1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;
3 furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity.
The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Proverbs 2:1–7.
10 Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years.
11 I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.
The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Proverbs 4:10–13.
1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man’s oration to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:
2 I am more stupid than any other man, and I lack man’s ability to understand.
3 I have not gained wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son — if you know?
5 Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
6 Don’t add to His words, or He will rebuke you, and you will be proved a liar.
7 Two things I ask of You; don’t deny them to me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor wealth; feed me with the food I need.
9 Otherwise, I might have too much and deny You, saying, “Who is the LORD?” or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of my God.
10 Don’t slander a servant to his master or he will curse you, and you will become guilty.
11 There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.
12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filth.
13 There is a generation — how haughty its eyes and pretentious its looks.
14 There is a generation whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, devouring the oppressed from the land and the needy from among mankind.
15 The leech has two daughters: “Give, Give!” Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough!”:
16 Sheol; a childless womb; earth, which is never satisfied with water; and fire, which never says, “Enough!”
17 As for the eye that ridicules a father and despises obedience to a mother, may ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures eat it.
18 Three things are beyond me; four I can’t understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship at sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.
20 This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
21 The earth trembles under three things; it cannot bear up under four:
22 a servant when he becomes king, a fool when he is stuffed with food,
23 an unloved woman when she marries, and a servant girl when she ousts her queen.
24 Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise:
25 the ants are not a strong people, yet they store up their food in the summer;
26 hyraxes are not a mighty people, yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
27 locusts have no king, yet all of them march in ranks;
28 a lizard can be caught in your hands, yet it lives in kings’ palaces.
29 Three things are stately in their stride, even four are stately in their walk:
30 a lion, which is mightiest among beasts and doesn’t retreat before anything,
31 a strutting rooster, a goat,nd a king at the head of his army.
32 If you have been foolish by exalting yourself or if you’ve been scheming, put your hand over your mouth.
33 For the churning of milk produces butter, and twisting a nose draws blood, and stirring up anger produces strife.
The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Proverbs 30:1–33.
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Isaiah 40:28–31.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), John 15:19.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength.
The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2009), Ephesians 6:10.
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Revelation 1:8.