Job 24
The Way of the Wicked
1 “Why have the times escaped the Lord’s notice?†
2 “Why have the ungodly stepped over the boundary, Snatching away the flock with the shepherd?†
3 They have led away the donkey of the orphans And have taken the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4 They have turned aside the weak from the right way; The gentle of the land have hidden themselves together.
5 They departed like donkeys in the field. Contrary to me, they went forth to their own pursuits. Their bread was sweet to their little ones.
6 For they harvested a field that was not their own before the time, And the weak worked the vineyard of the ungodly Without pay or food.
7 They caused many naked to sleep without clothing, And they took away the covering of their life.
8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains And have huddled around the rock for want of shelter.†
9 They have snatched the orphan from the breast And have humiliated the banished.
10 They have unjustly caused them to sleep without clothing, And they have taken away the morsel from the hungry.
11 They have wrongfully laid snares in narrow places And have not known the way of righteousness.
12 They have cast the weak out of the city and their own houses, And the soul of the infants sighed greatly. Why then has He not visited them?
13 “They are ones on the earth who do not know the Lord, And they do not understand the way of righteousness, Nor do they walk in His paths.
14 But He knows their works and delivered them into darkness; And one shall be like a thief in the night.†
15 For the eye of the adulterer watches for the darkness, Saying, ‘No eye will perceive me’; And he puts a covering on his face.
16 In the dark he breaks into houses; In the daytime they seal themselves up; They do not know the light.
17 For in due time, the shadow of death will be the same to them, Because they shall know the troubles of the shadow of death.
18 “He is swift on the face of the waters; May his portion be cursed on earth.
19 May their plants wither on earth, For they have taken away from the orphans Even the smallest portions.
20 Then his sin is recalled to memory, And he vanishes like a mist of dew; But what he has done, may it be recompensed to him, And may every wrongdoer be crushed like rotten wood.
21 For he has not treated the barren woman well, And showed no mercy to the feeble woman.
22 “In his anger, he overturns the weak; Therefore when he rises up, No one believes his own life is safe.
23 When he falls sick, let him not hope to recover, But let him perish by disease.
24 For his exaltation mistreated many, But he has withered as mallows in the heat, Or as an ear of corn falling on its own from the stalk.
25 “If it is not so, who says I speak falsely And will make my speech worth nothing?”
Psalms 108
1 For the End; a psalm by David. †O God, do not pass over my praise in silence,
2 For the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man opened against me; They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue;
3 And they surrounded me with words of hatred, And warred against me without cause.
4 Instead of loving me, they falsely accused me, But I continued to pray;
5 So they repaid me evil for good, And hatred for my love.
6 Set a sinner over him, And let the devil stand at his right hand.
7 And when he is judged, may he go forth condemned, And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be very few, And may a different man receive his office;
9 Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow;
10 Let his children wander about and be beggars; Let them be cast out of their houses.
11 Let the creditor search out whatever possessions he has; Let strangers plunder his labors;
12 Let there be no helper for him, Nor a compassionate one for his fatherless children;
13 Let his children be utterly destroyed; In a single generation, let his name be blotted out.
14 May the lawlessness of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, And may the sin of his mother not be blotted out;
15 Let them be continually before the Lord, And may the remembrance of them be utterly destroyed from the earth,
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy, But persecuted a poor and needy man, And one pierced to the heart, that he might kill him.
17 And he loved cursing, and it came to him, And he did not desire blessing, so it shall be far from him.
18 So he clothed himself with cursing like a garment, And it entered like water into his bowels And like oil into his bones;
19 Let it be for him like a garment that clothes him, And like a belt that girds him continually.
20 This is the work of those who falsely accuse me before the Lord, And of those who speak evil things against my soul.
Proverbs of Solomon 24
Issues of Life and Death
1 My son, do not envy evil men, Neither desire to be with them;
2 For their heart ponders a lie, And their lips speak of sufferings.
3 A house is built with wisdom, And it is built up with understanding.†
4 Storehouses are filled with perception From all honorable and good riches.
5 It is better to be a wise man of strength And a man having discernment, than to be a man who has a large estate.
6 War comes with the skill of a commander, But help comes with the heart of a counselor.
John 4
The Samaritan Woman
1 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples),
3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.
4 But He needed to go through Samaria.†
5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.†
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.†
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”†
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?
12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”†
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.Ӡ
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He. ”