, your years to a cruel person.

10 Otherwise, strangers will sap your strength, and your hard work will end up in a foreigner's house.

11 You will groan at the end when your body and flesh are exhausted,

12 and you say, "How I hated instruction! How my heart despised correction!

13 I didn't listen to the voice of my instructor. I didn't obey my teacher.

14 I'm on the brink of utter ruin in the assembled community."

15 Drink water from your own cistern, gushing water from your own well.

16 Should your fountains flood outside, streams of water in the public squares?

17 They are yours alone, not for you as well as strangers.

18 May your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

19 She is a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts intoxicate you all the time; always be drunk on her love.

20 Why, my son, should you lose your senses with a mysterious woman and embrace the breasts of a foreign female?

21 The LORD's eyes watch over every person's path, observing all their ways.

22 The wicked will be caught by their own evil acts, grabbed by the ropes of their own sin.

23 Those without instruction will die, misled by their own stupidity.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother. To God's church that is in Corinth, along with all of God's people throughout Achaia.

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

3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort.

4 He's the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.

5 That is because we receive so much comfort through Christ in the same way that we share so many of Christ's sufferings.

6 So if we have trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is to bring you comfort from the experience of endurance while you go through the same sufferings that we also suffer.

7 Our hope for you is certain, because we know that as you are partners in suffering, so also you are partners in comfort.

8 Brothers and sisters, we don't want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia. We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive.

9 It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves.

10 God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again,

11 since you are helping with your prayer for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people.

12 We have conducted ourselves with godly sincerity and pure motives in the world, and especially toward you. This is why we are confident, and our conscience confirms this. We didn't act with human wisdom but we relied on the grace of God.

13 We don't write anything to you except what you can read and also understand. I hope that you will understand totally

14 since you have already understood us partly. Understand that in the day of our Lord Jesus, we will make you proud as you will also make us proud.

15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you could have a second opportunity to see me.

16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again on my way back from Macedonia, at which point I was hoping you would help me on my way to Judea.

17 So I wasn't unreliable when I planned to do this, was I? Or do I make decisions with a substandard human process so that I say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?

18 But as God is faithful, our message to you isn't both yes and no.

19 God's Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—he wasn't yes and no. In him it is always yes.

20 All of God's promises have their yes in him. That is why we say Amen through him to the glory of God.

21 God is the one who establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us.

22 God also sealed us and gave the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts.

23 I call on God as my witness—I didn't come again to Corinth because I wanted to spare you.

24 It isn't that we are trying to control your faith, but we are working with you for your happiness, because you stand firm in your faith.