Leviticus 24, Psalm 31, Ecclesiastes 7, 2 Timothy 3

Leviticus 24,

1 The LORD said to Moses,
 
2 "Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually.
 
3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
 
4 The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD must be tended continually.
 
5 "Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf.
 
6 Set them in two rows, six in each row, on the table of pure gold before the LORD.
 
7 Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire.
 
8 This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.
 
9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire."
 
10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.
 
11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.)
 
12 They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.
 
13 Then the LORD said to Moses:
 
14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him.
 
15 Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible;
 
16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.
 
17 " 'If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death.
 
18 Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution-life for life.
 
19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:
 
20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.
 
21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death.
 
22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.' "
 
23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Psalm 31,

1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
 
2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
 
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
 
4 Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
 
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
 
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD.
 
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.
 
8 You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.
 
9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
 
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
 
11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends-those who see me on the street flee from me.
 
12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
 
13 For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.
 
14 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God."
 
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.
 
16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
 
17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the grave.
 
18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
 
19 How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
 
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues.
 
21 Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.
 
22 In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
 
23 Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full.
 
24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

Ecclesiastes 7,

1 A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.
 
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.
 
3 Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.
 
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
 
5 It is better to heed a wise man's rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.
 
6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.
 
7 Extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
 
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.
 
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
 
10 Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.
 
11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.
 
12 Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom preserves the life of its possessor.
 
13 Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?
 
14 When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.
 
15 In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
 
16 Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise-why destroy yourself?
 
17 Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool-why die before your time?
 
18 It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes .
 
19 Wisdom makes one wise man more powerful than ten rulers in a city.
 
20 There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.
 
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you-
 
22 for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.
 
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, "I am determined to be wise"-but this was beyond me.
 
24 Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound-who can discover it?
 
25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
 
26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.
 
27 "Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered: "Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-
 
28 while I was still searching but not finding-I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.
 
29 This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."

2 Timothy 3

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
 
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
 
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
 
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-
 
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
 
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires,
 
7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
 
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth-men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
 
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
 
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
 
11 persecutions, sufferings-what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
 
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
 
13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
 
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
 
15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
 
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
 
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.