December 16, 2026

Proverbs2

The Value of Wisdom

1 My son, if you receive my words

and treasure up my commandments with you,

2 making your ear attentive to wisdom

and inclining your heart to understanding;

3 yes, if you call out for insight

and raise your voice for understanding,

4 if you seek it like silver

and search for it as for hidden treasures,

5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord

and find the knowledge of God.

6 For the Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

8 guarding the paths of justice

and watching over the way of his saints.

9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice

and equity, every good path;

10 for wisdom will come into your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

11 discretion will watch over you,

understanding will guard you,

12 delivering you from the way of evil,

from men of perverted speech,

13 who forsake the paths of uprightness

to walk in the ways of darkness,

14 who rejoice in doing evil

and delight in the perverseness of evil,

15 men whose paths are crooked,

and who are devious in their ways.

16 So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

17 who forsakes the companion of her youth

and forgets the covenant of her God;

18 for her house sinks down to death,

and her paths to the departed;

19 none who go to her come back,

nor do they regain the paths of life.

20 So you will walk in the way of the good

and keep to the paths of the righteous.

21 For the upright will inhabit the land,

and those with integrity will remain in it,

22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land,

and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

Proverbs3

Trust in the ndLord with All Your Heart

1 My son, do not forget my teaching,

but let your heart keep my commandments,

2 for length of days and years of life

and peace they will add to you.

3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;

bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 So you will find favor and good success

in the sight of God and man.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

7 Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

8 It will be healing to your flesh

and refreshment to your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth

and with the firstfruits of all your produce;

10 then your barns will be filled with plenty,

and your vats will be bursting with wine.

11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.

Blessed Is the One Who Finds Wisdom

13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,

and the one who gets understanding,

14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver

and her profit better than gold.

15 She is more precious than jewels,

and nothing you desire can compare with her.

16 Long life is in her right hand;

in her left hand are riches and honor.

17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

and all her paths are peace.

18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;

those who hold her fast are called blessed.

19 The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;

by understanding he established the heavens;

20 by his knowledge the deeps broke open,

and the clouds drop down the dew.

21 My son, do not lose sight of these—

keep sound wisdom and discretion,

22 and they will be life for your soul

and adornment for your neck.

23 Then you will walk on your way securely,

and your foot will not stumble.

24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;

when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror

or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,

26 for the Lord will be your confidence

and will keep your foot from being caught.

27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,

when it is in your power to do it.

28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,

tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.

29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor,

who dwells trustingly beside you.

30 Do not contend with a man for no reason,

when he has done you no harm.

31 Do not envy a man of violence

and do not choose any of his ways,

32 for the devious person is an abomination to the Lord,

but the upright are in his confidence.

33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked,

but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous.

34 Toward the scorners he is scornful,

but to the humble he gives favor.

35 The wise will inherit honor,

but fools get disgrace.

Proverbs4

A Father’s Wise Instruction

1 Hear, O sons, a father’s instruction,

and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

2 for I give you good precepts;

do not forsake my teaching.

3 When I was a son with my father,

tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

4 he taught me and said to me,

“Let your heart hold fast my words;

keep my commandments, and live.

5 Get wisdom; get insight;

do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;

love her, and she will guard you.

7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get insight.

8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;

she will honor you if you embrace her.

9 She will place on your head a graceful garland;

she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

10 Hear, my son, and accept my words,

that the years of your life may be many.

11 I have taught you the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered,

and if you run, you will not stumble.

13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;

guard her, for she is your life.

14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,

and do not walk in the way of the evil.

15 Avoid it; do not go on it;

turn away from it and pass on.

16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;

they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

17 For they eat the bread of wickedness

and drink the wine of violence.

18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;

they do not know over what they stumble.

20 My son, be attentive to my words;

incline your ear to my sayings.

21 Let them not escape from your sight;

keep them within your heart.

22 For they are life to those who find them,

and healing to all their flesh.

23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,

for from it flow the springs of life.

24 Put away from you crooked speech,

and put devious talk far from you.

25 Let your eyes look directly forward,

and your gaze be straight before you.

26 Ponder the path of your feet;

then all your ways will be sure.

27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;

turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs5

Warning Against Adultery

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,

2 that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,

4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol;

6 she does not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And now, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

9 lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

11 and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!

13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

14 I am at the brink of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?

17 Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love.

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman

and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,

and he ponders all his paths.

22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

23 He dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Revelation8

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

The Seven Trumpets

6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.

12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”