Greeting

[1] Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker [2] and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon’s Love and Faith

[4] I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, [5] because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, [6] and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. [7] For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Paul’s Plea for Onesimus

[8] Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, [9] yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—[10] I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. [11] (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) [12] I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. [13] I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, [14] but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. [15] For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, [16] no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

[17] So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. [18] If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. [19] I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. [20] Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

[21] Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. [22] At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Final Greetings

[23] Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, [24] and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

[25] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 

The Sabbath Year

[1] The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, [2] “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. [3] For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, [4] but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. [5] You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. [6] The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, [7] and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

[8] “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. [9] Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. [10] And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. [11] That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. [12] For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.

[13] “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. [14] And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. [15] You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. [16] If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. [17] You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the LORD your God.

[18] “Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. [19] The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. [20] And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ [21] I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. [22] When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Redemption of Property

[23] “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. [24] And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

[25] “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. [26] If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, [27] let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. [28] But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

[29] “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. [30] If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. [31] But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. [32] As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. [33] And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. [34] But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

Kindness for Poor Brothers

[35] “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. [36] Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. [37] You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. [38] I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

[39] “If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: [40] he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. [41] Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. [42] For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. [43] You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. [44] As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. [45] You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. [46] You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

[47] “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, [48] then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, [49] or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself. [50] He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker. [51] If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. [52] If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. [53] He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. [54] And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. [55] For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 

[1] Be not envious of evil men,
nor desire to be with them,
[2] for their hearts devise violence,
and their lips talk of trouble.

[3] By wisdom a house is built,
and by understanding it is established;
[4] by knowledge the rooms are filled
with all precious and pleasant riches.
[5] A wise man is full of strength,
and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
[6] for by wise guidance you can wage your war,
and in abundance of counselors there is victory.
[7] Wisdom is too high for a fool;
in the gate he does not open his mouth.

[8] Whoever plans to do evil
will be called a schemer.
[9] The devising of folly is sin,
and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

[10] If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
[11] Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
[12] If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?

[13] My son, eat honey, for it is good,
and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.
[14] Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
if you find it, there will be a future,
and your hope will not be cut off.

[15] Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;
do no violence to his home;
[16] for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

[17] Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
[18] lest the LORD see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.

[19] Fret not yourself because of evildoers,
and be not envious of the wicked,
[20] for the evil man has no future;
the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

[21] My son, fear the LORD and the king,
and do not join with those who do otherwise,
[22] for disaster will arise suddenly from them,
and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?

More Sayings of the Wise

[23] These also are sayings of the wise.

Partiality in judging is not good.
[24] Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,”
will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations,
[25] but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight,
and a good blessing will come upon them.
[26] Whoever gives an honest answer
kisses the lips.

[27] Prepare your work outside;
get everything ready for yourself in the field,
and after that build your house.

[28] Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,
and do not deceive with your lips.
[29] Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;
I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

[30] I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
[31] and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
[32] Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
[33] A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
[34] and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man. 

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