Job 16-18
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “I have heard many such things;
You are all bad comforters.
3 What order is there in words of wind?
Or what troubles you, that you answer thus?
4 I also could speak as you do,
If indeed your soul were in my soul’s place.
Then I would attack you with words
And shake my head at you.
5 But would there were strength in my mouth:
Then I would not spare the movement of my lips.
The Lord Has Rejected Me
6 “If I should speak, I would feel the pain of my wound,
But if I also should be silent, how would I be less wounded?
7 But now He has made me weary and a worn-out fool,
And you have laid hold of me.
8 My falsehood has become a testimony.
It rises up and argues against me to my face.
9 He vented His wrath and struck me down;
He gnashed at me with His teeth;
The arrows of the raiders fell on me.
10 He attacked me with the sharp darts of His eyes;
He struck me on the cheek;
With one accord they ran me down.
11 For the Lord delivered me into the hands of an unjust man
And cast me upon the ungodly.
12 When I was at peace, He rejected me.
He took me by the hair of my head and pulled it out.
He set me up as a mark.
13 They surrounded me with spears aimed at my mind.
Without sparing me, they poured out my gall on the ground.
14 Running at me with all their strength,
They knocked me down, head over heels.
15 I sewed sackcloth on my skin,
And my strength is spent on the ground.
16 My belly is on fire because of weeping,
And shade is on my eyelids.
17 Yet there was no wrongdoing in my hands,
And my prayer is pure.
18 O earth, do not cover the blood of my flesh,
Nor may my cry have a place.
19 Now behold, my witness is in the heavens,
And the One who knows me thoroughly is on high.
20 May my supplication come before the Lord,
And may my eyes pour out tears in His presence.
21 May there be rebuttal for a man before the Lord,
As a son of man with his neighbor.
22 For my years are numbered,
And I shall go the way of no return.
1 “I am perishing, carried away by the wind;
And I ask for a burial-place, but cannot obtain it.
2 I am tired of entreating, yet what have I done?
3 Strangers have stolen my possessions.
Who is he? Let him join hands with me.
4 For You hid their heart from discernment;
Therefore, You will not exalt them.
5 He will declare evils as their portion,
But my eyes melt away because of my children.
Where Is My Hope?
6 “But You made me a byword among the people,
And I have become an object of laughter to them.
7 For my eyes are petrified because of Your wrath,
And I am greatly besieged by everyone.
8 Amazement seizes true men because of this,
And the righteous man rises against the lawless man.
9 May the faithful man hold to his way,
And may those who have clean hands take courage.
10 “Nevertheless, all of you stick together,
And indeed come, for I did not find you to be true.
11 My days have passed in groaning
And my heartstrings are broken.
12 Light turned night into day.
It is near at the appearance of darkness.
13 If I tarry, Hades is my home,
And my bed is spread in darkness.
14 I called upon death to be my father
And decay to be my mother and my sister.
15 Where then is my hope,
Or where shall I see my good things?
16 Will they go down with me to Hades,
Or shall we go down together in the tomb?”
Bildad Speaks of the Ungodly
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you keep talking?
Pay close attention so we may also speak.
3 Why have we been silent before you
Like four-footed animals?
4 Wrath possesses you. Suppose you die;
Would the earth under heaven be uninhabited,
Or the mountains be overturned from their foundations?
5 “The light of the ungodly will go out,
And their flame will not go up.
6 His light shall be dark in his dwelling,
And his lamp beside him shall be put out.
7 May the least of men pounce on his goods,
And let his counsel stumble him.
8 For his foot has been caught in a snare,
And he is entangled in a net.
9 May snares come upon him.
He shall strengthen those who thirst for his destruction.
10 A snare is hidden in the ground for him,
And a capture awaits him on the beaten paths.
11 May sorrows destroy him on every side;
And may many enemies come about him
And plague him with severe hunger,
12 For a destruction out of the ordinary is prepared for him.
13 May the toes of his feet be devoured,
For death will consume his beauty.
14 May health be banished from his dwelling,
And may distress seize him because of a royal decree.
15 It shall dwell in his tent at night,
And his goodly appearance shall be sown with brimstone.
16 His roots shall be dried out from below,
And his crop shall be trampled from above.
17 His memory shall perish from the earth,
And his name shall be remembered no more.
18 May he be driven from light into darkness.
19 He shall not be known among his people,
Nor his house preserved on the earth;
But others shall live among his possessions.
20 The last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first.
21 These are the dwellings of wrongdoers,
And this is the place of those who do not know the Lord.”
Psalm 35
1 For the End; by David, the servant of the Lord.
2 The transgressor, so as to sin, says within himself,
“There is no fear of God before his eyes”;
3 For he acts deceitfully before Him,
Lest He discover his lawlessness and hate it.
4 The words of his mouth are lawlessness and deceit;
He is unwilling to understand how to do good;
5 He devises lawlessness on his bed;
He sets himself in every way not good,
And he does not abhor evil.
6 O Lord, Your mercy is in heaven,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds;
7 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are a great deep;
Men and cattle You will save, O Lord.
8 How You multiply Your mercy, O God!
The sons of men shall hope under the shelter of Your wings.
9 They shall be intoxicated with the fatness of Your house,
And You will give them drink from the abundant water of Your delight.
10 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we shall see light.
11 Extend Your mercy to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
12 Let not the foot of arrogance come against me,
And may the hand of sinners not shake me.
13 Those who work lawlessness fall there;
They are cast out, and unable to stand.
Proverbs 7:13–20
13 Then laying hold of him, she kisses him,
And with a shameless face she says to him,
14 “I have a peace offering;
Today I pay my vows;
15 For this reason I came out to meet you;
Longing for your face, I found you;
16 I spread my bed with sheets
And covered it with tapestry from Egypt.
17 I sprinkled my bed with saffron
And my house with cinnamon;
18 Come, and let us enjoy love until morning;
Come, and let us embrace in love;
19 For my husband is not at home,
But is gone on a long journey
20 Taking a bag of money in his hand;
He will return to his house after many days.”
Romans 9:1–13
1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac
11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),
12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”
13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”