Читать книгу Praying—with the Saints—to God Our Mother - Daniel F. Stramara - Страница 10

TNK = Hebrew, LXX = Greek, VULG = Latin, PESH = Syriac,

NT = Greek New Testament

Hebrew Texts

Genesis 1:1–2 TNK

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, but the Spirit of God, she hovered, brooding over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:26–27 TNK

God said, “Let us make Man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl upon the earth.” And so God created Man in his image; in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

Genesis 17:1–8 TNK

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to Abram and said, “I am El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One. Walk in my presence and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between myself and you and exceedingly increase your numbers.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God spoke to him as follows: “For my part, my covenant with you is this: you will become the father of many nations. Thus you will no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham for I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you abundantly fertile; thus I will make you into nations, and kings will issue from you. And I will maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, from generation to generation, as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your progeny after you. And I will give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are now sojourneying, the entire territory of Canaan, as a perpetual possession; and I will be their God.”

Genesis 17:1–4, 9–14 TNK

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to Abram and said, “I am El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One. Walk in my presence and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you and exceedingly increase your numbers.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God spoke to him as follows: “For my part, my covenant with you is this: you will become the father of many nations. . . .” God further said to Abraham, “You for your part must keep my covenant, and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is my covenant that you must keep between myself and you and your descendants after you: every male among you must be circumcised. You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will serve as the sign of the covenant between myself and you. As soon as your males are eight days old, every one of them, generation after generation, they must be circumcised, including slaves born within the household as well as those bought from a foreigner not of your progeny. Whether born within the household or purchased, they must all be circumcised. Thus my covenant shall be in your flesh as a perpetual pact. But the uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been cut off, that person must be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Genesis 17:1–4, 15–21 TNK

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to Abram and said, “I am El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One. Walk in my presence and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you and exceedingly increase your numbers.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God spoke to him as follows: “For my part, my covenant with you is this: you will become the father of many nations. . . .” And God concluded saying to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you must no longer call her Sarai; her name shall be Sarah. I shall bless her, thus indeed I will give you a son by her. I shall bless her so that she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will issue from her.” Now Abraham bowed to the ground and laughed, thinking to himself, “Can a child be born to a hundred year old man? Or can Sarah, a ninety year old woman, give birth?” So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live in your presence!” But God replied, “Nevertheless, your wife Sarah shall bear you a son and you will name him Isaac. I shall maintain my covenant with him, as an everlasting covenant, even for his descendants after him. As to Ishmael, I heard your request. I hereby bless him so that he will be fruitful and greatly increase in numbers. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”

Genesis 28:1–5 TNK

Then Isaac summoned Jacob, blessed him and commanded him saying, “You must not marry any of the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Paddan-Aram, the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and there choose for yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May El Shaddai—God the Breasted One, bless you, make you fruitful, and cause you to multiply so that you become a company of peoples. May God bestow on you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants after you, so that you may take possession of the land where you sojourn, which God granted to Abraham.” Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and Jacob traveled to Paddan-Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramaean, and brother of Rebecca, mother of Jacob and Esau.

Genesis 35:9–13 TNK

God appeared to Jacob again as he returned from Paddan-Aram, and blessed him. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; but you will no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be Israel.” (That is why he called himself Israel.) God said to him, “I am El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed a throng of nations, will come from you, even kings will spring from your loins. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac I now give to you; and this country I will give to your descendants after you.” Then God departed from him.

Genesis 43:1–14 TNK

Now the famine in the land only grew more severe. So when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought back from Egypt their father said to them, “Go back and buy us some food.” “But,” Judah replied, “the man solemnly warned us, ‘You will not be permitted in my presence unless your brother is with you.’ If you are willing to send our brother along with us, then we will go down and purchase supplies for you. But if you won’t send him, we won’t go, for the man told us, ‘You will not be permitted in my presence unless your brother is with you.’” Then Israel demanded, “Why did you bring this misery upon me by telling the man you had another brother?”

They replied, “He kept interrogating us, asking about ourselves and our family, demanding, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So we answered him point for point. How were we supposed to know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here?’” Judah then spoke to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me and we will depart at once, so that we all may survive and not die, we, you, and our children. I myself will stand as surety for him. You can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back and set him before your eyes, I will bear the blame before you all my life. As it is, if we hadn’t wasted so much time we would have been there and back by now, twice over!”

