Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Solomon Prays for Wisdom
1 “God of my ancestors, merciful
Lord, by your word you created
everything.
2 By your Wisdom you
made man to rule all creation,
3 to
govern the world with holiness and
righteousness, to administer justice
with integrity.
4 Give me the Wisdom
that sits beside your throne;
give me a place among your children.
5 I am your slave, as was my
mother before me. I am only human.
I am not strong, and my life will be
short. I have little understanding of
the Law or of how to apply it.
6 Even
if a man is perfect, he will be
thought of as nothing without the
Wisdom that comes from you.
7 You
chose me over everyone else to be
the king of your own people, to
judge your sons and daughters.
8 You told me to build a temple on
your sacred mountain, an altar in Jerusalem,
the city you chose as your
home. It is a copy of that temple in
heaven, which you prepared at the
beginning.
9 Wisdom is with you and
knows your actions; she was present
when you made the world. She
knows what pleases you, what is
right and in accordance with your
commands.
10 Send her from the
holy heavens, down from your glorious
throne, so that she may work at
my side, and I may learn what
-- --
pleases you.
11 She knows and understands
everything, and will guide
me intelligently in what I do. Her
glory will protect me.
12 Then I will
judge your people fairly, and be worthy
of my father's throne. My actions
will be acceptable.
13 “Who can ever learn the will of
God?
14 Human reason is not adequate
for the task, and our philosophies
tend to mislead us,
15 because
our mortal bodies weigh our souls
down. The body is a temporary
structure made of earth, a burden to
the active mind.
16 All we can do is
make guesses about things on earth;
we must struggle to learn about
things that are close to us. Who,
then, can ever hope to understand
heavenly things?
17 No one has ever
learned your will, unless you first
gave him Wisdom, and sent your
holy spirit down to him.
18 In this
way people on earth have been set
on the right path, have learned what
pleases you, and have been kept safe
by Wisdom.” note
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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