Job 34 Cross References - MSB

¹ Then Elihu continued: ² “Hear my words, O wise men; give ear to me, O men of learning. ³ For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food. ⁴ Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good. ⁵ For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice. ⁶ Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ ⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks up derision like water? ⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’ ¹⁰ Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly. ¹¹ For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences. ¹² Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice. ¹³ Who gave Him charge over the earth? Who appointed Him over the whole world? ¹⁴ If He were to set His heart to it and withdraw His Spirit and breath, ¹⁵ all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust. ¹⁶ If you have understanding, hear this; listen to my words. ¹⁷ Could one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One, ¹⁸ who says to kings, ‘You are worthless!’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked,’ ¹⁹ who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands. ²⁰ They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand. ²¹ For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step. ²² There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide. ²³ For God need not examine a man further or have him approach for judgment. ²⁴ He shatters the mighty without inquiry and sets up others in their place. ²⁵ Therefore, He recognizes their deeds; He overthrows them in the night and they are crushed. ²⁶ He strikes them for their wickedness in full view, ²⁷ because they turned aside from Him and had no regard for any of His ways. ²⁸ They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted. ²⁹ But when He remains silent, who can condemn Him? When He hides His face, who can see Him? Yet He watches over both man and nation, ³⁰ that godless men should not rule or lay snares for the people. ³¹ Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more. ³² Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do it again.’ ³³ Should God repay you on your own terms when you have disavowed His? You must choose, not I; so tell me what you know. ³⁴ Men of understanding will declare to me, and the wise men who hear me will say: ³⁵ ‘Job speaks without knowledge; his words lack insight.’ ³⁶ If only Job were tried to the utmost for answering like a wicked man. ³⁷ For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”

⁵ let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel

¹⁵ I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say.

²⁰ Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

³⁰ Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹¹ Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food?

³⁰ I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—

² Behold, I will open my mouth; my address is on the tip of my tongue.

¹⁵ The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

³⁰ And everyone who saw it said, “Nothing like this has been seen or done from the day the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt until this day. Think it over, take counsel, and speak up!”

⁷ Behold, all you Israelites, give your advice and verdict here and now.”

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

² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. ³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear, ⁴ but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. ⁵ Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.

²⁴ Stop judging by outward appearances, and start judging justly.”

² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

² Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! ⁴ So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

¹¹ When Peter came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood to be condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group. ¹³ The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. ¹⁴ When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

²¹ but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.

¹⁷ For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

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

⁴ You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’

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

² “As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—

¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

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

⁹ ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹³ His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.

⁴ my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit. ⁵ I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die. ⁶ I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

¹⁹ because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

¹⁶ how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?

²² “How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?

¹⁷ For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁰ “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

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

⁵ For your iniquity instructs your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty.

¹⁵ Will you stay on the ancient path that wicked men have trod?

¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

⁴ I do not sit with deceitful men, nor keep company with hypocrites.

¹⁸ When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹² Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth. ¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands. ¹⁴ For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning. ¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak this way,” then I would have betrayed Your children.

¹⁵ my son, do not walk the road with them or set foot upon their path.

¹² to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,

¹⁴ Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers.

²⁰ He who walks with the wise will become wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

³³ Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

²² It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’ ²³ When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

³⁰ If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, ³¹ then You would plunge me into the pit, and even my own clothes would despise me.

¹⁴ Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways. ¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’ ¹⁶ Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

³⁰ Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

¹⁷ They said to God, ‘Depart from us. What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁰ Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

³ For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?

²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

⁴ He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

⁷ And now, may the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the LORD our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

³ Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

² “Hear my words, O wise men; give ear to me, O men of learning. ³ For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.

³⁴ Men of understanding will declare to me, and the wise men who hear me will say:

²³ Who has appointed His way for Him, or told Him, ‘You have done wrong’?

²³ The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.

¹⁵ to proclaim, “The LORD is upright; He is my Rock, and in Him there is no unrighteousness.”

³² He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

³² He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

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?

⁴ Certainly not! Let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that You may be proved right when You speak and victorious when You judge.” 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.

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not!

¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.

²⁶ He prays to God and finds favor; he sees God’s face and shouts for joy, and God restores His righteousness to that man.

