Daniel’s story does not begin with lions or visions. It begins with a young captive far from home, given a new name, a new language to learn, and a daily provision of the king’s food and wine.

The arrangement prepared him to serve before the king. Daniel accepted the training, but there was one line he would not cross, and the way he handled it says as much about him as the lions’ den ever would.

The Story of Daniel Refuses the King’s Food

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hand, along with part of the vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar carried into the land of Shinar and placed in the treasure house of his god.

The king told Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring certain of the children of Israel from the king’s seed and the princes – young men in whom was no blemish, well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, who could be taught the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. The king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank, and they were to be trained three years before they would stand before the king.

Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, of the children of Judah. The prince of the eunuchs gave them new names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar, Hananiah was called Shadrach, Mishael was called Meshach, and Azariah was called Abed-nego.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank. He did not simply refuse; he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs, but the man was afraid. I fear my lord the king, he said. If the king saw their faces worse liking than the other young men, then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king.

So Daniel went to Melzar, the steward set over the four of them, with a modest proposal: Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. After that, Melzar could compare their faces with those who ate the king’s meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. Melzar consented and proved them ten days.

At the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat. So Melzar took away the king’s food and wine and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

When the three years were over, the prince of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king asked them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.

What the Story of Daniel Refuses the King’s Food Teaches Us

Daniel’s stand started inside him before it showed on the outside. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself, and that decision came first. He did not wait to see what the pressure would be like; he settled the question ahead of time.

He held firm without being harsh. Daniel requested permission, listened to the official’s fear for his own head, and offered a fair test that put the result in plain view: let our countenances be looked upon before thee. Faithfulness and respect for the people over him went together.

The passage is careful about where the results came from. The favor with the prince of the eunuchs came because God had brought Daniel into favour, and the wisdom came because God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. The ten-day test showed the outcome, but the chapter credits God with the gift.

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During the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah kept saying what God told him to say, and the city’s leaders decided he had to die. They let him down on cords into a dungeon with no water in it, only mud, and he sank.

The man who got him out was not a prince, a priest or a prophet. He was a foreigner serving in the king’s house, and he is the only one in the chapter who said out loud that what had been done to Jeremiah was evil.

The Story of Ebed-melech Rescues Jeremiah

Four of the princes – Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jucal and Pashur – heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people: He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live. And, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army.

The princes went to the king and said, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war. King Zedekiah answered, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.

So they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king’s house, heard what they had done. The king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin, and Ebed-melech went out and spoke to him there: My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. He warned that Jeremiah was like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city.

The king changed course. He commanded, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die. Ebed-melech took the men and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

Ebed-melech said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Later, while Jeremiah was still shut up in the court of the prison, God sent him with a message for Ebed-melech. Jerusalem would fall, but I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD. Thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me.

What the Story of Ebed-melech Rescues Jeremiah Teaches Us

The princes had power, and the king said he could do nothing against them. Ebed-melech had no such standing, yet he was the one who went to the king and said, these men have done evil. Doing right sometimes means speaking up when everyone with more power has stayed quiet.

His help was practical and careful. He did not just ask for Jeremiah to be released; he gathered old cast clouts and rotten rags and had Jeremiah put them under his armholes under the cords. Kindness paid attention to the man in the mud, not only to the order from the king.

God saw it. In Jeremiah 39 the LORD sent a personal promise to Ebed-melech, and the reason he gave was not the rescue itself but what was behind it: because thou hast put thy trust in me. The man who pulled God’s prophet out of the pit was himself promised deliverance when the city fell.

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God gave Judah one more warning in writing, and the stated hope was simple: it may be they would turn from their evil way, so that he could forgive them.

The scroll reached the king on a winter day, with a fire burning on the hearth in front of him. Three of his own officials begged him not to do what he did next. He would not hear them.

The Story of the King Burns the Scroll

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim king of Judah, the LORD told Jeremiah, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations. The purpose was given plainly: that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD upon a roll of a book. Jeremiah said, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD, so he sent Baruch to read it to the people on a fasting day. In the fifth year, in the ninth month, Baruch read the words in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house, in the ears of all the people.

Gemariah’s son Michaiah heard it and went down to the king’s house, where the princes sat in the scribe’s chamber. They sent for Baruch and said, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. When they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and told him, We will surely tell the king of all these words. They asked how he had written it, and Baruch said, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. Then the princes warned him, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.

The princes left the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe and told the king what was in it. The king sent Jehudi to fetch it, and Jehudi read it to the king and the princes standing beside him. The king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.

When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed. Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants. Only three men spoke up: Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them. Instead the king ordered Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet arrested, but the LORD hid them.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. God also gave a word for Jehoiakim himself: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body would be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.

So Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words. The king destroyed one copy. The message came back longer.

What the Story of the King Burns the Scroll Teaches Us

The scroll was sent as an act of mercy. God said its purpose was that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Even a written warning of judgment was an invitation to turn back.

The same words got very different responses. The princes who heard them were afraid both one and other, and three of them pleaded with the king to stop. The king and his servants were not afraid, nor rent their garments. Hearing God’s word is not the same as receiving it.

A king could cut a scroll and burn it, but he could not burn what God had said. The LORD hid Jeremiah and Baruch, had every word written again, and there were added besides unto them many like words. Destroying the message only brought a fuller one.

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Isaiah prophesied in the 8th century BC, centuries before Jesus was born. Near the end of his book is a short passage about a servant of the LORD who suffers, is silent, dies with the wicked, and is buried with the rich – and whose suffering is said to be for other people’s sins.

Christians have read it as a picture of Jesus Christ from the very beginning. The New Testament itself quotes it about him more than once. Read it slowly, verse by verse, and it is easy to see why.

The Story of the Suffering Servant

The passage begins with the end. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. But first, many were astonied at him: his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, because they will see what they had never been told.

Then the speaker changes to we. Who hath believed our report? The servant grows up before the LORD as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, with no form nor comeliness that anyone would desire. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. People hid their faces from him and esteemed him not.

Then comes the turn the whole passage hangs on. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He does not defend himself. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him, and his soul is made an offering for sin.

That is not where it ends. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death, God will give him a portion with the great. He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What the Story of the Suffering Servant Teaches Us

The center of the passage is substitution. Again and again the text says the servant suffers for others: our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities, the iniquity of us all. The people who watched him thought he was being punished by God for his own wrong. The passage says they were wrong about whose sin it was.

The New Testament reads this passage as being about Jesus. In Acts 8:32-35 an Ethiopian official is reading He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, asks Philip whom the prophet means, and Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah 53:4 after Jesus heals the sick, and 1 Peter 2:24 echoes Isaiah 53:5: by whose stripes ye were healed.

The servant’s suffering is not the last word. The same chapter that describes his death says he will see his seed, prolong his days, justify many, and be given a portion with the great. Christians read that as the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and it matches how the passage began: my servant shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

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Jeremiah was the son of a priest from Anathoth, a small town in the land of Benjamin. The first thing God says to him is that this calling did not start that day – it started before Jeremiah was born.

Jeremiah’s first answer is not yes. He says he cannot speak, because he is a child. What God does with that objection, and the two strange things he then shows Jeremiah, set the course for one of the longest and hardest prophetic ministries in the Bible.

The Story of Jeremiah’s Call

Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The word of the LORD came to him in the days of Josiah king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and it kept coming through the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive.

God’s first words to him reach back before his birth: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah was not volunteering for a job. He was being told what he had been set apart for all along.

Jeremiah answered, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. The LORD did not argue with how young he felt. He simply said, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Then he gave the reason Jeremiah could do it: Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee.

Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. The problem Jeremiah raised – I cannot speak – was answered directly. He was given the words, and he was set over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Next God asked him, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And he said, I see a rod of an almond tree. The LORD answered, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. What God had spoken, he would bring about, and soon.

The word came a second time: What seest thou? Jeremiah said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. The LORD explained it: Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. Kingdoms of the north would come and set their thrones at the gates of Jerusalem, because the people had forsaken the LORD and burned incense unto other gods.

The chapter ends with a charge and a promise. Gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee. God told Jeremiah he had made him a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against kings, princes, priests and people. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

What the Story of Jeremiah’s Call Teaches Us

God’s call on Jeremiah is rooted in God’s own knowledge and choice, not in anything Jeremiah had done. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee – the passage places Jeremiah’s purpose before his birth, and it was God who sanctified and ordained him.

Jeremiah’s objection is honest, and God does not shame him for it. He answers each part of it: Jeremiah said he could not speak, so God put his words in his mouth; Jeremiah felt like a child, so God told him not to be afraid, for I am with thee to deliver thee. The strength in this calling is God’s presence, not the prophet’s confidence.

God never promised Jeremiah an easy road. The seething pot pointed to judgment coming out of the north, and God said plainly that they shall fight against thee. The promise was not that no one would oppose him, but that they shall not prevail against thee.

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Isaiah 6 opens with a date, not a prophecy: in the year that king Uzziah died. Judah’s king is dead, and in that same year Isaiah sees the King, the LORD of hosts.

By the end of the chapter God asks a question – Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? – and it is not put to Isaiah by name. He only heard it. What he says next, and what it costs him to be able to say it, is the whole story.

