3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the  Lord,

offspring, a reward.  *

4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the sons born in one’s youth.  *

5 Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them.  *

They will never be put to shame

when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.  *

1 How happy is everyone who fears the  Lord,

who walks in his ways!  *

2 You will surely eat

what your hands have worked for.  *

You will be happy,

and it will go well for you.  *

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

within your house,

your children, like young olive trees

around your table.  *

4 In this very way

the man who fears the  Lord

will be blessed.  *

1 How happy is everyone who fears the  Lord,

who walks in his ways!  *

2 You will surely eat

what your hands have worked for.  *

You will be happy,

and it will go well for you.  *

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

within your house,

your children, like young olive trees

around your table.  *

12 Then our sons will be like plants

nurtured in their youth,

our daughters, like corner pillars

that are carved in the palace style.  *

2 His descendants will be powerful in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.  *

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,  * and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth."

4 Your offspring  * will be blessed,

and your land’s produce,

and the offspring of your livestock,

including the young of your herds

and the newborn of your flocks.  *

14 You will be blessed above all peoples; there will be no infertile male or female among you or your livestock.

6 Start a youth out on his way;  *

even when he grows old he will not depart from it.

15 Foolishness is bound to the heart of a youth;

a rod of discipline will separate it from him.  *

24 The one who will not use the rod hates his son,  *

but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.  *

15 A rod of correction imparts wisdom,  *

but a youth left to himself  *

is a disgrace to his mother.  *

13 Don’t withhold discipline from a youth;

if you punish him with a rod, he will not die.  *

1 Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline,  *

and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

1 Solomon’s proverbs:  *

A wise son brings joy to his father,

but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.  *

6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.  *7 Repeat them to your children.  * Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

14 When Jesus saw it, he was indignant  * and said to them, "Let the little children come to me.*Don’t stop*them, because the kingdom of God*belongs to such as these.

11 If you then, who are evil,*know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.  *

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.  *

1 See what great love  * the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.

24 "May the Lord bless you and protect you;  *

25 may the Lord make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;  *

26 may the Lord look with favor on you  *

and give you peace." ’  *

28 May God give to you —

from the dew of the sky  *

and from the richness of the land  *  —

an abundance of grain and new wine.  *

29 May peoples serve you  *

and nations bow in homage to you.

Be master over your relatives;

may your mother’s sons bow in homage to you.

Those who curse you will be cursed,

and those who bless you will be blessed.  *

3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land

and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour out my Spirit  * on your descendants

and my blessing on your offspring.

4 They will sprout among  *  the grass

like poplars by flowing streams.

13 Then all your children will be taught by the  Lord,  *

their prosperity will be great,

5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb;

I set you apart before you were born.  *

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.  *

38 They will be my people, and I will be their God.  *39 I will give them integrity of heart  * and action  * so that they will fear me always, for their good and for the good of their descendants after them.

13 For it was you who created my inward parts;  *

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  *

14 I will praise you

because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.  *,*

Your works are wondrous,

and I know this very well.  *

15 My bones were not hidden from you

when I was made in secret,

when I was formed in the depths of the earth.  *

16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless;

all my days were written in your book and planned

before a single one of them began.  *

10 I was given over to you at birth;  *

you have been my God from my mother’s womb.  *

25 I have been young and now I am old,

yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned

or his children begging for bread.  *

26 He is always generous, always lending,

and his children are a blessing.  *

4 We will not hide them from their children,

but will tell a future generation

the praiseworthy acts of the  Lord,

his might, and the wondrous works

he has performed.  *

6 Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly,

and the pride of children is their fathers.

7 A righteous person acts with integrity;  *

his children who come after him will be happy.  *

1 Children, obey  * your parents in the Lord, because this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, 3 so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land.*,*,*

4 Fathers, don’t stir up anger  * in your children, but bring them up in the training  * and instruction of the Lord.

20 Children,  * obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

21 Fathers,  * do not exasperate  * your children, so that they won’t become discouraged.

12 Honor your father and your mother  * so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline — which all receive  *  — then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  *

4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn to practice godliness toward their own family first and to repay their parents, for this pleases God.

21 When a woman is in labor, she has pain*because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child,*she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.

39 Your children, who you said would be plunder, your sons who  * don’t yet know good from evil, will enter there. I will give them the land, and they will take possession of it.