So their father Israel said to them, “If it has to be that way, then do this: Put some of the best produce of the land in your sacks and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balsam, some honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. And make sure you take double the amount of money with you, for you must return the sum that was put back in the mouth of your sacks; it might have been an accident. Take your brother and be off. Go back to the man. May El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One, grant you maternal compassion in the presence of the man so that he will permit your other brother and Benjamin to return with you. As for me, if I must be bereaved of my children, then bereaved I must be.”

Genesis 48:1–4 TNK

Some time later, Joseph was informed, “Your father’s health is failing.” So he took with him his two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim. When Jacob was told, “Look, your son Joseph has come to you,” he mustered his strength and sat up in bed. Jacob recounted to Joseph, “El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One, appeared to me at Luz in Canaan and blessed me, saying, ‘I shall make you fertile and increase your numbers so that I can make you into a company of peoples. And I will give this very land to your descendants after you to be a perpetual possession.’”

Genesis 49:9 TNK versicle

Judah is a lion’s whelp;

You stand over your prey, my son.

Like a lion he crouches, laying in wait,

even like a lioness, who dare rouse him?

Genesis 49:25–26 TNK

The God of your father helps you,

El Shaddai, God, the Breasted One, blesses you:

with blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the abyss lying below,

blessings of breasts and womb,

blessings of grain and flowering bloom,

blessings of the ancient mountains,

with bounties of the everlasting hills.

Exodus 6:3 TNK versicle

To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob I appeared as El Shaddai—God, the Breasted One.

Exodus 33:18–23 TNK

Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” Then Yahweh replied, “I shall cause all my beauty to pass before you, and in your presence I shall pronounce my name ‘Yahweh.’ I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have maternal compassion on whom I will have maternal compassion. But my face you cannot see, for no one sees me and survives.” So Yahweh continued, “Here is a place near me. You must stand on the rock and when my glory passes by, I shall put you in a cleft of the rock and place my hand over you until I pass by. Then I shall remove my hand so that you might see my back, but the front of me is not to be seen.”

Numbers 11:4–12 TNK

Now the rabble in the midst of the people had strong cravings for other food and so the Israelites began to wail again, bewailing, “If only we could eat meat! Think of the fish we used to eat in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic! But now we are famished and we never see anything except this manna!”

Now the manna was tiny like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it and ground it up in handmills or crushed it in the mortar. They cooked it in a pot and fashioned it into cakes. It tasted like pancakes made with oil. When the dew descended on the camp at night, the manna fell with it.

Now Moses heard the people bemoaning, each family at the entrance of their tent. Yahweh’s anger greatly blazed against them and Moses was grieved and asked Yahweh, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you, that you foist the burden of all these people on me? Was it I who conceived all these people? Was it I who gave them birth? For you tell me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a suckling infant, to the land which I promised your ancestors.’”

Numbers 24:2–9 TNK

When Balaam lifted his eyes and surveyed Israel, encamped by tribes, then the Spirit of God, she came upon him so that he uttered his oracle:

The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,

the oracle of one whose eyesight

is perfect,

the oracle of one who hears the words of God,

who beholds a vision from Shaddai,

fallen in ecstasy with unveiled eye:

How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,

how fair your encampments, O Israel;

like valleys that spread out,

like gardens beside a river,

like aloes planted by Yahweh,

like cedars beside running waters!

Water will flow from his buckets;

and his seed will have waters abundant.

His king will be greater than Agag,

and his kingdom will be greatly exalted.

God has brought him out of Egypt;

he possesses the wild ox’s might.

He shall devour the corpses

of his enemies,

shattering their bones to pieces,

piercing them with his arrows.

He crouches like a lion,

laying in wait like a lioness;

who dare rouse him?

Blessed are those who bless you,

cursed those who curse you!

