Day 38 of 365

¹ O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

² For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.

⁴ For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.

⁵ My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

⁶ I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.

⁷ For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸ I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

⁹ Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

¹⁰ My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.

¹¹ My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

¹² They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

¹³ But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

¹⁴ Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

¹⁵ For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

¹⁶ For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

¹⁷ For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.

¹⁸ For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

¹⁹ But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

²⁰ They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

²¹ Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.

²² Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.

¹ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

² Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

³ Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

⁶ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

⁷ And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

⁸ Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

⁹ In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

¹¹ (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

¹² Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

¹⁴ I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

¹⁹ For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

²⁰ He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

²¹ With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

²² He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

²³ Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

²⁴ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.