Psalm 119:97-104 (NRSV)

​ 97Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day long.
98Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me.
99I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your decrees are my meditation.
100I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
101I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
102I do not turn away from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
103How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes. - Daily Bible Reading: Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Proverbs 19:1-17 (NRSV)

​1Better the poor walking in integrity
than one perverse of speech who is a fool.
2Desire without knowledge is not good,
and one who moves too hurriedly misses the way.
3One's own folly leads to ruin,
yet the heart rages against the LORD.
4Wealth brings many friends,
but the poor are left friendless.
5A false witness will not go unpunished,
and a liar will not escape.
6Many seek the favor of the generous,
and everyone is a friend to a giver of gifts.
7If the poor are hated even by their kin,
how much more are they shunned by their friends!
When they call after them, they are not there.
8To get wisdom is to love oneself;
to keep understanding is to prosper.
9A false witness will not go unpunished,
and the liar will perish.
10It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
much less for a slave to rule over princes.
11Those with good sense are slow to anger,
and it is their glory to overlook an offense.
12A king's anger is like the growling of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass.
13A stupid child is ruin to a father,
and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.
14House and wealth are inherited from parents,
but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
15Laziness brings on deep sleep;
an idle person will suffer hunger.
16Those who keep the commandment will live;
those who are heedless of their ways will die.
17Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
and will be repaid in full.

ELCA's daily Bible readings are chosen from "Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings," prepared by Consultation on the Common Texts, © 2005.
All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches USA, and is used by permission. All rights reserved.