Numbers 24:2–3, 15–17 TNK

When Balaam lifted his eyes and surveyed Israel, encamped by tribes, then the Spirit of God, she came upon him so that he uttered his oracle:

The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,

the oracle of one whose eyesight is perfect,

the oracle of one who hears the words of God,

who has knowledge

from the Most High,

who beholds a vision from Shaddai,

fallen in ecstasy with unveiled eye:

I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not near:

a star will come out of Jacob,

a scepter will rise out of Israel;

it shall smite the brow of Moab,

the forehead of all Sheth’s children.

Deuteronomy 30:1–5 TNK

Moses said, “When all these things come to pass for you, the blessing as well as the curse which I set before you, and when you take them to heart, wherever among the nations Yahweh your God has dispersed you, and when you return to Yahweh your God and obey his voice with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything that I am commanding you today, you and all your children, then Yahweh your God will bring back your captives and have maternal compassion upon you and gather you back from all the nations in which Yahweh your God had scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the far distant horizons, even from there Yahweh your God will gather you and reclaim you, and bring you back to the land which your ancestors possessed, so that you might take possession of it and be made more prosperous and numerous than even your ancestors were.”

Deuteronomy 32:9–11 TNK

Yahweh’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted inheritance.

He found him in a desert land,

in a barren and howling wasteland.

He shielded, reared and guarded him,

as the apple of his eye,

just like an eagle incites her nestlings,

hovering over her young,

that spreads her wings to catch them,

and carries them on her pinions.

Deuteronomy 32:12–14 TNK

The Lord alone is Israel’s guide,

there is no alien god with him.

God gives the heights of the earth for him to ride,

nourishes him on the produce

of the slopes,

nurses him with honey from the crag,

and oil out of the flinty rock.

God supplies curds from the cattle, milk from the flock,

With fine meat from the pastures,

Herds of Bashan and goats,

With the finest grains of wheat to eat,

and blood of the grape to drink as wine.

Deuteronomy 32:15–18 TNK

Jeshurun grew fat and kicked.

(You became fat, gross and gorged.)

He abandoned the God who made him,

and disowned the Rock, his Savior.

They roused his jealousy

with strange gods,

with abominable idols they provoked his wrath.

They sacrificed to demons

which are not God,

to gods they had never known,

gods only recently appeared,

ones which your ancestors

never revered.

You neglected the Rock who bore you;

you forgot the God

who gave birth to you.

Nehemiah 9:13–17 TNK

You descended on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from the heavens. You imparted to them just ordinances, reliable rules, good statutes, and commandments. Your Holy Sabbath you revealed to them; you established commandments, statutes, and laws for them through your servant Moses. You gave them bread from heaven to satisfy their hunger and brought forth water from the rock to slake their thirst. You told them to enter and take possession of the land which you had sworn with outstretched hand to give them. But they and our ancestors grew arrogant and stiff-necked, obeying not your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles that you performed within their midst. They became obstinate and in their rebellion made up their minds to return to their former bondage. But you, O Eloah, are ever forgiving, gracious, full of maternal compassion, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Therefore, you did not abandon them.

Nehemiah 9:18–21 TNK

Even when they cast for themselves a molten image of a calf and said, “This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt!” and committed atrocious blasphemies, you, in your exceeding maternal compassion, did not abandon them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud did not desert them, but guided them on their path by day, nor did the pillar of fire by night cease to light the way ahead of them by which they were to travel. Your benevolent Spirit you bestowed upon them, that she might instruct them. Furthermore, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you cared for them in the desert, they lacked nothing, their clothing did not wear out, and their feet did not become swollen.

Nehemiah 9:26–31 TNK

[Your children] grew disobedient and rebelled against you, in fact, they cast your law behind their backs, slaughtered your prophets who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed atrocious blasphemies. Therefore you delivered them into the hands of their enemies who oppressed them. But in the midst of their oppression they cried out to you, and you, you heard them from the heavens and because of your magnificent maternal compassion you granted them deliverers who rescued them from their enemies’ grasp. But as soon as they experienced a respite, they again returned to doing evil in your sight, so you abandoned them into the clutches of their enemies who in turn crushed them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from the heavens and because of your maternal compassion delivered them time after time. You warned them so they would come back to your Law, but they became arrogant and would not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances in whose observance is found life. They turned a stubborn back, stiffened their necks, and refused to listen. Nevertheless, you were patient with them for many years, admonishing them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the people of the country. But because of your magnificent maternal compassion you did not destroy them completely or abandon them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God.

