Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.

SHIN: Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in fear of Your Word.

Jehovah, I have hoped for Your salvation, and have done Your Commandments.

I have kept Your Commandments and Your testimonies; for all my ways are before You.

My lips shall utter praise, when You have taught me Your Precepts.

Let Your hand help me; for I have chosen Your Precepts.

I have longed for Your salvation, O Jehovah; and Your Law is my delight.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant; for I do not forget Your Commandments.

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters; as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait on Jehovah our God, until He shall have mercy on us.

Have mercy on us, O Jehovah, have mercy on us; for we are exceedingly filled with scorn.

then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us;

then the waters would have flowed over us, the stream would have gone over our soul;

then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.

Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

A Song of degrees. Many times they have afflicted me from my youth, Israel may now say;

many times they have afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed over me.

And those who pass by have never said, The blessing of Jehovah be on you; we bless you in the name of Jehovah.

A Song of degrees. Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Jehovah.

A Song of degrees; of David. O Jehovah, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes lofty; nor have I walked in great things, nor in things too wondrous for me.

Surely I have behaved and have quieted my soul, as one weaned by its mother; my soul on me is like one weaned.

This is My rest forever; here I will dwell; for I have desired it.

There I will make the horn of David to bud; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed.

For Jehovah will judge His people, and He will have pity on His servants.

They have mouths, but they do not speak; they have eyes, but they do not see;

they have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.

I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth's sake; for You have magnified Your Word above all Your name.

To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O Jehovah, You have searched me and have known me.

You have closed me in behind and in front, and laid Your hand on me.

For You have possessed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb.

They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.

The proud have hidden cords and a trap for me; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set snares for me. Selah.

O Lord Jehovah, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.

Keep me from the traps which they have laid for me, and the snares of the workers of evil.

When my spirit fainted within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walked they have secretly laid a snare for me.

While I live I will praise Jehovah; I will sing praises to my God while I have any being.

He has not done so with any nation; and they have not known His judgments. Praise Jehovah!

cast in your lot among us, and let us have one purse.

but you have despised all my advice, and would have none of my warning.

They would have none of my counsel; they despised all my correction,

Do not say to your neighbor, Go and come back again, and tomorrow I will give; when you have it beside you:

I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in the right paths.

For they do not sleep, except when they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall.

and say, How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction;

and I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor bowed down my ears to those who taught me!

My son, do this now, and deliver yourself when you have come into the hand of your friend; go, humble yourself and make your friend sure.

I have peace offerings with me; today I have paid my vows.

so I came out to meet you, earnestly to seek your face, and I have found you.

I have decked my bed with coverings, with striped cloths of Egyptian linen.

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

For she has cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

Counsel and sound wisdom are mine; I am understanding; I have strength.

Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

There are those who act rich, yet have nothing; and those who act poor, yet have great riches.

In the fear of Jehovah is strong hope, and His sons shall have a place of refuge.

A wise servant shall have rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brothers.

Luxury is not becoming for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

The lazy one will not plow; after the autumn he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.

Who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin?

The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands have refused to work.

so that your trust may be in Jehovah, I have made known to you this day, even to you.

Have I not written to you excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

If you have nothing to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?

Do not remove the old landmark which your fathers have set.

Your bit which you have eaten, you shall vomit up, and spoil your pleasant words.

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice; and he who fathers a wise child shall have joy from him.

so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; when you have found it, then there shall be a reward, and your hope shall not be cut off.

These also are for the wise: To have respect of persons in judgment is not good.

for it is better that it should be said to you, Come up here, than that you should be put lower in the presence of a noble whom your eyes have seen.

Have you found honey? Eat only as much as is enough for you, lest you be filled with it and vomit it.

And you shall have goats' milk enough for your food, for the food of your household, and a living for your young women.

He who covers his sins shall not be blessed; but whoever confesses and leaves them shall have mercy.

He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he pursuing vanities shall have poverty enough.

To have respect of persons is not good; yea, for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

He who gives to the poor shall not lack, but he who hides his eyes shall have many a curse.

Surely I am more like an animal than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man.

I have not learned wisdom, nor the knowledge of the holy.

I have asked two things from You; do not deny them before I die;

The grave; and the barren womb, the earth not filled with water, and the fire, have not said, Enough.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no evil.

the locusts have no king, yet they go forth by bands, all of them;

If you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you have thought evil, lay your hand on your mouth.

The heart of her husband trusts safely in her, so that he shall have no need of plunder.

Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

I spoke within my own heart, saying, Lo, I have become great and have gathered more wisdom than all that have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart has seen much of wisdom and knowledge.

And I turned to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly; for what can the man do who comes after the king, when they have already done it?

And who knows whether he shall be wise or a fool? Yet he shall have rule over all my labor in which I have labored, and acted wisely under the sun. This is also vanity.

What profit does he have who works in that in which he labors?

I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men to be humbled by it.

For that which happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts, even one thing happens to them. As this one dies, so that one dies; yea, they all have one breath; so that a man has no advantage over a beast; for all is vanity.

Therefore I have seen that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion; for who can bring him to see what shall be after him?

And I commended the dead who already have died, more than the living who are living now.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.

For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he does not have another to help him.

Again, if two lie together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?

There is no end of all the people, of all who have been before them; they also who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

When you vow a vow to God, do not wait to pay it. For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you have vowed.

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for their owners to their hurt.

And this also is a sore evil, that in all, as he came, so shall he go; and what profit does he have who has labored for the wind?

Behold that which I have seen. it is good and right for one to eat and to drink, and to see good in all his labor that he labors under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him; for it is his portion.