Job 3, 4
1 After this, Job opened his mouth 2 and cursed his day, saying:
3 “May the day perish on which I was born,
And the night in which they said, ‘Behold, a male child.’
4 May that day be darkness,
And may the Lord not regard it from above;
Nor may the light come upon it.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death seize it;
May a cloud settle on it.
6 May that day and night be cursed;
May darkness carry it away;
May it not come into the days of the year;
May it not be numbered with the days of the month.
7 But may that night be sorrow,
And may no gladness come upon it, nor joy.
8 But may he who curses that day curse it,
Even he who is about to subdue the great sea-monster.
9 May the stars of that night be darkened,
And may it remain dark.
May it not come into the light,
And may it not see the morning star arise;
10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
For it would have removed sorrow from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die in the womb?
Why did I not perish immediately when I came from the womb?
12 Why did the knees receive me,
And why did I nurse the breasts?
13 For now I would have been lying down and quiet;
I would have slept and been at rest
14 With kings and counselors of the earth
Who were insolent with their swords,
15 Or with rulers who had abundant gold
And filled their houses with silver;
16 Or I would have been like an untimely birth
Proceeding from his mother’s womb,
Or like infants who never saw the light.
17 There the ungodly have burnt out the fury of wrath;
There the weary in body are at rest.
18 There men of ancient times have ceased together
To hear the voice of those who collect taxes.
19 The small and great are there,
And the servant who feared his master.
20 Why is light given to those in bitterness,
And life to souls in pain,
21 Who long for death, but do not obtain it,
Digging for it like treasures,
22 And would be very joyful if they could obtain it?
23 Death is a rest to such a man,
For God is against him.
24 For groaning comes before my food;
And I weep and am oppressed with terror.
25 For the terror I was concerned about came to me,
And what I feared happened to me;
26 Neither was I at peace or quiet, nor at rest,
For wrath came upon me.”
Eliphaz Accuses Job
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “Have you been often spoken to in distress?
But now who shall endure the force of your words?
3 For though you instructed many,
And strengthened the hands of the weak one,
4 And raised up the sick with your words,
And imparted courage to feeble knees,
5 Yet now pain has come upon you and touched you;
And you are anxious.
6 Is not your fear, your hope,
And the integrity of your way of life changed into folly?
7 Can you remember anyone pure who has perished,
Or true people who were altogether uprooted?
8 According to what I have seen,
those who plow harmful things and those who sow them
Will reap pain for themselves.
9 They will perish by the command of the Lord,
And they will be destroyed by the breath of His wrath.
10 The strength of the lion, the voice of the lioness,
And the exulting cry of dragons are extinguished.
11 The old lion has perished for lack of prey,
And the cubs of the lioness have left one another.
12 “But if there had been any truth in your words,
None of these evils would have befallen you.
Shall not my ear receive extraordinary things from him?
13 But just as when terror falls upon men
With dread at a noise in the night,
14 Shivering and trembling befell me
And caused my bones to shake.
15 Then a spirit came before my face,
And my hair and flesh shook with fear.
16 I arose, but could not recognize it.
I looked, and there was no form before my eyes,
But rather a gentle breeze, and a voice, saying,
17 ‘What? Shall a mortal man be pure in the Lord’s sight,
Or blameless before Him in his works?
18 If He puts no trust in His servants,
And if He observes a perverse way in His angels,
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
Of whom we also are formed of the same clay?
Does not He smite them like a moth?
20 They no longer exist from morning till evening;
They have perished, for they cannot help themselves.
21 For He blows upon them, and they are withered.
They have perished for lack of wisdom.’
Psalm 32:1–12
1 By David.
Rejoice greatly in the Lord, O righteous ones;
Praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord on the lyre;
Sing praises to Him on a ten-stringed instrument.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Sing praises beautifully with a shout.
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His works are done in faithfulness.
5 He loves mercy and judgment;
The earth is full of the Lord’s mercy.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were established,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth,
7 Who gathers the waters of the sea together as in a wineskin,
Who put the abysses in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord,
And let all the world’s inhabitants be shaken by Him;
9 For He spoke, and they were made;
He commanded, and they were created.
10 The Lord scatters abroad the counsels of the nations,
And He sets aside the reasoning of peoples;
And He rejects the counsels of rulers.
11 The counsel of the Lord abides forever,
The thoughts of His heart from generation to generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He chose as an inheritance for Himself.
Proverbs 6:20–25
20 For he rejoices in everything the Lord hates,
And he shall be broken because of his soul’s uncleanness:
21 A haughty eye, an unrighteous tongue,
Hands that shed righteous blood,
22 A heart that devises evil thoughts,
And feet that hasten to do evil;
23 As a false witness he kindles injustice
And causes quarrels between brethren.
24 My son, guard the laws of your father,
And do not depart from the rules of your mother.
25 But fasten them to your soul continually
And wear them as a collar upon your neck.
Romans 4
4 What then shall we say that Abraham our father[a] has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was [b]accounted to him for righteousness.” 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted [c]as grace but as debt.
5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be [d]sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.