¹² and loving devotion to You, O Lord. For You will repay each man according to his deeds.

³¹ So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

¹² If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” does not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds?

¹⁹ the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

¹⁷ Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just. ¹⁸ If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it. ¹⁹ But if a wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live because of this. ²⁰ Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to his ways, O house of Israel.”

²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will repay each one according to what he has done.

⁶ God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”

¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

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.

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each one’s work impartially, conduct yourselves in reverent fear during your stay as foreigners.

¹² “Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done.

⁷ For the LORD is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.

¹⁷ The LORD is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.

¹² Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. O LORD, You have appointed them to execute judgment; O Rock, You have established them for correction. ¹³ Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So why do You tolerate the faithless? Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?

¹¹ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.

⁴ Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, ¹⁰ when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors, ¹¹ and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’? ¹² In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, ¹³ that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment. ¹⁵ Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken. ¹⁶ Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. ¹⁹ Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides, ²⁰ so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great! ²² Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail, ²³ which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle? ²⁴ In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth? ²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt, ²⁶ to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives, ²⁷ to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew? ²⁹ From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven, ³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen? ³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? ³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? ³⁴ Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you? ³⁵ Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens ³⁸ when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹ Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket? ⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?

⁸ Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself? ⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His? ¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and clothe yourself with honor and glory. ¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.

²³ From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began. ²⁴ When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth, when no springs were overflowing with water. ²⁵ Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth, ²⁶ before He made the land or fields, or any of the dust of the earth. ²⁷ I was there when He established the heavens, when He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, ²⁸ when He established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep gushed forth, ²⁹ when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth. ³⁰ Then I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delight day by day, rejoicing always in His presence.

¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor? ¹⁴ Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding?

³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?” ³⁵ “Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?” ³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

¹⁷ What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,

⁴ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

²⁹ When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.

²² They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.

¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

²² It is all the same, and so I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

⁹ Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?

²³ Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

³ You return man to dust, saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.” ⁴ For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night. ⁵ You whisk them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning— ⁶ in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers. ⁷ For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath. ⁸ You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. ⁹ For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh. ¹⁰ The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

⁷ before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁴ I am not angry. If only thorns and briers confronted Me, I would march and trample them, I would burn them to the ground.

¹⁶ For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me, with the breath of those I have made.

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

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.

²¹ But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”

³ The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

²² In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.

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

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?

²⁸ You must not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

²⁶ It is surely not good to punish the innocent or to flog a noble for his honesty.

³ Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.”

⁵ “Brothers,” Paul replied, “I was not aware that he was the high priest, for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”

⁷ Therefore pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

¹⁷ Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

¹⁰ Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

⁸ Yet in the same way these dreamers defile their bodies, reject authority, and slander glorious beings.

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.

¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

³ Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?

¹⁹ He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established.

²¹ He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.

⁸ Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense?

¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

¹⁹ Can your wealth or all your mighty effort keep you from distress?

² The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One: ³ “Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords.” ⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.

⁶ They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches. ⁷ No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

³¹ Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

² The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD is Maker of them all.

⁸ If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

¹⁴ The LORD brings this charge against the elders and leaders of His people: “You have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.

⁶ But as for the highly esteemed—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—those leaders added nothing to me.

⁹ And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that your Master is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.

²⁵ But whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

²⁹ Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock. ³⁰ During the night Pharaoh got up—he and all his officials and all the Egyptians—and there was loud wailing in Egypt; for there was no house without someone dead.

³⁷ In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these events, and his heart failed within him and he became like a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later, the LORD struck Nabal dead. ³⁹ On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking for her in marriage.

¹⁰ David added, “As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.

²⁰ Do not long for the night, when people vanish from their homes.

¹⁹ How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!

¹⁶ Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame. ¹⁷ And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles. ¹⁸ The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man. ¹⁹ The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.

¹³ this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!

³⁰ And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones. ³¹ For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD; He will strike them with His scepter. ³² And with every stroke of the rod of punishment that the LORD brings down on them, the tambourines and lyres will sound as He battles with weapons brandished. ³³ For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

³⁶ Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

³⁸ One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

³⁴ As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.

