My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands, 2 Turning your ear to wisdom, inclining your heart to understanding; 3 Yes, if you call for intelligence, and to understanding raise your voice; 4 If you seek her like silver, and like hidden treasures search her out, 5 Then will you understand the fear of the Lord; the knowledge of God you will find; 6 For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. The Book of Proverbs aims to impart divine wisdom for righteous living, teaching moral discipline, discernment, and the fear of the Lord as the foundation of true knowledge (Prov. 1:7).  It provides practical guidance for living according to God’s order, leading to blessing and life (Prov. 3:1-2) while warning against folly, which leads to destruction (Prov. 14:12).  Ultimately, it points to Christ as the fulfillment of divine wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:3), revealing that true wisdom is not merely intellectual but salvific. Proverbs 2:1-6 ex...

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 God answered: I will be with you; and this will be your sign that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will serve God at this mountain. 13 “But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you. 15 God spoke further to Moses: This is what you will say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is my title for all generations. In Exodus 3:11-15 (NABRE), Moses, feeling inadequate, questions God’s choice in sending him to deliver Israel from Egypt.  God reassures him with the divine promise, ...

In the third month after the Israelites’ departure from the land of Egypt, on the first day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. 2 After they made the journey from Rephidim and entered the wilderness of Sinai, they then pitched camp in the wilderness. While Israel was encamped there in front of the mountain, 3 Moses went up to the mountain of God. Then the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying: This is what you will say to the house of Jacob; tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant, you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. 6 You will be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites. 7 So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people. When he set before them all that the Lord had ordered him to tell them, 8all the people answered together, “Everything...

From the wilderness of Sin the whole Israelite community journeyed by stages, as the Lord directed, and encamped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink, 2 and so they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to a test?” 3 Here, then, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why then did you bring us up out of Egypt? To have us die of thirst with our children and our livestock?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” 5 The Lord answered Moses: Go on ahead of the people, and take along with you some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the Nile. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink. Moses did this, in the sight of the elders of ...

Then the Lord said to Moses: Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out. 16 And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass through the sea on dry land. 17 But I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I receive glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. 19 The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s army, now moved and went around behind them. And the column of cloud, moving from in front of them, took up its place behind them, 20 so that it came between the Egyptian army and that of Israel. And when it became dark, the cloud illumined the night; and so the rival camps did not come any closer together all night long. 21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord drove back the sea with a st...

God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you: the birds, the tame animals, and all the wild animals that were with you—all that came out of the ark. 11 I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth. 12 God said: This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: 13 I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature—every mortal being—so that the waters will never again become a flood to destroy every mortal being. 16 When the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remembe...

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land—Gilead, and as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3 the Negeb, the plain (the valley of Jericho, the City of Palms), and as far as Zoar. 4 The Lord then said to him, This is the land about which I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over. 5 So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died as the Lord had said; 6 and he was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; to this day no one knows the place of his burial. 7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated. 8 The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, till they had completed the period of g...

Do not rely on your wealth, or say, “I have the power.” 2 Do not rely on your strength in following the desires of your heart. 3 Do not say, “Who can prevail against me?” for the Lord will exact punishment. 4 Do not say, “I have sinned, yet what has happened to me?” for the Lord is slow to anger! 5 Do not be so confident of forgiveness that you add sin upon sin. 6 Do not say, “His mercy is great; my many sins he will forgive.” For mercy and anger alike are with him; his wrath comes to rest on the wicked. 7 Do not delay turning back to the Lord, do not put it off day after day. For suddenly his wrath will come forth; at the time of vengeance, you will perish. 8 Do not rely on deceitful wealth, for it will be no help on the day of wrath. The Book of Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus, is part of the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament and was written by Jesus, son of Sirach, in the early second century B.C.  It offers practical guidance on living righteously according to God's l...