Job 23-25
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Indeed, I know pleading is out of my reach,
For His hand is heavy upon my groaning.
3 Who then would know, that I might find Him,
And might bring this matter to an end?
4 I would state my case before Him
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 Would that I knew the words He would answer me
And could understand what He would tell me.
6 Though He would come on me in His great strength,
He would not use the occasion to threaten me.
7 For truth and rebuke are from Him,
And He would bring my judgment to an end.
8 “Though I should proceed to this important end
Until I no longer exist,
Still what would I know about the last things?
9 When He worked on the left hand,
I could not understand it.
His right hand will encompass me,
But I will not see it.
10 For He knows my way already,
And He has weighed me as gold.
11 I will go forth in His commandments;
For I have kept His ways and will not turn aside.
12 I will not disregard His commandments;
But I have hidden His words in my bosom.
13 “If He too has thus judged,
Who is he that has opposed Him?
Whatever He has willed, that He has done.
14 Therefore I pursue Him zealously,
And when I was instructed, I thought of Him.
15 Therefore let me be serious before His face.
I will consider and be afraid of Him.
16 For the Lord softened my heart,
And the Almighty has alarmed me.
17 For I did not know darkness would come upon me,
But thick darkness covered my face.
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?”
Bildad Asks How Man Can Be Righteous
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “What beginning or fear is His—
He who makes all things in the highest heaven?
3 For may no one imagine there is a respite for pirates.
Upon whom will there not be an ambush from Him?
4 How shall a mortal be righteous before the Lord?
Or how may he who is born of a woman purify himself?
5 If He orders the moon, then it does not shine,
And the stars are not pure in His sight.
6 But alas! Man is putrid, and the son of man a worm.”
Psalm 37:1–11
1 A psalm by David; for remembrance concerning the Sabbath.
2 O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath,
Nor chasten me in Your anger.
3 For Your arrows are fixed in me,
And Your hand rests on me;
4 There is no healing in my flesh because of Your wrath;
There is no peace in my bones because of my sins.
5 For my transgressions rise up over my head;
Like a heavy burden they are heavy on me.
6 My wounds grow foul and fester
Because of my folly.
7 I suffer misery, and I am utterly bowed down;
I go all the day long with a sad face.
8 For my loins are filled with mockeries,
And there is no healing in my flesh.
9 I am afflicted and greatly humbled;
I roar because of the groaning of my heart.
10 O Lord, all my desire is before You,
And my groaning is not hidden from You.
11 My heart is troubled; my strength fails me,
And the light of my eyes, even this is not with me.
Proverbs 8:1–5
1 You shall proclaim wisdom
That discernment may obey you;
2 For she is on the lofty summit
And stands in the midst of the paths.
3 For she sits beside the gates of princes
And sings at the entrances,
4 “You, O men, I exhort,
And I utter my voice to the sons of men;
5 Understand astuteness, O simple ones,
And put it in your heart, O uninstructed ones.
Romans 11:1–15
1 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”?
4 But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
8 Just as it is written:
“God has given them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes that they should not see
And ears that they should not hear,
To this very day.”
9 And David says:
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always.”
Israel’s Rejection Not Final
11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?