Job 28:12–19 TNK

But whence can Wisdom be found?

And where is the abode of Understanding?

No human being knows the path to her,

and she cannot be found on earth where they live.

The abyss says, “She is not in me”;

and the sea notes, “She dwells not with me.”

She cannot be purchased with solid gold,

nor can her price be weighed

in sterling silver,

nor can she be valued with the fine gold of Ophir,

precious agate or sapphire.

Neither gold nor crystal compares

with her,

nor can she be exchanged for a dress

of golden filigree,

not to mention coral and jasper;

the price of Wisdom

is beyond rosy pearls.

The topaz of Cush

cannot compare with her,

nor can she be valued against the purest refined gold.

Job 28:20–27 TNK

Where does Wisdom come from?

Where is the dwelling of Understanding?

She is hidden from the eyes of every living creature,

even concealed from the birds

of heaven.

Destruction and Death declare,

“Our ears have only heard rumors

about her.”

God alone understands her path

and knows where her dwelling place is.

For he surveys the ends of the earth,

and observes everything beneath

the heavens.

When he established the weight

of the wind,

and gauged the measure of the waters,

when he imposed rules on the rain,

and mapped a trek for thunderstorms,

then he beheld Wisdom

and assessed her,

looked her through and through,

and appraised her.

Job 32:6–9 TNK

Elihu, son of Barachel the Buzite, responded and said:

“I am still young and you are aged,

thus I was timid and hesitant

to impart to you my knowledge.

I thought, Days of experience

should speak

and many years should teach wisdom.

But the Spirit, she who dwells

in humanity,

even the Breath of Shaddai, she grants understanding.

Many days do not guarantee wisdom,

nor do the aged necessarily understand correctly.”

Job 33:1–6 TNK

But now, Job, listen to my speech;

pay attention to all my words.

Behold, I open my mouth;

my words are on the tip of my tongue.

I utter words from an upright heart,

and my lips sincerely profess knowledge.

The Spirit of God, she has made me;

the Breath of Shaddai—

the Breasted One,

she gives me life.

Answer me, if you can;

prepare yourself and refute me.

Behold, I am just like you before God;

I, too, was molded from a piece of clay.

Job 38:1–11 TNK

Then Yahweh answered Job from out of the tempest.

“Who is this that obscures divine counsel with ignorant mutterings?

Brace yourself and muster

up your strength.

Now I will pose the questions

and you will answer me.

Where were you when I set

the earth’s foundations?

Pray, tell me, since you possess

such understanding!

Who determined its dimensions? Surely, you know.

Or who stretched the measuring line across it?

Into what were its pillars sunk?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

while the morning stars sang

in harmony,

and all the angelic hosts shouted for joy?

And who pent the sea up behind

locked doors,

when it bolted forth from my womb?

when I wrapped it in a raiment of billowy clouds,

and made enveloping darkness its swaddling bands;

when I fixed its limits,

and set bar and door in place,

saying, ‘This far you may come

and no further;

here your haughty waves must halt!’”

Job 38:1–3, 22–29 & 40:2 TNK

Then Yahweh answered Job from out

of the tempest.

“Who is this that obscures divine counsel with ignorant mutterings?

Brace yourself and muster

up your strength;

Now I will pose the questions and you will answer me. . . .

Have you taken a tour of the storehouses of snow?

Or have you inspected the treasury

of hailstones

which I reserve for seasons of distress,

for days of battle and war?

What is the way from whence the lightning is dispatched,

or the place from whence the east wind blows over the earth?

Who forges a channel for

the torrents of rain,

or plots a path for the thunderstorms,

to water the land where no one lives,

a barren desert with no one in it,

to slake the thirst of a desolate land,

and make a wasteland

sprout forth grass?

Does the rain have a father?

Or who begets the drops of dew?

From whose womb comes the ice?

And who gives birth to the hoarfrost of heaven? . . .

Will the one who contends with Shaddai correct [her]?

Let the one who accuses Eloah

answer her.”

