A Prayer for Israel and Wisdom About Marriage
1 Have mercy on us, Master, God of all, and look upon us.
2 Send the fear of you upon all the nations that do not seek you.
3 Raise your hand against foreign nations, and let them see your power.
4 As you showed your holiness among us before their eyes, so show your greatness among them before our eyes.
5 Let them know you as we have known you: there is no God except you, Lord.
6 Renew your signs and perform new wonders. Glorify your hand and your right arm.
7 Awaken your fury and pour out wrath. Remove the adversary and destroy the enemy.
8 Hasten the time, remember your oath, and let people recount your mighty deeds.
9 May the one who escapes be consumed by fiery wrath, and may those who harm your people meet destruction.
10 Crush the heads of enemy rulers who say, “There is no one besides us.”
11 Gather all the tribes of Jacob and take possession of them as you did at the beginning.
12 Have mercy, Lord, on the people called by your name—on Israel, whom you compared to a firstborn.
13 Have pity on Jerusalem, your holy city, the place of your rest.
14 Fill Zion with praise of your mighty deeds and your people with your glory.
15 Give witness to those who were your creatures from the beginning, and raise up the prophecies spoken in your name.
16 Give a reward to those who wait for you, and let your prophets be found faithful.
17 Hear, Lord, the plea of those who entreat you, according to Aaron’s blessing over your people. Then everyone on earth will know that you are the Lord, the God of the ages.
18 The stomach will eat any food, but some food is better than another. 19 The throat tastes different kinds of game, and an understanding heart detects false words. 20 A twisted heart causes grief, but an experienced person will repay it.
21 A woman may accept any man, but one daughter is better than another. 22 A woman’s beauty brightens a man’s face and surpasses every other human desire. 23 If mercy and gentleness are on her tongue, her husband is unlike any other man. 24 Whoever takes a wife gains the beginning of a household: a helper corresponding to him and a pillar of rest. 25 Where there is no fence, property will be plundered; where there is no wife, a man will wander and groan. 26 Who will trust a nimble robber who leaps from city to city? In the same way, who will trust a man with no nest who lodges wherever night overtakes him?