Scripture Reading

¹O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

²For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

³Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

⁴For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

⁵Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

⁶And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

⁷And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

⁸He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.

⁹And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

⁸And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

⁹And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

¹⁰And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

¹¹And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

¹²And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

¹³I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:

¹⁵And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

¹⁷And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

⁸A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.

⁹He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread.

¹⁰A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

¹¹He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

¹²The wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.

¹³The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.

¹⁴A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man’s hands shall be rendered unto him.

¹⁵The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

¹⁶A fool’s wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame.

¹⁷He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit.

¹⁸There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.

¹⁹The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

²⁰Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.

²¹There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.

²²Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.