Exhortation to Uprightness

¹ Love righteousness, you rulers of the earth, think of the Lord with uprightness and seek him with sincerity of heart;

² because he is found by those who do not put him to the test and manifests himself to those who do not distrust him.

³ For perverse thoughts separate people from God, and when his power is tested, it convicts the foolish;

⁴ because wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul or dwell in a body enslaved to sin.

⁵ For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit and will rise and depart from foolish thoughts and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.

⁶ For wisdom is a kindly spirit and will not free a blasphemer from the guilt of his words, because God is witness of his inmost feelings and a true observer of his heart and a hearer of his tongue.

⁷ Because the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said;

⁸ therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will escape notice, and justice, when it punishes, will not pass him by.

⁹ For enquiry will be made into the counsels of an ungodly man, and a report of his words will come to the Lord to convict him of his lawless deeds;

¹⁰ because a jealous ear hears all things, and the sound of murmurings does not go unheard.

¹¹ Beware then of useless murmuring and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret word is without result, and a lying mouth destroys the soul.

¹² Do not invite death by the error of your life or bring on destruction by the works of your hands; ¹³ because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living.

¹⁴ For he created all things that they might exist, and the origins of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them; and the dominion of Hades is not on earth.

¹⁵ For righteousness is immortal.

Life as the Ungodly See It

¹⁶ But the ungodly by their deeds and words summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away, and they made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his party.