The Story of Isaiah’s Vision

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

One cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of that voice the posts of the door moved, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah’s first words are not praise but a confession. Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Seeing God clearly showed him himself clearly.

Then one of the seraphims flew to him, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. He laid it upon Isaiah’s mouth – the very lips he had just called unclean – and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Only after that does Isaiah hear the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Isaiah hears the question and answers: Here am I; send me.

The message he is given is a hard one. He is to tell the people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Isaiah asks, Lord, how long? and the answer is, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the land be utterly desolate. Yet the chapter does not end in total loss: a tenth shall return, and like a teil tree or an oak whose substance remains when they cast their leaves, the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

What the Story of Isaiah’s Vision Teaches Us

Holiness comes first in this chapter, and everything else follows from it. The seraphims, who stand in God’s presence, cover their faces before him, and the word they repeat three times is holy. Isaiah’s reaction is not curiosity but woe: next to a holy God, he can only see his own unclean lips.

The cleansing comes from God’s side, before the call. Isaiah does nothing to remove his sin; a coal from the altar is brought to him, and he is told his iniquity is taken away. Only a man who has been purged answers Here am I; send me, and the order of events in the text is the point.

Isaiah is not promised success. He is sent to a people who will hear and not understand, until the land is desolate. He goes anyway, and the last line of the chapter keeps a thread of hope: a remnant will remain, and the holy seed will be its substance.

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Ecclesiastes opens with a man who had everything a person could want, and his first words about it are Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. It is one of the most honest books in the Bible.

The speaker calls himself the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Jewish and Christian tradition has long identified him with King Solomon. He sets out to find what really gives life meaning, tries everything within his reach, and reports back what he found.

The Story of Ecclesiastes

The book begins with its speaker and its theme: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Then he asks the question that runs through the whole book: What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

He looks at the world and sees it going in circles. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. The sun rises and sets, the wind turns about, and all the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing, and there is no new thing under the sun.

So the king sets out to search by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. He gathers more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem, but finds that in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

In chapter 2 he tests everything else. He tries mirth and pleasure. He builds: I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards, along with gardens, orchards and pools of water. He gathers servants, cattle, silver and gold, and singers. Whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them. Then he looks back over it all: behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. He sees that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness, yet the wise man dies as the fool does, and his work is left to someone after him.

Chapter 3 steps back to look at time itself: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time, and whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever.

Through the middle of the book the Preacher keeps returning to the same point: enjoying food, drink and good work is from the hand of God, but none of it can carry the weight of a whole life on its own.

In the last chapter he speaks to the young: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not. He describes old age and death, when the dust shall return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Then he gives the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment.

What the Story of Ecclesiastes Teaches Us

Ecclesiastes is honest about how empty life feels when it is lived under the sun. Wisdom, pleasure, great building projects and great wealth were all tried by a man who could afford every one of them, and he called each one vanity and vexation of spirit.

The book does not say the good things of life are evil. Eating, drinking and enjoying good in his labour are called the gift of God. They are good when they are received from God, and empty when they are chased as the meaning of life itself.

The answer comes at the end, not the beginning. After testing everything, the Preacher says to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, and he sums up the whole matter in one line: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

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Tucked between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah is a book that is entirely a love song. It has no laws, no battles and no prophecies – only a bride and her beloved speaking to each other, with a group called the daughters of Jerusalem looking on.

It calls itself The song of songs, which is Solomon’s, meaning the finest of songs. Its best-known lines are about love that will not give up: love is strong as death, and Many waters cannot quench love.

The Story of the Song of Solomon

The book opens with its title, The song of songs, which is Solomon’s, and goes straight into the bride’s voice. She speaks of her beloved’s love as better than wine, and she asks, Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon. The poem moves back and forth between her voice and his, with the daughters of Jerusalem sometimes addressed along the way.

In chapter 2 she calls herself the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, and he answers that she is as the lily among thorns. She says he brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Three times in the book (2:7, 3:5 and 8:4) she gives the daughters of Jerusalem nearly the same charge, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please – love is not to be rushed.

Then comes a picture of spring. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. A request follows to take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, and verse 16 declares: My beloved is mine, and I am his.

In chapter 3 the bride searches the city by night for him whom my soul loveth and finds him. The chapter then turns to a royal procession and calls the daughters of Zion to behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart – his wedding day.

The middle chapters continue the back-and-forth of the two lovers, praising each other in the picture language of the ancient world – gardens, vineyards, flocks, spices and springs of water – with times of searching and times of finding.

The last chapter gives the book’s great statement about love. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. True love cannot be bought. The song ends with the bride calling, Make haste, my beloved.