Job 5:17 TNK versicle

Blessed is the person

whom Eloah corrects!

Therefore do not despise the discipline of Shaddai.

Job 6:14 TNK versicle

Whoever withholds faithful love

from a friend,

forsakes the fear of Shaddai.

Job 8:3 TNK versicle

Does God pervert judgment,

or Shaddai distort justice?

Job 8:5 TNK versicle

Look to God

and plead with Shaddai.

Job 11:7 TNK versicle

Can you fathom the depths of Eloah,

or probe the far reaches of Shaddai?

Job 13:3 TNK versicle

I wish to speak with Shaddai;

I desire to argue my case with God.

Job 22:26 TNK versicle

Surely you shall delight in Shaddai,

and lift up your face to Eloah.

Job 27:10 TNK versicle

Will the godless take delight in Shaddai,

calling on Eloah at all times?

Job 27:11 TNK versicle

I will teach you about the power of God;

I will not conceal the secrets of Shaddai.

Job 31:2 TNK versicle

What is my lot from Eloah above,

my heritage from Shaddai on high?

Job 37:22–23 TNK versicle

Eloah is clothed in awesome majesty;

Shaddai is far beyond our reach—

pre-eminent in power and justice,

abounding in righteousness.

Psalm 22:9–11 TNK

It was you who drew me out from the womb like a midwife,

and confided me to my mother’s breasts.

On you I was cast from my birth,

from my mother’s pregnancy you have been my God.

Do not be far from me,

for trouble is close at hand,

and there is no one to aid me.

Psalm 27:10 TNK versicle

Though my father and my mother abandon me,

yet Yahweh will take me in.

Psalm 40:9–13 TNK

I proclaim your righteousness

in the great assembly;

See, I do not seal my lips,

as you well know, Yahweh.

Your righteousness I did not hide

within my heart;

your faithfulness and salvation

I announce.

I don’t conceal your steadfast love

and truth

from the great assembly.

You, O Yahweh, do not withhold

your maternal compassion from me;

may your steadfast love and truth

always protect me.

For troubles surround me,

they are beyond number;

my sins have overtaken me,

and I cannot see.

They are more numerous

than the hairs of my head,

and my heart fails me.

May it please you, O Yahweh,

to rescue me!

Yahweh come quickly to help me!

Psalm 51:1–5 TNK

Have mercy on me O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to the greatness of your maternal compassion,

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly of my iniquity,

and from my sin, totally cleanse me.

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is constantly before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned,

and what is evil in your sight

I have done,

that you may display your saving justice when you sentence,

and your vindication may be made known when you judge.

Indeed, in guilt I was born,

and in sin my mother conceived me.

Surely you desire truth in the bowels,

thus you teach me wisdom in my inmost being.

Psalm 68:8–15 TNK

O God, when you went forth at the head of your people,

when you marched through

the barren desert,

the earth trembled, the heavens hurled down rain

at the presence of God, the One of Sinai,

at the presence of God,

the God of Israel.

An abundance of rain you showered down, O God;

you refreshed the land, your weary inheritance.

Your people settled in it;

you provided from your bounty for the needy, O God.

The Lord announced the word;

women bear glad tidings

of a great army:

“Chiefs and their armies are fleeing; they flee,

while the women are at home dividing the booty.

While you rested among the keep

of sheep,

the wings of the Dove with silver

were sheathed,

and her feathers were covered

with a golden sheen;

thus while Shaddai scattered

the chieftains,

she caused it to snow on

the Dark Mountain.”

Psalm 69:16 TNK versicle

Answer me, O Yahweh, for your steadfast love is bounteous,

in your abundant maternal compassion, turn to me.

Psalm 79:8–12 TNK

Do not hold against us the guilt of previous generations,

may your maternal compassion quickly come to greet us,

for we are utterly languishing.

Help us, O God our Savior,

because of the glory of your name.

Deliver us and wipe away our sins,

for the sake of your name.

Why should the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

Let it be seen among the nations,

even before our very eyes,

vengeance for the shedding of your servants’ blood.

May the groans of the captive come before you,

by the might of your arm, preserve those condemned to death.

Pay back our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom,

the reproach that they have leveled against you, O Lord.

