to know wisdom and instruction, and to perceive words of understanding;

that he might give prudence to the simple, and to the young man discernment and understanding.

and will understand a parable, and an enigma; the saying of the wise also, and riddles.

You shall proclaim wisdom, that understanding may be obedient to you.

For she sits by the gates of princes, and sings in the entrances, [saying],

O you simple, understand prudence, and you that are untaught, take in knowledge.

For my mouth shall meditate truth, and false lips are an abomination before me.

They are all evident to those that understand, and right to those that find knowledge.

For wisdom is better than precious stones; and no valuable substance is of equal worth with it.

Wisdom has built a house for herself, and set up seven pillars.

She has sent forth her servants, calling with a loud proclamation to the feast, saying,

But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Therefore, behold, I send you prophets, wise [men], and scribes: some of them you will kill and you will crucify, and [some] of them you will flog in your synagogues and you will persecute from city to city,

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

You will be betrayed even by parents and relatives, friends and brothers; and they will put [some] of you to death.

And you will be hated by all [people] for My name's sake.

And the rest seized his servants, mistreated [them], and killed [them].

They will excommunicate you; but a time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is offering God a service.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one purpose;

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Now Saul was agreeing with them in his murder. And in that day there arose a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

But Saul was doing injury to the church, going in from house to house, and dragging away both men and women, and committing them to prison.

Then Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

and requested from him letters [of authority] to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he should find any who were of the Way, both men or women, he might bring them, having been bound, to Jerusalem.

Now at that time Herod the king put [forth] his hands to harm some from the church.

And he put to death James the brother of John with the sword.

I, who persecuted this Way to death, binding and handing over to prisons both men and women,

as also the high priest testifies of me, along with the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brothers, and went to Damascus in order to bring those who were there, having been bound, to Jerusalem, that they might be punished.

And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by consenting to his murder, and guarding the clothes of those murdering him.'

which also I did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them.

And I punished them often in all the synagogues, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even as far as to foreign cities.

By [the] Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have spent in the depth [of the sea].