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²⁸For who among you, wanting to build a tower, would not first sit down and determine the costs that are required, to see if he has the means to complete it?

³Let not mercy and truth abandon you: encircle them around your throat, and inscribe them on the tablets of your heart. ⁴And so shall you discover grace and good discipline, in the sight of God and men. ⁵Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence. ⁶In all your ways, consider him, and he himself will direct your steps. ⁷Do not seem wise to yourself. Fear God, and withdraw from evil. ⁸Certainly, it shall be health to your navel, and refreshment to your bones.

¹A Canticle in steps: of Solomon. Unless the Lord has built the house, those who build it have labored in vain. Unless the Lord has guarded the city, he who guards it watches in vain.

¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, that he himself has provided you with strength, so that he may fulfill his covenant, about which he swore to your fathers, just as the present day reveals.

⁸Be sober and vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, is like a roaring lion, traveling around and seeking those whom he might devour.

¹And so, I beg you, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, with the subservience of your mind. ²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

²⁴Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them shall be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. ²⁵And the rains descended, and the floods rose up, and the winds blew, and rushed upon that house, but it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them shall be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. ²⁷And the rains descended, and the floods rose up, and the winds blew, and rushed upon that house, and it did fall, and great was its ruin.”

²³Thus says the Lord: “The wise man should not glory in his wisdom, and the strong man should not glory in his strength, and the rich man should not glory in his riches. ²⁴But he who glories should glory in this: to know me and to know me well. For I am the Lord, who accomplishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth. For these things are pleasing to me, says the Lord.

²³The steps of a man will be directed by the Lord, and he will choose his way.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end.

¹⁷Arise and walk through the land in its length, and breadth. For I will give it to you.” ¹⁸Therefore, moving his tent, Abram went and dwelt by the steep valley of Mamre, which is in Hebron. And he built an altar there to the Lord.

³Open your works to the Lord, and your intentions will be set in order.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down and shaken together and overflowing, they will place upon your lap. Certainly, the same measure that you use to measure out, will be used to measure back to you again.”

²³Be diligent to know the countenance of your cattle, and consider your own flocks, ²⁴for you will not always hold this power. But a crown shall be awarded from generation to generation. ²⁵The meadows are open, and the green plants have appeared, and the hay has been collected from the mountains. ²⁶Lambs are for your clothing, and goats are for the price of a field. ²⁷Let the milk of goats be sufficient for your food, and for the necessities of your household, and for the provisions of your handmaids.

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that all who believe in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world, in order to judge the world, but in order that the world may be saved through him.

³³Therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you as well.