Job 9, 10
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I know that is true,
But how can a mortal man be righteous before the Lord?
3 If he should wish to enter into judgment with Him,
The Lord would not listen to him,
For he could not answer to one out of a thousand of His charges.
4 He is wise in mind and mighty and great.
Who has hardened himself against Him and endured?
5 He who makes the mountains old, and men do not know it;
He who overturns them in His wrath;
6 He who shakes the earth under heaven from its foundations,
And its pillars tremble;
7 He who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
He who seals off the stars;
8 He who alone stretches out heaven;
He who walks on the sea as on firm ground;
9 He who makes Pleiades, Hesperus, and Arcturus,
And the chambers of the south;
10 He who does great and unsearchable things,
Glorious and marvelous things without number.
11 If He goes beyond me, I do not see Him;
If He passes by me, I do not perceive Him;
12 If He takes away, who can turn Him back?
Who can say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
13 For if He turns away His wrath,
The great sea creatures under heaven lie prostrate beneath Him.
14 “Would then that He would hear me, or judge my words.
15 For though I be righteous, He will not listen to me.
I will entreat His judgment.
16 If I should call, and He hears me,
I would not believe He is listening to me.
17 Let Him not destroy me with darkness,
But He has caused my great destruction to no purpose.
18 For He will not allow me to draw breath,
But has filled me with bitterness.
19 For if He is strong in power,
Who then can resist His judgment?
20 For though I were righteous, my mouth will be impious;
And though I were blameless, I will be perverse.
21 “If I am ungodly, I do not know it in my soul,
But my life is taken away.
22 Therefore I said, ‘Wrath destroys the great and the mighty.’
23 The wrongdoers die violently,
But the righteous are laughed to scorn.
24 For they are delivered into the hands of the ungodly man.
He covers the faces of the judges of the earth.
If it is not He, who else could it be?
25 “Now my life passes swifter than a runner;
My days have fled away, and they do not see it.
26 Do the ships leave a mark of their path?
Or does a flying eagle leave a trace of its soaring as it seeks its prey?
27 If I say, ‘I will forget to speak,’
I will bow down my face and groan.
28 I shake with fear in all my limbs;
I know You will not leave me as innocent.
29 But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?
30 If I should wash myself with snow
And cleanse myself with pure hands,
31 You have fully immersed me in filth,
And my garment detests me.
32 “For You are not a man, as I am,
With whom I could contend,
That we should go to judgment together.
33 Would that we had a mediator who would cross-examine
And hear the case between us.
34 Let Him remove the rod from me,
And do not let the fear of Him distress me.
35 Then I will not be afraid, but will speak,
For I am not conscious of any guilt.
Lord, Why Have You Judged Me?
1 “Since I am weary and groaning in my soul,
I will let loose my words to Him.
Because I am distressed,
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to the Lord, ‘Do not teach me to be ungodly.
Why have You thus judged me?
3 Is it good before You if I do wrong,
And that You renounce the work of Your hands,
And give heed to the counsel of the ungodly?
4 Do You see as the mortal sees?
Do You see as man sees?
5 Is Your life human life?
Are Your years like the years of a man,
6 That You examined my lawlessness
And searched out my sins?
7 You know I have not acted impiously,
But who is he who can deliver from Your hands?
8 ‘Your hands fashioned and made me;
Then You changed Your mind and struck me.
9 Remember that You fashioned me as clay,
But You are turning me back to earth again.
10 Did You not squeeze me out like milk
And curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You granted me life and mercy,
And Your visitation has guarded my spirit.
13 ‘Since You have these things in Yourself,
I know You are able to do all things;
For nothing is impossible for You.
14 For if I sin, You watch me;
And because of my lawlessness
You will not consider me innocent.
15 For if I am ungodly, woe to me,
And if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head;
For I am full of dishonor.
16 I am trapped like a lion for slaughter;
For again You have changed, and You are destroying me.
17 You renewed my affliction upon me,
And dealt with me in great wrath;
For You brought severe ordeals upon me.
18 ‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?
Why did I not die, and no eye see me?
19 Why have I become as though I had not been?
For why was I not carried from the womb to the grave?
20 Is not the time of my life short?
Allow me to rest a little
21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return,
To an obscure and dark land,
22 To a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light,
Neither can any one see the life of mortals.’ ”
Psalm 33:12–23
12 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
13 Who is the man who desires life,
Who loves to see good days?
14 Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
15 Shun evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
16 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
And His ears are open to their supplications.
17 The Lord’s face is against those who do evil,
So as to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
18 The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them;
And He delivered them from all their afflictions.
19 The Lord is near those who are brokenhearted,
And He will save the humble in spirit.
20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But He will deliver them from them all.
21 The Lord shall guard all their bones;
Not one of them shall be broken.
22 The death of sinners is evil,
And those who hate the righteous shall go wrong.
23 The Lord will redeem the souls of His servants,
And all who hope in Him shall not go wrong.
Proverbs 6:37–40
37 But the adulterer through his lack of discernment
Obtains the destruction of his soul;
38 He bears both pain and dishonor,
And his disgrace will not be wiped away forever.
39 For the anger of her husband is full of jealousy;
He will not spare in the day of judgment;
40 He will not take any ransom in exchange for his hatred,
Nor will he be reconciled by many gifts.
Romans 7
7 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law [a]has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.