Proverbs 21:1–7

⁹A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

²²And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

²⁴Man’s goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?

¹⁰And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹THE preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

²⁷¶ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem:

²⁸And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellers, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

³⁵And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

⁴⁶He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

⁴Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

¹¹O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.

²⁵He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.

¹⁵Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

⁴The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

²⁷That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers:

⁴And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

³The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

¹²And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

⁵What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

²All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.

²⁵There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

¹⁵And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁰I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

¹²There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

⁷But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

¹²If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?

²²But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

¹²I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

²For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

³For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

²⁴But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

²⁵And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

⁶Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

²³And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

²²And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

⁶For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁶¶ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

³³And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

¹¹To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

¹²When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

¹³Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

¹⁵And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶¶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

¹⁷Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

²¹¶ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

²²For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

²³But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

⁸I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.

⁵Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

¹⁷A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁷And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

¹³The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?

¹⁶¶ Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

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

²³And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹³There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.

⁴He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

⁴The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

¹¹And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

¹²That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

²⁸Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

²³Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

²⁴For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?

²⁵The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.

²⁶The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.

²⁷And thou shalt have goats’ milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

²⁹He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

²²He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him.

²¹An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

¹¹Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.

¹¹As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

²¹An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

³⁶But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

⁹But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

³And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

¹⁴It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.

⁸He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.

⁸Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

¹¹Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

³¹¶ Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

²¹He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.

⁶Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

⁹Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

¹²Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

²³For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

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

³Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

⁴I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

¹⁸As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity.

¹³¶ Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

¹⁴Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.

²³Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

²⁴Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

¹⁵And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

⁹Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

¹⁰And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

¹¹Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.

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

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

⁶Blessings are upon the head of the just: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.

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