Proverbs
22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
22:1
A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor
is better than silver or gold.
22:2
The rich and the poor have this in common: the LORD is the maker
of them all.
22:8
Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger
will fail.
22:9
Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread
with the poor.
22:22
Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the
afflicted at the gate;
22:23
for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who
despoil them.
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125:1
Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be
moved, but abides forever.
125:2
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his
people, from this time on and forevermore.
125:3
For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land
allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous might not
stretch out their hands to do wrong.
125:4
Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are
upright in their hearts.
125:5
But those who turn aside to their own crooked ways the LORD will
lead away with evildoers. Peace be upon Israel!
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2:1
My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism
really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?
2:2
For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into
your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes
in,
2:3
and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and
say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who
is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my
feet,"
2:4
have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become
judges with evil thoughts?
2:5
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the
poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the
kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
2:6
But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress
you? Is it not they who drag you into court?
2:7
Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked
over you?
2:8
You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the
scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
2:9
But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by
the law as transgressors.
2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has
become accountable for all of it.
2:11
For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery,"
also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not
commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a
transgressor of the law.
2:12
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of
liberty.
2:13
For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no
mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
2:14
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have
faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?
2:15
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
2:16
and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and
eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily
needs, what is the good of that?
2:17
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
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7:24
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He
entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.
Yet he could not escape notice,
7:25
but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit
immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his
feet.
7:26
Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She
begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
7:27
He said to her, "Let the children be fed first, for it is
not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the
dogs."
7:28
But she answered him, "Sir, even the dogs under the table
eat the children's crumbs."
7:29
Then he said to her, "For saying that, you may go--the
demon has left your daughter."
7:30
So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the
demon gone.
7:31
Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of
Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
7:32
They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his
speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
7:33
He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his
fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.
7:34
Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, "Ephphatha,"
that is, "Be opened."
7:35
And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released,
and he spoke plainly.
7:36
Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered
them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
7:37
They were astounded beyond measure, saying, "He has done
everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to
speak."
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