Job Says Friends Are Sorry Comforters

1Then Job answered,

2“I have heard many such things;

Sorry comforters are you all.

3Is there no limit to windy words?

Or what plagues you that you answer?

4I too could speak like you,

If I were in your place.

I could compose words against you

And shake my head at you.

5I could strengthen you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

Job Says God Shattered Him

6“If I speak, my pain is not lessened,

And if I hold back, what has left me?

7But now He has exhausted me;

You have laid waste all my company.

8You have shriveled me up,

It has become a witness;

And my leanness rises up against me,

It testifies to my face.

9His anger has torn me and hunted me down,

He has gnashed at me with His teeth;

My adversary glares at me.

10They have gaped at me with their mouth,

They have slapped me on the cheek with contempt;

They have massed themselves against me.

11God hands me over to ruffians

And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

12I was at ease, but He shattered me,

And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

He has also set me up as His target.

13His arrows surround me.

Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

He pours out my gall on the ground.

14He breaks through me with breach after breach;

He runs at me like a warrior.

15I have sewed sackcloth over my skin

And thrust my horn in the dust.

16My face is flushed from weeping,

And deep darkness is on my eyelids,

17Although there is no violence in my hands,

And my prayer is pure.

18“O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no resting place for my cry.

19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,

And my advocate is on high.

20My friends are my scoffers;

My eye weeps to God.

21O that a man might plead with God

As a man with his neighbor!

22For when a few years are past,

I shall go the way of no return.

Job Says He Has Become a Byword

1“My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,

The grave is ready for me.

2Surely mockers are with me,

And my eye gazes on their provocation.

3“Lay down, now, a pledge for me with Yourself;

Who is there that will be my guarantor?

4For You have kept their heart from understanding,

Therefore You will not exalt them.

5He who informs against friends for a share of the spoil,

The eyes of his children also will languish.

6“But He has made me a byword of the people,

And I am one at whom men spit.

7My eye has also grown dim because of grief,

And all my members are as a shadow.

8The upright will be appalled at this,

And the innocent will stir up himself against the godless.

9Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way,

And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

10But come again all of you now,

For I do not find a wise man among you.

11My days are past, my plans are torn apart,

Even the wishes of my heart.

12They make night into day, saying,

‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

13If I look for Sheol as my home,

I make my bed in the darkness;

14If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’;

To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

15Where now is my hope?

And who regards my hope?

16Will it go down with me to Sheol?

Shall we together go down into the dust?”

Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

1Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,

2“How long will you hunt for words?

Show understanding and then we can talk.

3Why are we regarded as beasts,

As stupid in your eyes?

4O you who tear yourself in your anger—

For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,

Or the rock to be moved from its place?

5“Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out,

And the flame of his fire gives no light.

6The light in his tent is darkened,

And his lamp goes out above him.

7His vigorous stride is shortened,

And his own scheme brings him down.

8For he is thrown into the net by his own feet,

And he steps on the webbing.

9A snare seizes him by the heel,

And a trap snaps shut on him.

10A noose for him is hidden in the ground,

And a trap for him on the path.

11All around terrors frighten him,

And harry him at every step.

12His strength is famished,

And calamity is ready at his side.

13His skin is devoured by disease,

The firstborn of death devours his limbs.

14He is torn from the security of his tent,

And they march him before the king of terrors.

15There dwells in his tent nothing of his;

Brimstone is scattered on his habitation.

16His roots are dried below,

And his branch is cut off above.

17Memory of him perishes from the earth,

And he has no name abroad.

18He is driven from light into darkness,

And chased from the inhabited world.

19He has no offspring or posterity among his people,

Nor any survivor where he sojourned.

20Those in the west are appalled at his fate,

And those in the east are seized with horror.

21Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,

And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

Job Feels Insulted

1Then Job responded,

2“How long will you torment me

And crush me with words?

3These ten times you have insulted me;

You are not ashamed to wrong me.

4Even if I have truly erred,

My error lodges with me.

5If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me

And prove my disgrace to me,

6Know then that God has wronged me

And has closed His net around me.

Everything Is against Him

7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;

I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,

And He has put darkness on my paths.

9He has stripped my honor from me

And removed the crown from my head.

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;

And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11He has also kindled His anger against me

And considered me as His enemy.

12His troops come together,

And build up their way against me

And camp around my tent.

13“He has removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14My relatives have failed,

And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

15Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.

I am a foreigner in their sight.

16I call to my servant, but he does not answer;

I have to implore him with my mouth.

17My breath is offensive to my wife,

And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18Even young children despise me;

I rise up and they speak against me.

19All my associates abhor me,

And those I love have turned against me.

20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,

And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you persecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

23“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock forever!

25As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

26Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

27Whom I myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My heart faints within me!

28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’

And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

29Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

So that you may know there is judgment.”

Instructions and Greetings

1Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. 3When I arrive, whomever you may approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem; 4and if it is fitting for me to go also, they will go with me.

5But I will come to you after I go through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia; 6and perhaps I will stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I may go. 7For I do not wish to see you now just in passing; for I hope to remain with you for some time, if the Lord permits. 8But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; 9for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

10Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without cause to be afraid, for he is doing the Lord’s work, as I also am. 11So let no one despise him. But send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brethren.

12But concerning Apollos our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren; and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity.

13Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14Let all that you do be done in love.

15Now I urge you, brethren (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for ministry to the saints), 16that you also be in subjection to such men and to everyone who helps in the work and labors. 17I rejoice over the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part. 18For they have refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore acknowledge such men.

19The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Prisca greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. 20All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

21The greeting is in my own hand—Paul. 22If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha. 23The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. 24My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.

PSALM 40

God Sustains His Servant.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

1I waited patiently for the Lord;

And He inclined to me and heard my cry.

2He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,

And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

3He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;

Many will see and fear

And will trust in the Lord.

4How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,

And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

5Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,

And Your thoughts toward us;

There is none to compare with You.

If I would declare and speak of them,

They would be too numerous to count.

6Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;

My ears You have opened;

Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.

7Then I said, “Behold, I come;

In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

8I delight to do Your will, O my God;

Your Law is within my heart.”

9I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;

Behold, I will not restrain my lips,

O Lord, You know.

10I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;

I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;

I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

On Life and Conduct

1A good name is to be more desired than great wealth,

Favor is better than silver and gold.