ECCLESIASTES 8

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Keep the King’s Command8:1

Who is like the wise?

And who knows the interpretation of a thing?

A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,

and the hardness of his face is changed.
    2 I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. 3 Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. 4 For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” 5 Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. 6 For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. 7 For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? 8 No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. 9 All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. Those Who Fear God Will Do Well10 Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. 12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. Man Cannot Know God’s Ways14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
    16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

PSALM 50

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God Himself Is JudgeA Psalm of Asaph.
50:1

The Mighty One, God the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,

God shines forth.
3

Our God comes; he does not keep silence;

before him is a devouring fire,

around him a mighty tempest. 4

He calls to the heavens above

and to the earth, that he may judge his people: 5

“Gather to me my faithful ones,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!” 6

The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge! Selah
7

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;

O Israel, I will testify against you.

I am God, your God. 8

Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;

your burnt offerings are continually before me. 9

I will not accept a bull from your house

or goats from your folds. 10

For every beast of the forest is mine,

the cattle on a thousand hills. 11

I know all the birds of the hills,

and all that moves in the field is mine.
12

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world and its fullness are mine. 13

Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of goats? 14

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

and perform your vows to the Most High, 15

and call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
16

But to the wicked God says:

“What right have you to recite my statutes

or take my covenant on your lips? 17

For you hate discipline,

and you cast my words behind you. 18

If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,

and you keep company with adulterers.
19

“You give your mouth free rein for evil,

and your tongue frames deceit. 20

You sit and speak against your brother;

you slander your own mother’s son. 21

These things you have done, and I have been silent;

you thought that I was one like yourself.

But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
22

“Mark this, then, you who forget God,

lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! 23

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

to one who orders his way rightly

I will show the salvation of God!”

PSALM 51

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Create in Me a Clean Heart, O GodTo the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
51:1

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions. 2

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!
3

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me. 4

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment. 5

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9

Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities. 10

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me. 11

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you. 14

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise. 16

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19

then will you delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

PROVERBS 30

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The Words of Agur  30:1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.

The man declares, I am weary, O God;

I am weary, O God, and worn out. 2

Surely I am too stupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man. 3

I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. 4

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and what is his son’s name?

Surely you know!
5

Every word of God proves true;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6

Do not add to his words,

lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
7

Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die: 8

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.
10

Do not slander a servant to his master,

lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
11

There are those who curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers. 12

There are those who are clean in their own eyes

but are not washed of their filth. 13

There are those—how lofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift! 14

There are those whose teeth are swords,

whose fangs are knives,

to devour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mankind.
15

The leech has two daughters:

Give and Give.

Three things are never satisfied;

four never say, “Enough”: 16

Sheol, the barren womb,

the land never satisfied with water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
17

The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be picked out by the ravens of the valley

and eaten by the vultures.
18

Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand: 19

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.
20

This is the way of an adulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”
21

Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up: 22

a slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when he is filled with food; 23

an unloved woman when she gets a husband,

and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
24

Four things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise: 25

the ants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer; 26

the rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs; 27

the locusts have no king,

yet all of them march in rank; 28

the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings’ palaces.
29

Three things are stately in their tread;

four are stately in their stride: 30

the lion, which is mightiest among beasts

and does not turn back before any; 31

the strutting rooster, the he-goat,

and a king whose army is with him.
32

If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil,

put your hand on your mouth. 33

For pressing milk produces curds,

pressing the nose produces blood,

and pressing anger produces strife.