1 Do not envy evil people,
do not desire to be with them;
2 for their hearts contemplate violence,
and their lips speak harm.
3 By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
4 by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of precious and pleasing treasures.
5 A wise warrior is strong,
and a man of knowledge makes his strength stronger;
6 for with guidance you wage your war,
and with numerous advisers there is victory.
7 Wisdom is unattainable for a fool;
in court he does not open his mouth.
8 The one who plans to do evil
will be called a scheming person.
9 A foolish scheme is sin,
and the scorner is an abomination to people.
10 You have slacked off in the day of trouble—
your strength is small!
11 Deliver those being taken away to death,
and hold back those slipping to the slaughter.
12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”
won’t the one who evaluates hearts discern it?
Won’t the one who guards your life realize
and repay each person according to his deeds?
13 Eat honey, my child, for it is good,
and honey from the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
14 Likewise, know that wisdom is sweet to your soul;
if you have found it, you have a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.
15 Do not lie in wait like the wicked against the place where the righteous live;
do not assault his home.
16 Indeed a righteous person will fall seven times, and then get up again,
but the guilty will collapse in calamity.
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and when he stumbles do not let your heart rejoice,
18 lest the Lord see it, and be displeased,
and turn his wrath away from him.
19 Do not fret because of evil people
or be envious of wicked people,
20 for the evil person has no future,
and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.
21 Fear the Lord, my child, as well as the king,
and do not associate with rebels,
22 for suddenly their destruction will overtake them,
and who knows the ruinous judgment both the Lord and the king can bring?
23 These sayings also are from the wise:
To show partiality in judgment is terrible:
24 The one who says to the guilty, “You are innocent,”
peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce him.
25 But there will be delight for those who convict the guilty,
and a pleasing blessing will come on them.
26 Like a kiss on the lips
is the one who gives an honest answer.
27 Establish your work outside and get your fields ready;
afterward build your house.
28 Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause,
and do not deceive with your words.
29 Do not say, “I will do to him just as he has done to me;
I will pay him back according to what he has done.”
30 I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of one who lacks sense.
31 I saw that thorns had grown up all over it,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and its stone wall was broken down.
32 Then I scrutinized it. I was putting my mind to it—
I saw; I took in a lesson:
33 “A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to relax,
34 and your poverty will come like a bandit,
and your need like an armed robber.”
1 I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed—cut off from Christ—for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, 4 who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen.
6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, 7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” 8 This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. 9 For this is what the promise declared: “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.” 10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac— 11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling)— 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” 13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you—a mere human being—to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he also says in Hosea:
“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”
27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” 29 Just as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say then?—that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, 31 but Israel even though pursuing a law of righteousness did not attain it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written,
“Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble
and a rock that will make them fall,
yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”