May 21, 2027

5True Friendship - Pleasant speech multiplies friends, and gracious lips, friendly greetings. 6Let those who are friendly to you be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. 7When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not be quick to trust them. 8For there are friends when it suits them, but they will not be around in time of trouble. 9Another is a friend who turns into an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your disgrace. 10Others are friends, table companions, but they cannot be found in time of affliction. 11When things go well, they are your other self, and lord it over your servants. 12If disaster comes upon you, they turn against you and hide themselves. 13Stay away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends. 14Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure. 15Faithful friends are beyond price, no amount can balance their worth. 16Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; those who fear God will find them. 17Those who fear the Lord enjoy stable friendship, for as they are, so will their neighbors be.

12Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes. 16In your statutes I take delight; I will never forget your word. 18Open my eyes to see clearly the wonders of your law. 27Make me understand the way of your precepts; I will ponder your wondrous deeds. 34Give me understanding to keep your law, to observe it with all my heart. 35Lead me in the path of your commandments, for that is my delight.

17Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.

1He set out from there and went into the district of Judea [and] across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. 2The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. 3He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” 4They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” 5But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. 6But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. 7For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], 8and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” 10In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”