Linen Belts, Generosity, and Boasting Rights

1. Yahweh said to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don’t put it in water.” 2. So I bought a belt according to Yahweh’s word, and put it on my waist. 3. Yahweh’s word came to me the second time, saying, 4. “Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” 5. So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me. 6. After many days, Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.” 7. Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing. 8. Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 9. “Yahweh says, ‘In this way I, will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. 11. For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says Yahweh; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’ 12. “Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel says, “Every bottle should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every bottle should be filled with wine?’ 13. Then tell them, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14. I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says Yahweh: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”’” 15. Hear, and give ear. Don’t be proud, for Yahweh has spoken. 16. Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness. 17. But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock has been taken captive. 18. Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory. 19. The cities of the South is shut up, and there is no one to open them. Judah is carried away captive: all of it. It is wholly carried away captive. 20. Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock? 21. What will you say, when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail? 22. If you say in your heart, “Why have these things come on me?” Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity, and your heels suffer violence. 23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. 24. “Therefore I will scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness. 25. This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” says Yahweh, “because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.” 26. Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame will appear. 27. I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?” 1. This is Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. 2. “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up. 3. Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. 4. Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. 5. Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. 6. The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation. 7. Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, Yahweh; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you. 8. You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night? 9. Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, Yahweh, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don’t leave us. 10. Yahweh says to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.” 11. Yahweh said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good. 12. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.” 13. Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” 14. Then Yahweh said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. 15. Therefore Yahweh says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine. 16. The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them. 17. “You shall say this word to them: “‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. 18. If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’” 19. Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay! 20. We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. 21. Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us. 22. Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things. 1. Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out! 2. It will happen, when they tell you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ Then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “Such as are for death, to death; such as are for the sword, to the sword; such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’ 3. “I will appoint over them four kinds,” says Yahweh: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy. 4. I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. 5. For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare? 6. You have rejected me,” says Yahweh. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion. 7. I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn’t return from their ways. 8. Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly. 9. She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up the spirit. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says Yahweh. 10. Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me. 11. Yahweh said, “Most certainly I will strengthen you for good. Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. 12. Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass? 13. I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. 14. I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn on you.” 15. Yahweh, you know. Remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. You are patient, so don’t take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach. 16. Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies. 17. I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. 18. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? 19. Therefore Yahweh says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. They will return to you, but you will not return to them. 20. I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you,” says Yahweh. 21. “I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.” 1. Yahweh’s word came also to me, saying, 2. “You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” 3. For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land: 4. “They will die grievous deaths: they will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.” 5. For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. 6. Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. 7. Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. 8. “You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.” 9. For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10. It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity? or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ 11. then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. 12. You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. 13. Therefore will I cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ 14. “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ 15. but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.’ I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers. 16. “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes. 18. First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” 19. Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit. 20. Should a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?” 21. “Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once I will cause them to know my hand and my might. Then they will know that my name is Yahweh.”

