Ecclesiastes 5
1 Do not be hasty with your mouth, And do not let not your heart be quick To utter a word before God; For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; Therefore, let your words be few.
2 For a dream comes in a multitude of distractions, And the voice of a senseless man is with a multitude of words.
3 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it, For His will is not in senseless men. So pay whatever you vowed.
4 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.
5 Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, and do not say in the presence of God, “It was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
6 For in a multitude of dreams there are vanities and many words, but you should fear God.
The Vanity of Riches
7 If you see the oppression of the poor and the violation of judgment and righteousness in the land, do not marvel at the matter; for there is a high official to watch over a high official, and higher ones over them!
8 Moreover, the abundance of the earth is for all: even a king depends on work in the field.
9 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves the harvest, with its abundance. This also is vanity.
10 In the abundance of good things They who eat them also increase, But what virtue does the owner have from them, Except to see them with his eyes?
11 The sleep of a servant is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
12 There was a sickness I saw under the sun: Wealth kept for its owner to his hurt.
13 That wealth shall perish in painful distraction, And he begets a son; But there is nothing in his hand.
14 As he came from his mother’s womb, Naked shall he return, to go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor That it may go with him in his hand.†
15 This also is a painful sickness, For as he came, so shall he go; And what is his gain, for which he labored for the wind?
16 All his days are in darkness and sorrow And in much anger, sickness, and gall.
17 Behold, I have seen good: It is a fine thing for a man to experience goodness in all his labor in which he toils all the days of his life that God has given him; for it is his portion.
18 As for every man to whom God has given wealth, possessions, and authority—to eat from it, to receive his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.
19 For he will not remember the many days of his life, because God distracted him in the merriment of his heart.
Psalms 121
1 An ode of ascents. I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet stand in your courts, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built as a city Whose compactness is complete.
4 There the tribes went up, The tribes of the Lord, a testimony to Israel, To give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For thrones sat there for judgment, Thrones over the house of David.
6 Ask now for things regarding the peace of Jerusalem, And there is prosperity for those who love you;
7 Let there now be peace in your power And prosperity in your citadels.
8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, I indeed spoke peace concerning you;
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I sought good things for you.
Psalms 122
1 An ode of ascents. I lift my eyes to You, Who dwell in heaven.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters, As the eyes of the maidservant look to the hands of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God Until He shall have compassion on us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, For we are greatly filled with contempt;
4 Our soul is greatly filled with it. We are a disgrace to those who prosper, And a contempt to the arrogant.
Proverbs 27
19 As faces are not like other faces, So neither are the hearts of men.
20 Hades and destruction are not satiated; In like manner the eyes of men are also insatiable.†
21 He whose eye is fixed is an abomination to the Lord, And the uninstructed are intemperate with the tongue.
22 Proving by fire is a way of testing for silver and gold, But a man is tested by the mouth of those who praise him.†
23 A lawless heart seeks evil things, But an upright heart seeks knowledge.†
24 If you should whip a man without discernment in the midst of the council and dishonor him, You would not remove his lack of discernment.
John 15
Union and Communion with Christ
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.†
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.†
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.†
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.†
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.†
19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 He who hates Me hates My Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.
25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.†
27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.