⁴⁴ In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever. ⁴⁵ And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,

⁶ So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of Hosts.

⁶ At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!’

²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

²⁶ Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ It was the same in the days of Lot: People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

²³ Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

² For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

¹³ So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!”

⁹ For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

⁴ Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

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

²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

³ The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

¹⁷ For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.

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

⁸ Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.

⁵ May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

¹⁷ For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!

³ Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

⁵ The boastful cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all workers of iniquity.

¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

²⁹ The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.

² The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

¹⁵ Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”

²⁴ “Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

² Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. ³ Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.

²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

²⁷ And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’

⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

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.

¹³ After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

³² For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court. ³³ Nor is there a mediator between us, to lay his hand upon us both.

⁶ and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.

¹¹ Surely He knows the deceit of men. If He sees iniquity, does He not take note?

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

⁷ Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.

¹⁰ Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly. ¹¹ For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences. ¹² Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice.

¹³⁷ Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.

³ A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

⁷ To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You. ⁸ O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him

²⁰ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

³⁰ Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained. ³¹ Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no older man will be left in your house. ³² You will see distress in My dwelling place. Despite all that is good in Israel, no one in your house will ever again reach old age. ³³ And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, your eyes will fail and your heart will grieve. All your descendants will die by the sword of men. ³⁴ And this sign shall come to you concerning your two sons Hophni and Phinehas: They will both die on the same day. ³⁵ Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest. He will do whatever is in My heart and mind. And I will build for him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed one for all time. ³⁶ And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

²⁸ So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler over My people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you were not like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.

¹⁴ Moreover, the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day—yes, even today!

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

⁹ You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

⁴ May he vindicate the afflicted among the people; may he save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.

⁵ They crush Your people, O LORD; they oppress Your heritage.

⁷ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump ⁸ to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.

²⁰ “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin. ²¹ With you I shatter the horse and rider; with you I shatter the chariot and driver. ²² With you I shatter man and woman; with you I shatter the old man and the youth; with you I shatter the young man and the maiden. ²³ With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen; with you I shatter the governors and officials.

²¹ He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

³⁴ As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. ³⁵ Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

²⁸ PERES means that your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.” ²⁹ Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third highest ruler in the kingdom. ³⁰ That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain, ³¹ and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

²⁰ They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.

¹⁵ He shapes the hearts of each; He considers all their works.

⁸ All are skilled with the sword, experienced in warfare. Each has his sword at his side prepared for the terror of the night.

¹ This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night!

¹⁸ “And I, knowing their deeds and thoughts, am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see My glory.

² But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

⁷ The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.

¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.

³⁰ That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.

⁹ Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. ¹⁰ Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you.

²¹ Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

¹¹ This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight. ¹² You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked. ¹¹ Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

²⁴ “As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”

²⁰ Those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.

²⁴ The sins of some men are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others do not surface until later.

⁹ Then the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail at the sight of the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her. ¹⁰ In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

²⁰ Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.

⁵ Since they show no regard for the works of the LORD or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.

⁴³ Let him who is wise pay heed to these things and consider the loving devotion of the LORD.

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

²⁹ For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. ³⁰ They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.

³ The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

¹² At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.

⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

¹⁵ Now consider carefully from this day forward: Before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the LORD, ¹⁶ from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty. ¹⁷ I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD. ¹⁸ Consider carefully from this day forward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider carefully: ¹⁹ Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.”

³¹ On that day, let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve his possessions. Likewise, let no one in the field return for anything he has left behind. ³² Remember Lot’s wife!

³⁸ But Paul thought it best not to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

¹⁰ because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

²³ After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God. ²⁴ So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁷ The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.

⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them.

²³ If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to Me in distress, I will surely hear their cry. ²⁴ My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless. ²⁵ If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest. ²⁶ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset, ²⁷ because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? And if he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

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;

¹² From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

¹² because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper. ¹³ The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁹ if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak, ²⁰ if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

⁹ Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

⁵ “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”

⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

⁴ Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹ After the king had settled into his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him,

⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. ¹⁰ And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹ The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.

¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy. ¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

¹⁴ What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.

⁸ If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him. ⁹ When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him.

¹³ But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.

¹ And Job continued his discourse: 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,

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?

⁹ Hide not Your face from me, nor turn away Your servant in anger. You have been my helper; do not leave me or forsake me, O God of my salvation.

⁷ O LORD, You favored me; You made my mountain stand strong. When You hid Your face, I was dismayed.

⁷ Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who descend to the Pit.

³ On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, ⁴ you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended! ⁵ The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. ⁶ It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. ⁷ All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song. ⁸ Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.”

³ You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

¹⁷ The work of righteousness will be peace; the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.

⁸ As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.

³¹ What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things? 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.

⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

⁹ But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

²¹ For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.

⁸ The wicked wander freely, and vileness is exalted among men.

² When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. ³ A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth. ⁴ By justice a king brings stability to the land, but a man who exacts tribute demolishes it. ⁵ A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. ⁶ An evil man is caught by his own sin, but a righteous one sings and rejoices. ⁷ The righteous consider the cause of the poor, but the wicked have no regard for such concerns. ⁸ Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger. ⁹ If a wise man goes to court with a fool, there will be raving and laughing with no resolution. ¹⁰ Men of bloodshed hate a blameless man, but the upright care for his life. ¹¹ A fool vents all his anger, but a wise man holds it back. ¹² If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.

¹⁸ Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.

¹¹ So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

¹⁶ You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”

⁴ He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself as God in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. ⁵ Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you? ⁶ And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the breath of His mouth and annihilate by the majesty of His arrival. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, ¹⁰ and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. ¹¹ For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,

³ One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. ⁴ They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”

¹¹ Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. ¹² And this beast exercised all the authority of the first beast and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. ¹³ And the second beast performed great signs to cause even fire from heaven to come down upon the earth in the presence of the people. ¹⁴ Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived my own people who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived.

⁴¹ and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

¹³ After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this), ¹⁴ shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not become so angry with us as to wipe us out, leaving no remnant or survivor?

³³ You are just in all that has befallen us, because You have acted faithfully, while we have acted wickedly. ³⁴ Our kings and leaders and priests and fathers did not obey Your law or listen to Your commandments and warnings that You gave them. ³⁵ For even while they were in their kingdom, with the abundant goodness that You had given them, and in the spacious and fertile land that You had set before them, they would not serve You or turn from their wicked ways. ³⁶ So here we are today as slaves in the land You gave our fathers to enjoy its fruit and goodness—here we are as slaves! ³⁷ Its abundant harvest goes to the kings You have set over us because of our sins. And they rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please. We are in great distress. ³⁸ In view of all this, we make a binding agreement, putting it in writing and sealing it with the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests.”

²⁷ Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.

³ Then Job answered the LORD: 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.”

⁶ Therefore I retract my words, and I repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God. 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.’

⁷ To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You. ⁸ O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him ¹⁰ and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets. ¹¹ All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. ¹² You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.

⁹ Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the LORD, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness.

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

¹¹ who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

¹² Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. ⁵ Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You.

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.

⁸ Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul. ⁹ Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD; I flee to You for refuge. ¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

¹³ He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

⁸ Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹ The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰ The crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” ¹¹ John replied, “Whoever has two tunics should share with him who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” ¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” ¹³ “Collect no more than you are authorized,” he answered. ¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”

²² to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. ²⁶ “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun set upon your anger, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸ He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.

¹² If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’

³¹ Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward.

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

⁵ Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me.

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

¹¹ For according to a man’s deeds He repays him; according to a man’s ways He brings consequences.

¹¹ Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³² I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.

⁶ The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths.

³¹ If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

⁹ Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

¹² ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

³⁵ “Who has first given to God, that God should repay him?”

⁶ After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷ and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

² For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,

²⁶ He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward.

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

⁴ Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good.

¹⁰ Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.

¹⁶ If you have understanding, hear this; listen to my words.

² What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

² “Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?

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

² “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?

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.

⁶ The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.

⁷ Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

¹⁶ God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

¹ “Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

⁸ He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men. ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.’

³ You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.

² Test me, O LORD, and try me; examine my heart and mind.

¹¹ See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. He is full of compassion and mercy.

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

² “How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind. ³ Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

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?

² “Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

²³ It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.

² “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’ ³ For you ask, ‘What does it profit me, and what benefit do I gain apart from sin?’

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.

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.