Psalm 91:1 TNK versicle

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High,

shall rest in the shadow of Shaddai.

Psalm 103:8 TNK

Maternally compassionate and gracious is Yahweh,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalm 131:1–3 TNK

Yahweh, my heart is not haughty,

I do not fix my eyes on things too high.

I am not concerned with great affairs,

or wonders beyond my grasp.

I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a child being weaned from its mother’s breast,

like a babe being weaned so is my soul within me.

Let Israel place its hope in Yahweh,

now and forever more.

Psalm 143:7–12 TNK

Quickly answer me, O Yahweh,

for my spirit faints.

Hide not your face from me,

lest I become like those who descend into the pit.

At dawn let me hear of your

steadfast love,

for I place my trust in you.

Show me the path that I should take,

for I lift up my soul to you.

Rescue me from my enemies,

O Yahweh,

in you I take refuge.

Teach me to do your will,

for you are my God;

your benevolent Spirit,

may she lead me on level ground.

For your name’s sake, O Yahweh,

preserve my life;

in your righteousness,

deliver me from distress.

In your steadfast love,

silence my enemies,

and destroy all my foes,

for I am your servant.

Psalm 145:1–10 TNK

I will exalt you, O my God,

the Sovereign,

I will praise your name forever and ever.

Day after day I will bless you,

I will extol your name forever and ever.

Great is Yahweh and most worthy

to be praised,

his greatness is unfathomable.

Generation after generation will laud your deeds,

will proclaim your mighty works.

They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and I will ponder

your wonderful works.

They will declare the power of your dreadful deeds,

and I shall recount

your awesome greatness.

They will celebrate the fame of your great generosity,

and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Yahweh is gracious and maternally compassionate,

slow to anger, rich in steadfast love.

Yahweh is generous to all,

displaying maternal compassion

to all creatures.

All your creatures shall thank you,

O Yahweh,

and your faithful ones will bless you.

Proverbs 1:8 TNK versicle

Listen, my child,

to your father’s instruction,

and do not forsake

your mother’s teaching.

Proverbs 7:4 TNK versicle

Say to Wisdom, “You are my sister.”

Proverbs 1:20–33 TNK

Wisdom calls aloud in the street,

she raises her voice

in the public squares;

in the intersections she cries out,

she delivers her speeches

in the city gateways.

“You simple people, how much longer will you love your base ways?

How much longer will mockers make merry in mockery

and fools despise knowledge?

Pay heed to my warning.

I will pour out my spirit upon you;

I will make my thoughts known to you.

Because I called and you rejected me,

stretched out my hand and no one paid any attention,

since you ignored all of my advice

and rejected all my warnings;

I in turn will chuckle at your calamity,

I will mock when misfortune overwhelms you,

when catastrophe overtakes

you like a storm,

when disaster sweeps down upon you like a whirlwind,

when distress and anguish befall you.

Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;

they will diligently search for me but not find me.

Because they despised knowledge

and chose not the fear of the Lord,

since they did not accept my counsel,

and have spurned all my rebukes,

they will eat the fruit of their ways,

and gorge themselves

on their scheming.

For the base are killed by their waywardness,

and fools are destroyed by their complacency;

but whoever listens to me

will live in security,

experience tranquility,

and fear no malady.”

Proverbs 3:13–19 TNK

Blessed the person

who discovers Wisdom,

the person who gains Understanding,

for she is more profitable than silver,

and yields a better revenue than gold.

She is more precious than rosy pearls,

and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life lies in her right hand;

in her left—riches and honor.

Her ways are totally pleasant,

and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those

who embrace her;

those who cling to her will be blessed.

By Wisdom Yahweh fixed

the earth’s foundations,

by Understanding, set the heavens

in place.

Proverbs 4:4–9 TNK

Let your heart lay hold of my words;

keep my commands and you will live.

Obtain Wisdom; obtain Understanding.

Do not disregard her or deviate from my words.

Do not desert her

and she will protect you.

Love her and she will watch over you.

The beginning of wisdom is:

obtain Wisdom;

at the cost of all you have,

obtain Understanding.

Esteem her, and she will exalt you.

