1Love righteousness, you⌃ that be judges of the earth,
Think you⌃ of the Lord
with a good mind,
And in singleness of heart seek you⌃ him;
2Because he is found of those who tempt him not,
And is manifested to those who do not distrust him.
3For crooked thoughts separate from God;
And the
supreme
Power, when it is brought to the proof,
puts to confusion the foolish:
4Because wisdom will not enter into a soul that deviseth evil,
Nor dwell in a body that is held in pledge by sin.
5For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit.
And will start away from thoughts that are without understanding,
And will be
put to confusion when unrighteousness has come in.
6For
wisdom is a spirit that loves man,
And she will not hold a
blasphemer guiltless for his lips;
Because God bears witness of his reins,
And is a true overseer of his heart,
And a hearer of his tongue:
7Because the spirit of the Lord has filled
the world,
And that which holds all things together has knowledge of
every
voice.
8Therefore no man that utters unrighteous things will be unseen;
Neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by.
9For in
the midst of
his counsels the ungodly will be searched out;
And the sound of his words will come to the Lord
To bring to conviction his lawless deeds:
10Because
there is
an ear of jealousy
that
listens to all things,
And the noise of murmurings is not hid.
11Beware then of unprofitable murmuring,
And refrain your tongue from backbiting;
Because no secret utterance will go on its way void,
And a mouth that belies destroys a soul.
12Court not death in the error of your life;
Neither draw upon yourselves destruction by the works of your hands:
13Because God made not death;
Neither delights he when the living perish:
14For he created all things that they might have being:
And the generative powers of the world
are
healthsome,
And there is no poison of destruction in them:
Nor has Hades
royal dominion upon earth,
15For righteousness is immortal: