Job 13 Cross References - MSB

¹ “Indeed, my eyes have seen all this; my ears have heard and understood. ² What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. ³ Yet I desire to speak to the Almighty and argue my case before God. ⁴ You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians. ⁵ If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom! ⁶ Hear now my argument, and listen to the plea of my lips. ⁷ Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him? ⁸ Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense? ⁹ Would it be well when He examined you? Could you deceive Him like a man? ¹⁰ Surely He would rebuke you if you secretly showed partiality. ¹¹ Would His majesty not terrify you? Would the dread of Him not fall upon you? ¹² Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay. ¹³ Be silent, and I will speak. Then let come to me what may. ¹⁴ Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands? ¹⁵ Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face. ¹⁶ Moreover, this will be my salvation, for no godless man can appear before Him. ¹⁷ Listen carefully to my words; let my declaration ring in your ears. ¹⁸ Behold, now that I have prepared my case, I know that I will be vindicated. ¹⁹ Can anyone indict me? If so, I will be silent and die. ²⁰ Only grant these two things to me, so that I need not hide from You: ²¹ Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me. ²² Then call me, and I will answer, or let me speak, and You can reply. ²³ How many are my iniquities and sins? Reveal to me my transgression and sin. ²⁴ Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy? ²⁵ Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff? ²⁶ For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth. ²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet. ²⁸ So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.

¹² Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.

⁹ the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. ¹⁰ He gives rain to the earth and sends water upon the fields. ¹¹ He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety. ¹² He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success. ¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning. ¹⁴ They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night. ¹⁵ He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful. ¹⁶ So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

²⁷ Indeed, we have investigated, and it is true! So hear it and know for yourself.”

⁸ Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers. ⁹ For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow. ¹⁰ Will they not teach you and tell you, and speak from their understanding?

⁹ Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? ¹⁰ The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind. ¹¹ Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food? ¹² Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life. ¹³ Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His. ¹⁴ What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released. ¹⁵ If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land. ¹⁶ True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away barefoot and makes fools of judges. ¹⁸ He loosens the bonds placed by kings and fastens a belt around their waists. ¹⁹ He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established. ²⁰ He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders. ²¹ He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. ²² He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light. ²³ He makes nations great and destroys them; He enlarges nations, then disperses them. ²⁴ He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. ²⁵ They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.

¹⁷ Listen to me and I will inform you. I will describe what I have seen, ¹⁸ what was declared by wise men and was not concealed from their fathers,

³ You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ⁴ You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’ ⁵ My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You. ⁶ Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

³ that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us. ⁴ We will not hide them from their children, but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He has performed.

³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

³ But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

⁸ Do you listen in on the council of God or limit wisdom to yourself? ⁹ What do you know that we do not? What do you understand that is not clear to us?

³⁵ ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’

¹⁶ So Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.”

² Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

⁴ “Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth. ⁵ I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”

⁷ After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

¹ Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily. ⁵ I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.”

¹⁶ I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷ In this confident boasting of mine, I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as a fool. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.

¹¹ I have become a fool in my boasting, but you drove me to it. In fact, you should have commended me, since I am in no way inferior to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

³ If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

¹⁴ How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him? ¹⁵ For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

³⁴ Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me. ³⁵ Then I would speak without fear of Him. But as it is, I am on my own.

⁵ But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,

¹⁵ Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.

²² Then call me, and I will answer, or let me speak, and You can reply.

³ If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat. ⁴ I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. ⁵ I would learn how He would answer, and consider what He would say. ⁶ Would He contend with me in His great power? No, He would certainly take note of me. ⁷ Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.

³⁵ (Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land. ²⁰ But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

²¹ “Present your case,” says the LORD. “Submit your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.

¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? ² You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

² Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:

¹⁶ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

⁷ Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed? ⁸ As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. ⁹ By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. ¹⁰ The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken. ¹¹ The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹ “Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn? ² For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. ³ I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed. ⁴ His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender. ⁵ The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

²¹ For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.

³ Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? ⁴ When your children sinned against Him, He gave them over to their rebellion.

² “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

⁵ Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow. ⁶ The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out. ⁷ His vigorous stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up. ⁸ For his own feet lead him into a net, and he wanders into its mesh. ⁹ A trap seizes his heel; a snare grips him. ¹⁰ A noose is hidden in the ground, and a trap lies in his path. ¹¹ Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step. ¹² His strength is depleted, and calamity is ready at his side. ¹³ It devours patches of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs. ¹⁴ He is torn from the shelter of his tent and is marched off to the king of terrors. ¹⁵ Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling. ¹⁶ The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away. ¹⁷ The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the land. ¹⁸ He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world. ¹⁹ He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived. ²⁰ Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror. ²¹ Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked and the place of one who does not know God.”

²⁷ Behold, I know your thoughts full well, the schemes by which you would wrong me. ²⁸ For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’ ²⁹ Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports? ³⁰ Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath. ³¹ Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done? ³² He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. ³³ The clods of the valley are sweet to him; everyone follows behind him, and those before him are without number. ³⁴ So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”

⁶ For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing. ⁷ You gave no water to the weary and withheld food from the famished, ⁸ while the land belonged to a mighty man, and a man of honor lived on it. ⁹ You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. ¹⁰ Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you; ¹¹ it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you. ¹² Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are! ¹³ Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness? ¹⁴ Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’ ¹⁵ Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod? ¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood. ¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’ ¹⁸ But it was He who filled their houses with good things; so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked. ¹⁹ The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent mock them: ²⁰ ‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’ ²¹ Reconcile now and be at peace with Him; thereby good will come to you. ²² Receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. ²³ If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents ²⁴ and consign your gold to the dust and the gold of Ophir to the stones of the ravines, ²⁵ then the Almighty will be your gold and the finest silver for you. ²⁶ Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. ²⁷ You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows. ²⁸ Your decisions will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways. ²⁹ When men are brought low and you say, ‘Lift them up!’ then He will save the lowly. ³⁰ He will deliver even one who is not innocent, rescuing him through the cleanness of your hands.”

⁶⁹ Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.

¹⁴ They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

³² “Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

¹³ There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.

¹¹ Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.

⁴ You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

²⁶ She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.

³ Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke?

¹³ Be silent, and I will speak. Then let come to me what may.

³ Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

² “How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk.

² “How long will you torment me and crush me with your words?

² “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me. ³ Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

¹ So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

²⁸ Even a fool is considered wise if he keeps silent, and discerning when he holds his tongue.

³ As a dream comes through many cares, so the speech of a fool comes with many words.

¹³ Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

¹⁹ So then, my beloved brothers, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

⁷ When this was reported to Jotham, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim, raised his voice, and cried out: “Listen to me, O leaders of Shechem, and may God listen to you.

¹ “But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words. ² Behold, I will open my mouth; my address is on the tip of my tongue. ³ My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.

² “Hear my words, O wise men; give ear to me, O men of learning.

⁶ Listen, for I speak of noble things, and the opening of my lips will reveal right. ⁷ For my mouth will speak the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁷ Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?

² “Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated? ³ Should your babbling put others to silence? Will you scoff without rebuke? ⁴ You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’

⁵ If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.

⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

²¹ I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man. ²² For I do not know how to flatter, or my Maker would remove me in an instant.

⁴ For truly my words are free of falsehood; one perfect in knowledge is with you.

² They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

⁵ But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms. ⁶ Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world? ⁷ For if my falsehood accentuates God’s truthfulness, to the increase of His glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner? ⁸ Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, “Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is deserved!

² Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

² You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd. ³ And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.

¹⁵ You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

²¹ I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man.

¹⁹ who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.

²³ These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

⁹ “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”

¹⁶ True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.

² Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.

³⁶ If only Job were tried to the utmost for answering like a wicked man.

²¹ would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.

²² So now, do not mock, or your shackles will become heavier. Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land.

¹⁰ I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

⁷ Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. ⁸ The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

⁷ After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. ⁸ So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”

²¹ You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face. ²² Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

² “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

⁹ But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁶ and terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone until Your people pass by, O LORD, until the people You have bought pass by.

²¹ Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.

²³ For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

¹²⁰ My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

¹³ The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

²² Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

¹⁰ But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

³ and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! ⁴ Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

⁷ Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

²⁷ Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹⁹ how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

¹⁷ The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the land.

¹⁶ But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to wipe out all memory of them from the earth.

¹² But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.

¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the LORD, that He may cut off their memory from the earth.

⁷ The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

¹⁴ The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them.

¹ Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

⁹ that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off! ¹⁰ It still brings me comfort, and joy through unrelenting pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁵ so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body. ¹⁶ I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

¹ “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

⁵ If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

³ Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

³ When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to fight against me?”

⁵ He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”

²¹ When the woman came to Saul and saw how distraught he was, she said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hands and did as you told me.

⁴ You who tear yourself in anger—should the earth be forsaken on your account, or the rocks be moved from their place?

