1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. 3 Outside the veil of the testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations. 4 He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.
5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. 6 And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. 7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”
10 Now the son of an Israelite woman—his father was an Egyptian—went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man had a fight within the camp. 11 And the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12 Then they put him in custody, waiting for Moses to give them a clear decision in accordance with the command of the Lord.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have all the congregation stone him. 15 You shall also speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses his God, then he will bear the responsibility for his sin. 16 Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The stranger as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
17 ‘Now if someone takes any human life, he must be put to death. 18 But the one who takes the life of an animal shall make restitution, life for life. 19 If someone injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so shall it be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a person, so shall it be inflicted on him. 21 So the one who kills an animal shall make restitution, but the one who kills a person shall be put to death. 22 There shall be only one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’” 23 Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp, and stoned him with stones. So the sons of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
1 In You, Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be put to shame;
In Your righteousness rescue me.
2 Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly;
Be a rock of strength for me,
A stronghold to save me.
3 For You are my rock and my fortress;
For the sake of Your name You will lead me and guide me.
4 You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength.
5 Into Your hand I entrust my spirit;
You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.
6 I hate those who devote themselves to worthless idols,
But I trust in the Lord.
7 I will rejoice and be glad in Your faithfulness,
Because You have seen my misery;
You have known the troubles of my soul,
8 And You have not handed me over to the enemy;
You have set my feet in a large place.
9 Be gracious to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body too.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow
And my years with sighing;
My strength has failed because of my guilt,
And my body has wasted away.
11 Because of all my adversaries, I have become a disgrace,
Especially to my neighbors,
And an object of dread to my acquaintances;
Those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten like a dead person, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many,
Terror is on every side;
While they took counsel together against me,
They schemed to take away my life.
14 But as for me, I trust in You, Lord,
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me.
16 Make Your face shine upon Your servant;
Save me in Your faithfulness.
17 Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I call upon You;
Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be speechless,
Which speak arrogantly against the righteous
With pride and contempt.
19 How great is Your goodness,
Which You have stored up for those who fear You,
Which You have performed for those who take refuge in You,
Before the sons of mankind!
20 You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of mankind;
You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord,
For He has shown His marvelous faithfulness to me in a besieged city.
22 As for me, I said in my alarm,
“I am cut off from Your eyes”;
Nevertheless You heard the sound of my pleadings
When I called to You for help.
23 Love the Lord, all His godly ones!
The Lord watches over the faithful
But fully repays the one who acts arrogantly.
24 Be strong and let your heart take courage,
All you who wait for the Lord.
1 A good name is better than good oil,
And the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting,
Because that is the end of every person,
And the living takes it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.
4 The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning,
While the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure.
5 It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise person
Than for one to listen to the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool;
And this too is futility.
7 For oppression makes a wise person look foolish,
And a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning;
Patience of spirit is better than arrogance of spirit.
9 Do not be eager in your spirit to be angry,
For anger resides in the heart of fools.
10 Do not say, “Why is it that the former days were better than these?”
For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.
11 Wisdom along with an inheritance is good,
And an advantage to those who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is protection just as money is protection,
But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom keeps its possessors alive.
13 Consider the work of God,
For who is able to straighten what He has bent?
14 On the day of prosperity be happy,
But on the day of adversity consider:
God has made the one as well as the other
So that a person will not discover anything that will come after him.
15 I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous person who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked person who prolongs his life in his wickedness. 16 Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? 17 Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp one thing while not letting go of the other; for one who fears God comes out with both of them.
19 Wisdom strengthens a wise person more than ten rulers who are in a city. 20 Indeed, there is not a righteous person on earth who always does good and does not ever sin. 21 Also, do not take seriously all the words which are spoken, so that you do not hear your servant cursing you, 22 for you know that even you have cursed others many times as well.
23 I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but wisdom was far from me. 24 What has been is remote and very mysterious. Who can discover it? 25 I directed my mind to know and to investigate, and to seek wisdom and an explanation, and to know the evil of foolishness and the foolishness of insanity. 26 And I discovered as more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains. One who is pleasing to God will escape from her, but the sinner will be captured by her.
27 “Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “by adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 28 which I am still seeking but have not found. I have found one man among a thousand, but I have not found a woman among all these. 29 Behold, I have found only this, that God made people upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these. 6 For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their foolishness will be obvious to all, just as was that also of Jannes and Jambres.
10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil people and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
