Contemporary English Version 1You will be happiest if you keep from sinning and saying stupid things, 2and if you have no reason to feel guilty and have not given up hope. * 3What's the use of being rich if you don't enjoy spending money on yourself? 4Are you just saving it so others can live in luxury after you are dead and gone? 5Those who refuse to enjoy a few things money can buy, probably won't give much to someone in need. 6They spend nothing, and punish themselves with the greatest misery. * 7If they do a good deed, it is only by accident, and the end of their life shows how evil they were: 8they pretended not to notice others in need; 9they were never happy with their own fair share; and by taking what belonged to others, their souls shriveled away. 10They wouldn't even give their families enough to eat! 11Be good to yourself according to what you have and be generous in your giving to the Lord. 12You cannot know the time for you to die, and when it arrives, death will not wait, 13so now is the time to help your friends with generous gifts. 14Every day, you should enjoy the good things you want, 15because after you are gone, others will divide up everything you worked so hard to get. 16Give and accept gifts, and treat yourself well, because there is nothing good in the world of the dead. 17Every living creature wears out like old clothes and obeys the ancient law that says, "You will die." 18Generations pass away, and others are born to take their place, just as new leaves on a tall tree replace those that fall. 19Everything you ever made will someday turn to dust, then even the memory of you will disappear. Search for Wisdom 20 Wisdom always blesses those who learn how to reason by thinking about her. 21They consider what Wisdom has done and the secrets she knows. 22They wait for her like hunters along a path, then they follow her 23home, where they peek through the windows and listen at the door. * 24They set up camp so close to her house, that their tent pegs are hammered into its walls. 25There is no better place to live than in her home-- 26like a shade tree, she protects the children of her followers 27from the heat, and they live in a place of great beauty. Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. Bible text from the Contemporary English Version 2nd Edition (CEV®) is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by American Bible Society, 101 North Independence Mall East, Floor 8, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2155 (www.americanbible.org). Learn more at www.cev.bible. Discover .BIBLE resources for your ministry at www.get.bible/cev. |