1 The intentions of the heart belong to a man,
but the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord.
2 All a person’s ways seem right in his own opinion,
but the Lord evaluates the motives.
3 Commit your works to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.
4 The Lord has worked everything for his own ends—
even the wicked for the day of disaster.
5 The Lord abhors every arrogant person;
rest assured that they will not go unpunished.
6 Through loyal love and truth iniquity is appeased;
through fearing the Lord one avoids evil.
7 When a person’s ways are pleasing to the Lord,
he even reconciles his enemies to himself.
8 Better to have a little with righteousness
than to have abundant income without justice.
9 A person plans his course,
but the Lord directs his steps.
10 The divine verdict is in the words of the king,
his pronouncements must not act treacherously against justice.
11 Honest scales and balances are from the Lord;
all the weights in the bag are his handiwork.
12 Doing wickedness is an abomination to kings,
because a throne is established in righteousness.
13 The delight of a king is righteous counsel,
and he will love the one who speaks uprightly.
14 A king’s wrath is like a messenger of death,
but a wise person appeases it.
15 In the light of the king’s face there is life,
and his favor is like the clouds of the spring rain.
16 How much better it is to acquire wisdom than gold;
to acquire understanding is more desirable than silver.
17 The highway of the upright is to turn away from evil;
the one who guards his way safeguards his life.
18 Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 It is better to be lowly in spirit with the afflicted
than to share the spoils with the proud.
20 The one who deals wisely in a matter will find success,
and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
21 The one who is wise in heart is called discerning,
and kind speech increases persuasiveness.
22 Insight is like a life-giving fountain to the one who possesses it,
but folly leads to the discipline of fools.
23 A wise person’s heart makes his speech wise
and it adds persuasiveness to his words.
24 Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
25 There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way that leads to death.
26 A laborer’s appetite has labored for him,
for his hunger has pressed him to work.
27 A wicked scoundrel digs up evil,
and his slander is like a scorching fire.
28 A perverse person spreads dissension,
and a gossip separates the closest friends.
29 A violent person entices his neighbor,
and then leads him down a path that is terrible.
30 The one who winks his eyes devises perverse things,
and one who compresses his lips has accomplished evil.
31 Gray hair is like a crown of glory;
it is attained in the path of righteousness.
32 Better to be slow to anger than to be a mighty warrior,
and one who controls his temper is better than one who captures a city.
33 The dice are thrown into the lap,
but their every decision is from the Lord.
1 From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. 2 This gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 concerning his Son who was a descendant of David with reference to the flesh, 4 who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name. 6 You also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 To all those loved by God in Rome, called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
8 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you 10 and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God. 11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, 12 that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 Thus I am eager also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 19 because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.