Bible Browser

Tests in Life

⁴ When a sieve is shaken, the refuse appears;
   so do a person’s faults when he speaks.
⁵ The kiln tests the potter’s vessels;
   so the test of a person is in his conversation.
⁶ Its fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree;
   so a person’s speech discloses the cultivation of his mind.
⁷ Do not praise anyone before he speaks,
   for this is the way people are tested.

¹⁰ For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
   and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
   giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
   it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
   and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² For you shall go out in joy,
   and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
   shall burst into song,
   and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
   instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
   for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.