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Trades and Crafts

²⁴ The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure;
   only the one who has little business can become wise.
²⁵ How can one become wise who handles the plough,
   and who glories in the shaft of a goad,
who drives oxen and is occupied with their work,
   and whose talk is about bulls?
²⁶ He sets his heart on ploughing furrows,
   and he is careful about fodder for the heifers.
²⁷ So it is with every artisan and master artisan
   who labours by night as well as by day;
those who cut the signets of seals,
   each is diligent in making a great variety;
they set their heart on painting a lifelike image,
   and they are careful to finish their work.
²⁸ So it is with the smith, sitting by the anvil,
   intent on his ironwork;
the breath of the fire melts his flesh,
   and he struggles with the heat of the furnace;
the sound of the hammer deafens his ears,^*
   and his eyes are on the pattern of the object.
He sets his heart on finishing his handiwork,
   and he is careful to complete its decoration.
²⁹ So it is with is the potter sitting at his work
   and turning the wheel with his feet;
he is always deeply concerned over his products,
   and he produces them in quantity.
³⁰ He moulds the clay with his arm
   and makes it pliable with his feet;
he sets his heart on finishing the glazing,
   and he takes care in firing^* the kiln.

³¹ All these rely on their hands,
   and all are skilful in their own work.
³² Without them no city can be inhabited,
   and wherever they live, they will not go hungry.^*
Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people,^*
33   nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly.
They do not sit in the judge’s seat,
   nor do they understand the decisions of the courts;
they cannot expound discipline or judgement,
   and they are not found among the rulers.^*
34 But they maintain the fabric of the world,
   and their concern is for^* the exercise of their trade.

The Activity of the Scribe

How different the one who devotes himself
   to the study of the law of the Most High!

God’s Covenant with David

17Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, ‘I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.’ ²Nathan said to David, ‘Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.’

3 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: ⁴Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in. ⁵For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle.^{* 6}Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? ⁷Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel; ⁸and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, ¹⁰from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies.

Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹²He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne for ever. ¹³I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom for ever, and his throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁵In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.