Day 116 of 365

¹ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

² Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

³ The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴ Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

⁵ Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

⁶ The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

⁷ Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

⁸ For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

⁹ I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

¹⁰ I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

¹¹ I said in my haste, All men are liars.

¹² What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

¹³ I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

¹⁴ I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

¹⁶ O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

¹⁷ I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.

¹⁸ I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹ In the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.

¹ When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:

² And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.

³ Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

⁴ Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

⁵ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

⁶ Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

⁷ For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

⁸ The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

⁹ Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

¹⁰ Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹ For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.

¹² Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³ Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

¹⁵ My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine.

¹⁶ Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.

¹⁷ Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long.

¹⁸ For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off.

¹⁹ Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.

²⁰ Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:

²¹ For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

²² Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

²³ Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

²⁴ The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

²⁵ Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

²⁶ My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

²⁹ Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?

³⁰ They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

³¹ Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.

³² At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

³⁴ Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.

³⁵ They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.