Aug.
16
Job
1-4
Job
1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man
was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away
from evil.
Job
1:2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
Job
1:3 His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand
camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a
very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the
children of the east.
Job
1:4 His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his
birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and
to drink with them.
Job
1:5 It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course,
that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning,
and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For
Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God
in their hearts." Job did so continually.
Job
1:6 Now it happened on the day when the God's sons came to present
themselves before Yahweh, that Satan also came among them.
Job
1:7 Yahweh said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then
Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "From going back and forth in
the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
Job
1:8 Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job?
For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright
man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil."
Job
1:9 Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "Does Job fear God
for nothing?
Job
1:10 Haven't you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and
around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job
1:11 But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he
will renounce you to your face."
Job
1:12 Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your
power. Only on himself don't put forth your hand." So Satan went
forth from the presence of Yahweh.
Job
1:13 It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,
Job
1:14 that there came a messenger to Job, and said, "The oxen
were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,
Job
1:15 and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have
killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have
escaped to tell you."
Job
1:16 While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said,
"The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the
sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped
to tell you."
Job
1:17 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said,
"The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels,
and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge
of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you."
Job
1:18 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said,
"Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in
their eldest brother's house,
Job
1:19 and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and
struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men,
and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you."
Job
1:20 Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and
fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
Job
1:21 He said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed
be the name of Yahweh."
Job
1:22 In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.
Job
2:1 Again it happened on the day when the God's sons came to present
themselves before Yahweh, that Satan came also among them to present
himself before Yahweh.
Job
2:2 Yahweh said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "From going back and forth in
the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
Job
2:3 Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?
For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright
man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains
his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him
without cause."
Job
2:4 Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "Skin for skin. Yes, all
that a man has he will give for his life.
Job
2:5 But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will renounce you to your face."
Job
2:6 Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only
spare his life."
Job
2:7 So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job
with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.
Job
2:8 He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he
sat among the ashes.
Job
2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still maintain your
integrity? Renounce God, and die."
Job
2:10 But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women
would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job didn't sin with his
lips.
Job
2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had
come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an
appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort
him.
Job
2:12 When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn't
recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore
his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
Job
2:13 So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven
nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was
very great.
Job
3:1 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his
birth.
Job
3:2 Job answered:
Job
3:3 "Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which
said, 'There is a boy conceived.'
Job
3:4 Let that day be darkness. Don't let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it.
Job
3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let
a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.
Job
3:6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not
rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number
of the months.
Job
3:7 Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come
therein.
Job
3:8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up
leviathan.
Job
3:9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light,
but have none, neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
Job
3:10 because it didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor
did it hide trouble from my eyes.
Job
3:11 "Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the
spirit when my mother bore me?
Job
3:12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should
suck?
Job
3:13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have
slept, then I would have been at rest,
Job
3:14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste
places for themselves;
Job
3:15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with
silver:
Job
3:16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, as infants who
never saw light.
Job
3:17 There the wicked cease from troubling. There the weary are at
rest.
Job
3:18 There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the
voice of the taskmaster.
Job
3:19 The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his
master.
Job
3:20 "Why is light given to him who is in misery, life to the
bitter in soul,
Job
3:21 Who long for death, but it doesn't come; and dig for it more
than for hidden treasures,
Job
3:22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the
grave?
Job
3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, whom God has
hedged in?
Job
3:24 For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out
like water.
Job
3:25 For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid
of comes to me.
Job
3:26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but
trouble comes."
Job
4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
Job
4:2 "If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
Job
4:3 Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak
hands.
Job
4:4 Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made
firm the feeble knees.
Job
4:5 But now it is come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and
you are troubled.
Job
4:6 Isn't your piety your confidence? Isn't the integrity of your
ways your hope?
Job
4:7 "Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where
were the upright cut off?
Job
4:8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow
trouble, reap the same.
Job
4:9 By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are
they consumed.
Job
4:10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the
teeth of the young lions, are broken.
Job
4:11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey. The cubs of the lioness
are scattered abroad.
Job
4:12 "Now a thing was secretly brought to me. My ear received a
whisper of it.
Job
4:13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep
falls on men,
Job
4:14 fear came on me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
Job
4:15 Then a spirit passed before my face. The hair of my flesh stood
up.
Job
4:16 It stood still, but I couldn't discern its appearance. A form
was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
Job
4:17 'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more
pure than his Maker?
Job
4:18 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels
with error.
Job
4:19 How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose
foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!
Job
4:20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish
forever without any regarding it.
Job
4:21 Isn't their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and
that without wisdom.'