What the Story of the Song of Solomon Teaches Us

The Song of Solomon shows that love between a husband and wife is a good gift that belongs in the Bible. It is celebrated with joy and tenderness, in a song set around a wedding day, and with a repeated charge not to awaken love before its time.

The book describes love as faithful and lasting. My beloved is mine, and I am his is a promise of belonging to each other, and the closing chapter says love is strong as death and that many waters cannot quench it. It cannot be bought with all the substance of a house.

Jews and Christians have also long read the Song as a picture of God’s love for his people – Jewish readers often of the LORD’s love for Israel, and many Christians of Christ’s love for his church. Read that way, his banner over me was love becomes a picture of being covered and claimed by the love of God.

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Proverbs is not a story with a plot. It is a book of short, sharp sayings about ordinary life – how to talk, how to work, who to trust, how to treat your friends and your family – written so they stick in the memory.

It also tells you its purpose in the first few verses, and it puts one line underneath everything else: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. The rest of the book is that line worked out in the kitchen, the marketplace and the city gate.

The Story of the Book of Proverbs

The book opens with its author and its aim: The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; to know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding. It is written to give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion, and even a wise man will hear, and will increase learning. Then comes the foundation of the whole book: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Chapters 1 to 9 are longer talks, most of them beginning My son, as a father speaking to his child. He warns against joining sinners who say, Come with us, and he pictures wisdom as a woman who crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets. In chapter 3 comes one of the best-known lines in the Bible: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

These chapters also teach through small pictures. Chapter 6 sends the lazy man to an insect: Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. The ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler, yet gathereth her food in the harvest, while the sluggard asks for yet a little sleep, a little slumber, until poverty arrives like one that travelleth.

In chapter 8 wisdom calls out again, at the gates, at the entry of the city: Unto you, O men, I call. She says that wisdom is better than rubies, that those that seek me early shall find me, and that the LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. The chapter ends with a choice: whoso findeth me findeth life, but all they that hate me love death.

At chapter 10 the style changes. A new heading reads The proverbs of Solomon, and from here the book is mostly single two-line sayings. Many are about the tongue: A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger, and Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Many are about friendship: A friend loveth at all times, there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

The book also names other collections. Chapter 22 turns to the words of the wise, and chapter 25 adds more proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. Chapter 30 gives The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, who says, Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

The last chapter is The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. She tells her son, Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy, and then the book closes with a poem that asks, Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. She worketh willingly with her hands, stretcheth out her hand to the poor, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

What the Story of the Book of Proverbs Teaches Us

Proverbs puts God at the start of wisdom, not at the end. The book opens with the fear of the LORD as the beginning of knowledge, and chapter 3 tells the reader to trust in the LORD with all thine heart rather than lean on their own understanding. Being clever is not the same thing as being wise.

Wisdom in Proverbs is practical. It shows up in how a person answers an angry word, whether they get out of bed and work like the ant, and whether they stay loyal to a friend in hard times. The book treats speech as especially powerful, saying plainly that death and life are in the power of the tongue.

The book begins with a father teaching his son and ends with a mother’s words to her son, followed by the picture of a woman who feareth the LORD. Wisdom is meant to be handed down in families, from parents to children, and lived out in ordinary days of work, kindness and faithfulness.

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The wall is finished. Now the whole city gathers in one street, men and women together, and asks for a book to be read – the law of Moses. They stand and listen from morning until midday.

As the words sink in, the crowd begins to weep. And then their own leaders tell them to stop. The reason they give is the day itself.

The Story of Ezra Reads the Law

All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding.

He read from it from the morning until midday, and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law. Ezra stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose, with six men on his right hand and seven on his left. When Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands, then bowed their heads and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

Ezra did not read alone. Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah and others, with the Levites, caused the people to understand the law while the people stood in their place. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

As they understood, the people broke down: all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law. Nehemiah the Tirshatha, Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites told them, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.

And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.

On the second day the heads of the families, the priests and the Levites came back to Ezra to understand the words of the law more closely. They found written that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month, and that they should proclaim, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths.

So the people went out, brought branches, and made booths on the roofs of their houses, in their courts, in the courts of the house of God, in the street of the water gate and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. All who had come back out of the captivity sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Day by day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly.

What the Story of Ezra Reads the Law Teaches Us

The goal of the reading was understanding, not just hearing. The Levites read distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading, and the chapter says the people celebrated because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.

The people’s tears were real, and the text records them without blame: they wept when they heard the words of the law. But their leaders pointed them to what the day was – holy unto the LORD – and told them to eat, drink and share with those who had nothing prepared, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

Hearing led straight to doing. On the second day they found the command to dwell in booths, and they obeyed it at once, in a way Israel had not done since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun. The result the text records is simple: there was very great gladness.

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