1. Moreover, brothers, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the assemblies of Macedonia; 2. how that in much proof of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their generosity. 3. For according to their power, I testify, yes and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord, 4. begging us with much entreaty to receive this grace and the fellowship in the service to the saints. 5. This was not as we had expected, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God. 6. So we urged Titus, that as he had made a beginning before, so he would also complete in you this grace. 7. But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also abound in this grace. 8. I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love. 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. 10. I give a judgment in this: for this is expedient for you, who were the first to start a year ago, not only to do, but also to be willing. 11. But now complete the doing also, that as there was the readiness to be willing, so there may be the completion also out of your ability. 12. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have. 13. For this is not that others may be eased and you distressed, 14. but for equality. Your abundance at this present time supplies their lack, that their abundance also may become a supply for your lack; that there may be equality. 15. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.” 16. But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. 17. For he indeed accepted our exhortation, but being himself very earnest, he went out to you of his own accord. 18. We have sent together with him the brother whose praise in the Good News is known throughout all the assemblies. 19. Not only so, but he was also appointed by the assemblies to travel with us in this grace, which is served by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and to show our readiness. 20. We are avoiding this, that any man should blame us concerning this abundance which is administered by us. 21. Having regard for honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. 22. We have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest, by reason of the great confidence which he has in you. 23. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you. As for our brothers, they are the apostles of the assemblies, the glory of Christ. 24. Therefore show the proof of your love to them before the assemblies, and of our boasting on your behalf. 1. It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints, 2. for I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to them of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for a year past. Your zeal has stirred up very many of them. 3. But I have sent the brothers that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared, 4. lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting. 5. I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you, and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness. 6. Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7. Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. 9. As it is written, “He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.” 10. Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; 11. you being enriched in everything to all generosity, which produces through us thanksgiving to God. 12. For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God; 13. seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of Christ, and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all; 14. while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you. 15. Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift! 1. Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ; I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. 2. Yes, I beg you that I may not, when present, show courage with the confidence with which I intend to be bold against some, who consider us to be walking according to the flesh. 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh; 4. for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, 5. throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; 6. and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience will be made full. 7. Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also we are Christ’s. 8. For though I should boast somewhat abundantly concerning our authority, (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down) I will not be disappointed, 9. that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my letters. 10. For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.” 11. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present. 12. For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. 13. But we will not boast beyond proper limits, but within the boundaries with which God appointed to us, which reach even to you. 14. For we don’t stretch ourselves too much, as though we didn’t reach to you. For we came even as far as to you with the Good News of Christ, 15. not boasting beyond proper limits in other men’s labors, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be abundantly enlarged by you in our sphere of influence, 16. so as to preach the Good News even to the parts beyond you, not to boast in what someone else has already done. 17. But “he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” 18. For it isn’t he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends. 1. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me. 2. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3. But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different “good news”, which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough. 5. For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles. 6. But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things. 7. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge? 8. I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you. 9. When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so. 10. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. 11. Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows. 12. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we. 13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. 14. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. 15. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. 16. I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. 17. That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18. Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. 19. For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. 20. For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face. 21. I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23. Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. 24. Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one. 25. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. 26. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; 27. in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. 28. Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. 29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation? 30. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness. 31. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie. 32. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me. 33. Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands. 1. It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven. 3. I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows), 4. how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 5. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses. 6. For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than that which he sees in me, or hears from me. 7. By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively. 8. Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9. He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. 11. I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing. 12. Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works. 13. For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong. 14. Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I seek not your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? 16. But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception. 17. Did I take advantage of you by anyone of them whom I have sent to you? 18. I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same steps? 19. Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying. 20. For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire; that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, riots; 21. that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness and sexual immorality and lustfulness which they committed. 1. This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” 2. I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare; 3. seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you. 4. For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you. 5. Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6. But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified. 7. Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we are as reprobate. 8. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also pray for, even your perfecting. 10. For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down. 11. Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12. Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13. All the saints greet you. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.

1. These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. 2. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. 3. As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable. 4. Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner; 5. Take away the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness. 6. Don’t exalt yourself in the presence of the king, or claim a place among great men; 7. for it is better that it be said to you, “Come up here,” than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, whom your eyes have seen. 8. Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you? 9. Debate your case with your neighbor, and don’t betray the confidence of another; 10. lest one who hears it put you to shame, and your bad reputation never depart. 11. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. 12. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear. 13. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him; for he refreshes the soul of his masters. 14. As clouds and wind without rain, so is he who boasts of gifts deceptively. 15. By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone. 16. Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it. 17. Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he be weary of you, and hate you. 18. A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow. 19. Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot. 20. As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, or vinegar on soda, so is one who sings songs to a heavy heart. 21. If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink: 22. for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and Yahweh will reward you. 23. The north wind produces rain; so a backbiting tongue brings an angry face. 24. It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman. 25. Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. 26. Like a muddied spring, and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. 27. It is not good to eat much honey; nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor. 28. Like a city that is broken down and without walls is a man whose spirit is without restraint.