She will honor you if you embrace her.

She will place a garland of grace upon your head,

a crown of splendor she will bestow upon you.

Proverbs 8:1–11 TNK

Does not Wisdom call out?

Does not Understanding

raise her voice?

On the city walls above the crossroads she takes her stand;

beside the gates leading into the city,

in the entryways she cries aloud:

“To you, O people, I call,

my voice beckons to the children

of the earth.

You simpletons, gain cunning;

fools, gain common sense.

Listen, for I have something

important to say,

when I open my lips,

what is right pours forth.

My mouth declares the truth,

for wickedness is abhorrent to my lips.

All the words from my mouth are just,

not one of them is crooked or perverse.

To the discerning, they are all straight,

to those attaining knowledge,

they are right.

Acquire my instruction instead of silver,

knowledge of me rather than finest gold.

For Wisdom is more precious

than rosy pearls,

and nothing you most desire can compare with her.”

Proverbs 8:12–21 TNK

I, Wisdom, dwell with discretion,

and I obtain judicious knowledge.

To revere Yahweh is to hate evil;

I hate pride and arrogance,

wicked behavior and perverse speech.

Counsel and sound judgment are mine;

understanding and power belong to me.

By me royalty reigns

and rulers regulate justly;

by me princes govern

as do all nobles.

I love those who love me;

and those who seek me find me.

With me are riches and honor,

enduring wealth and prosperity.

My fruit is better than gold,

even the finest,

and my yield surpasses

the choicest silver.

I walk in the way of righteousness,

along the paths of justice,

to bestow wealth on those who love me,

to make their treasuries replete.

Proverbs 8:22–31 TNK

Wisdom declares:

The Lord begot me, the first-born

of his way,

before his deeds of old.

From eternity I was poured forth,

from the beginning, before the foundation of the earth.

When the watery abyss did not exist I was given birth,

when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled,

before the hills, I came to birth;

before he made the earth and the fields,

even the first particles of the world.

I was there when he fixed the heavens firmly in place,

when he scored a circumference on the face of the abyss,

when he made firm

the cloudy skies above,

when he strengthened the fountains

of the deep,

when he assigned the sea its boundary

so that the waters would not overstep his command,

when he marked out the foundations

of the earth,

then I was at his side as an artisan

delighting him day after day,

ever dancing in his presence,

playfully dancing everywhere

in his world,

and delighting in the children

of the earth.

Proverbs 8:32–36 TNK

Wisdom delivers her discourse:

Now then my children, listen to me,

blessed are those who keep my ways.

Give heed to my instruction and become wise,

do not reject it.

Blessed is whoever listens for me,

watching daily at my doorstep,

waiting day by day at my gateway.

For whoever encounters me finds life,

obtaining favor from Yahweh;

but whoever misses me meets self-injury,

all who despise me court death.

Proverbs 9:1–6, 11 TNK

Wisdom has constructed

her own house,

she has chiseled her seven columns,

she has slaughtered her livestock,

mixed her spiced wine,

and prepared her table.

She has dispatched her maids

and announced from the city heights:

“Whoever is simple? Come this way!”

To those lacking judgment,

she proclaims:

“Come, feast on my food,

and imbibe the spiced wine

which I mixed!

Leave your simple ways

at the doorway and live,

and enter the path to understanding.

For by me your days will be multiplied,

and years will be added to your life.”

Isaiah 11:1–3 TNK

A shoot will sprout from

the stump of Jesse,

from his burgeoning roots

a bud shall blossom.

The Spirit of Yahweh, she shall rest

upon him:

a Spirit of Wisdom

and of Understanding,

a Spirit of Counsel and of Power,

a Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear

of Yahweh,

so that he will delight

in revering Yahweh,

and not judge by what he sees

with his eyes,

nor decide by what he hears

with his ears.

Isaiah 30:18 TNK versicle

Yet Yahweh longs to be gracious to you,

the Exalted One to show maternal compassion to you.

Isaiah 31:4–5 TNK

Indeed, this is what Yahweh says to me,

“Just as the full grown or young lion

growls over his prey,

when a band of shepherds is summoned against him,

and is not frightened by their shouting

or daunted by their clamor,

so too Yahweh Sabaoth descends

to do battle

on Mount Zion and on her ridges.