¹⁰⁹ I constantly take my life in my hands, yet I do not forget Your law.

⁵ The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.

²⁰ They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.

²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷ though You know that I am not guilty, and there is no deliverance from Your hand?

¹⁸ Behold, now that I have prepared my case, I know that I will be vindicated.

¹⁷ yet my hands are free of violence and my prayer is pure.

²¹ Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!

²⁵ But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. ²⁶ Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. ²⁷ I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me! ²⁸ If you say, ‘Let us persecute him, since the root of the matter lies with him,’

¹⁰ Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

⁵ I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die.

³¹ if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’— ³² but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler— ³³ if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart, ³⁴ because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside— ³⁵ (Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment. ³⁶ Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown. ³⁷ I would give account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince.)—

² “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”

⁸ Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

³² The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither the present nor the future, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

²⁰ Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

² The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

¹³ Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so the hope of the godless will perish.

⁸ For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? ⁹ Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? ¹⁰ Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

¹³ The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when He binds them, they do not cry for help.

¹ Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will not be shaken. ⁷ My salvation and my honor rest on God, my strong rock; my refuge is in God.

¹⁴ The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.

²¹ I will give You thanks, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation.

¹ In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. ² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: “Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”

²³ Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.

⁴⁷ For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁶ Hear now my argument, and listen to the plea of my lips.

² “Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.

¹ “But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

² “Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God? ³ If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

²⁰ Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.

⁴ I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁷ “Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me. ⁸ Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

²⁶ Remind Me, let us argue the matter together. State your case, so that you may be vindicated.

³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is there to condemn us? For Christ, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.

¹² And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the integrity and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

⁸ Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

⁵ If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my disgrace against me,

⁵ Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me. ⁶ I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay. ⁷ Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.

³² But if you have something to say, answer me; speak up, for I would like to vindicate you.

⁷ Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame. ⁸ The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me!

⁹ If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ “I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

¹² even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

¹⁵ Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. ¹⁶ And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

³⁴ Let Him remove His rod from me, so that His terror will no longer frighten me.

²⁰ Are my days not few? Withdraw from me, that I may have a little comfort,

¹¹ Would His majesty not terrify you? Would the dread of Him not fall upon you?

¹⁵ Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod? ¹⁶ They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood. ¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’

⁷ Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.

¹⁰ Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

¹⁶ If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe He would listen to my voice.

³² For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

¹⁵ You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.

³ Now brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall inform Me.

⁵ Is not your wickedness great? Are not your iniquities endless?

⁸ And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction, ⁹ then He tells them their deeds and how arrogantly they have transgressed.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, ²¹ would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

²⁰ He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness.

¹⁶ “Why do you consult me,” asked Samuel, “since the LORD has turned away from you and become your enemy?

² I will say to God: Do not condemn me! Let me know why You prosecute me.

⁹ His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

¹¹ His anger burns against me, and He counts me among His enemies.

² “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, ³ when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,

²¹ You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

¹⁰ Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy.

¹ Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble?

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?

²⁴ Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?

⁶ At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered: ⁷ “Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again? ⁸ Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time? ⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has His anger shut off His compassion?” Selah

¹⁴ Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?

¹⁷ I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

⁵ The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.

¹⁵ Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

¹⁴ Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?

³ Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?

¹⁸ Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

¹³ The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

²⁰ A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

²⁰ “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.

²⁰ Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

¹¹ The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie down with him in the dust.

⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD.

³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. ⁴ I am counted among those descending to the Pit. I am like a man without strength. ⁵ I am forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care. ⁶ You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths. ⁷ Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah ⁸ You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape. ⁹ My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You. ¹⁰ Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You? Selah ¹¹ Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon? ¹² Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion? ¹³ But to You, O LORD, I cry for help; in the morning my prayer comes before You. ¹⁴ Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me? ¹⁵ From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair. ¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. ¹⁷ All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side. ¹⁸ You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.

¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, ¹² and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

¹⁹ After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

⁵ One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

¹⁴ Afterward, Jesus found the man at the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”

¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people. ¹¹ Now the rest of the acts of Asa, from beginning to end, are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady became increasingly severe. Yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians.

⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

⁶ that You should seek my iniquity and search out my sin—

¹⁶ For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

¹¹ He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’

²² He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,

²⁴ On receiving this order, he placed them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

¹² Please do not let her be like a stillborn infant whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb.”

¹⁷ Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest. ¹⁸ With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹ He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁹ I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches. ³⁰ My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

¹¹ You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

¹² So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.