Like mother birds hovering

over their young

Yahweh Sabaoth will shield Jerusalem;

to protect and save,

to spare and deliver.”

Isaiah 42:10–16 TNK

Sing to Yahweh a new song!

Let his praises resound from the ends

of the earth,

by those who sail the seas,

and all creatures within them,

by the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Let the desert and its towns

raise their voices,

the settlements where Kedar lives.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy,

let them shout from

the mountain peaks.

Let them give glory to Yahweh

and let them proclaim his praises

in the islands.

Yahweh marches forth like a hero,

like a warrior rouses passion.

He shouts, sounding the war cry,

he displays his might against his foes.

“For a long time I have kept silent,

have been quiet, holding myself

in check.

But now like a woman in childbirth,

I groan, I gasp, I pant all at once.

I will lay waste to mountains and hills,

will wither all their vegetation;

I will transform torrents

into dry territory,

and bring drought to pools of water.

But I will lead those who are blind by

a way they knew not,

along unfamiliar paths

I will guide them.

I will transform the darkness

into light before them,

and turn rough places into level ground.

These are the things I shall do,

I shall not abandon them.”

Isaiah 45:9–12 TNK

Woe to anyone who contends

with his Maker;

a potsherd among potsherds

of the earth!

Does the clay say to its potter,

“What are you making?”

or “Your work lacks handles.”

Woe to anyone who asks a father,

“What are you begetting?”

or a mother, “What are you

giving birth to?”

Thus says Yahweh,

the Holy One of Israel and his Maker:

Will you question me

about my children,

or give me orders about the works

of my hands?

It was I who made the earth

and created humanity upon it.

My own hands stretched out

the heavens

and I marshaled all of their starry array.

Isaiah 46:1–5 TNK

Bel bows down, Nebo stoops,

their idols are borne by beasts

and cattle;

the loads you are carrying are a burden to a weary beast.

They stoop and bow down together,

powerless to save those who bear them;

they themselves go into captivity.

Listen to me, O House of Jacob,

and all the remnant of the House

of Israel,

whom I have borne since your conception,

whom I have carried

since you were born.

Even to your old age I am the same,

even when your hairs are gray I will bear you.

It is I who made you and I will bear you;

I will carry you and I will save you.

To whom will you compare me,

or count as my equal?

To whom will you liken me,

that we may be equated?

Isaiah 49:13–16 TNK

Thus says Yahweh:

Shout for joy, O heavens;

and rejoice, O earth!

Burst forth in song, O mountains!

For Yahweh comforts his people

and displays maternal compassion on his afflicted ones.

Zion was saying, “Yahweh has abandoned me;

the Lord has forgotten me.”

Can a mother forget the baby

at her breast,

feel no maternal compassion for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

I will never forget you.

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

Isaiah 51:1–3 TNK

Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

who seek after Yahweh.

Look to the Rock from

which you were hewn,

and to the Pit from which

you were quarried.

Consider Abraham your father

and Sarah who gave you birth.

When he was just one I called him,

I blessed him and made him numerous.

Yahweh will surely comfort Zion,

have maternal compassion

on all her ruins;

will make her deserts like Eden,

and her wastelands like the garden

of Yahweh.

Joy and gladness shall be found in her,

thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

Isaiah 53:1–7 TNK

Who would dare believe

what we have heard?

To whom has the arm of Yahweh

been extended?

He sprouted like a tender sapling

before him,

like a shoot breaking

through arid ground.

He possessed no striking features

that would cause us to look at him;

no attractive appearance

that we should fix our eyes upon him.

He was shunned and rejected by others,

a man of sorrows accustomed

to suffering,

a man to make people

look the other way.

He was despised; we didn’t even give him a second thought.

Yet ours were the sufferings he bore,

ours the sorrows he shouldered.

But we reckoned him as someone

under a curse,

struck down by God, brought low.

Yet he was pierced for our faults,

crushed for our sins.

On his back lies the punishment that makes us whole,

and through his wounds

we have been healed.

All of us had gone astray like sheep,

each going his or her own way.

Yet Yahweh weighed him down