Job 15 Cross References - WEB

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, ² “Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, and fill himself with the east wind? ³ Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches with which he can do no good? ⁴ Yes, you do away with fear, and hinder devotion before God. ⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the language of the crafty. ⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, and not I. Yes, your own lips testify against you. ⁷ “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills? ⁸ Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? ⁹ What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand which is not in us? ¹⁰ With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father. ¹¹ Are the consolations of God too small for you, even the word that is gentle toward you? ¹² Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash, ¹³ That you turn your spirit against God, and let such words go out of your mouth? ¹⁴ What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? ¹⁵ Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; ¹⁶ how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water! ¹⁷ “I will show you, listen to me; that which I have seen I will declare ¹⁸ (which wise men have told by their fathers, and have not hidden it; ¹⁹ to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them): ²⁰ the wicked man writhes in pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor. ²¹ A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him. ²² He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword. ²³ He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. ²⁴ Distress and anguish make him afraid. They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle. ²⁵ Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, ²⁶ he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers, ²⁷ because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs. ²⁸ He has lived in desolate cities, in houses which no one inhabited, which were ready to become heaps. ²⁹ He will not be rich, neither will his substance continue, neither will their possessions be extended on the earth. ³⁰ He will not depart out of darkness. The flame will dry up his branches. He will go away by the breath of God’s mouth. ³¹ Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness will be his reward. ³² It will be accomplished before his time. His branch will not be green. ³³ He will shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and will cast off his flower as the olive tree. ³⁴ For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery. ³⁵ They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”

¹¹ Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

⁷ It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.

⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.

²⁶ Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

² “How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

² “Shouldn’t the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified? ³ Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?

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

¹ Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom.

⁴ But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value. ⁵ Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

² “I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! ³ Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

¹ Then Job answered, ² “How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength! ³ How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

¹³ “Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies? ¹⁵ Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

³⁶ I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. ³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

⁶ Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

⁴ he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions, ⁵ constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.

¹³ So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of Yahweh’s word, which he didn’t keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire, ¹⁴ and didn’t inquire of Yahweh. Therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

⁵ But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled. ⁶ Isn’t your piety your confidence? Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁸ “But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

¹⁴ “To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁰ Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?

¹ For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh. A revelation is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.” ² For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin. ³ The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

¹²⁶ It is time to act, Yahweh, for they break your law.

¹⁴ They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

¹⁰ “When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’

⁶ those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.

¹ He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,

³¹ Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

²¹ I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

²² “It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked. ²³ If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent. ²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

⁶ The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

¹⁹ “You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother’s son.

² Your tongue plots destruction, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. ³ You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah. ⁴ You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.

³ who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words,

² Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. ³ What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?

³ “They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh. ⁴ “Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer. ⁵ Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves commiting iniquity.

⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.

²¹ For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, ²² covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

⁴⁵ The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

²⁶ If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

⁵ So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna. ⁷ For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; ⁸ but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

²⁰ Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

⁸ “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying, ⁹ ‘I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me. ¹⁰ Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy. ¹¹ He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’ ¹² “Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just, for God is greater than man.

⁵ For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right: ⁶ Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’ ⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water, ⁸ Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men? ⁹ For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’

² “Do you think this to be your right, or do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s,’ ³ that you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

⁸ Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

³ You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.

⁸ Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads.

³⁷ For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

⁶⁵ Then the high priest tore his clothing, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his blasphemy.

²² “He said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn’t lay down, and reaping that which I didn’t sow.

¹ The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.”

¹² With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

¹⁰ With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, much older than your father.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. ⁵ Who determined its measures, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? ⁶ What were its foundations fastened on? Or who laid its cornerstone, ⁷ when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ⁸ “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke out of the womb, ⁹ when I made clouds its garment, and wrapped it in thick darkness, ¹⁰ marked out for it my bound, set bars and doors, ¹¹ and said, ‘You may come here, but no further. Your proud waves shall be stopped here’? ¹² “Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place, ¹³ that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and shake the wicked out of it? ¹⁴ It is changed as clay under the seal, and presented as a garment. ¹⁵ From the wicked, their light is withheld. The high arm is broken. ¹⁶ “Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ Have you comprehended the earth in its width? Declare, if you know it all. ¹⁹ “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place, ²⁰ that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! ²² Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail, ²³ which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? ²⁴ By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth? ²⁵ Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunder storm, ²⁶ to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man, ²⁷ to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew? ²⁹ Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky? ³⁰ The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen. ³¹ “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion? ³² Can you lead the constellations out in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth? ³⁴ “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you? ³⁵ Can you send out lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind? ³⁷ Who can count the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the containers of the sky, ³⁸ when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹ “Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket? ⁴¹ Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?

² Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

²² “Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old. ²³ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed. ²⁴ When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water. ²⁵ Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was born;

²⁹ The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

⁶ that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

² “No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

⁵ Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise. ⁶ Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

⁴ as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent,

¹⁴ The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.

³² For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.

¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has listened to my word, and heard it?

⁷ Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.

²⁵ At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.

¹¹ He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

³⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”

¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

²⁵

⁹ But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” ¹⁰ But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.

¹⁶ “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

³ But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?

³ How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge! ⁴ To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you?

⁷ Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that even as he is Christ’s, so we also are Christ’s.

⁵ For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.

²¹ I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. ²⁴ Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. ²⁶ I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; ²⁷ in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. ²⁸ Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation? ³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

⁷ Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸ “Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. ⁹ (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.) ¹⁰ Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart?

²⁰ He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

⁶ Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, “I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn’t dare show you my opinion. ⁷ I said, ‘Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’

³¹ Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is attained by a life of righteousness.

²⁴ Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did Yahweh’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?”

⁸ “But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, ⁹ who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number; ¹⁰ who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; ¹¹ so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety. ¹² He frustrates the plans of the crafty, So that their hands can’t perform their enterprise. ¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. ¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night. ¹⁵ But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. ¹⁶ So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth. ¹⁷ “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. ¹⁸ For he wounds and binds up. He injures and his hands make whole. ¹⁹ He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you. ²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. ²¹ You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes. ²² You will laugh at destruction and famine, neither will you be afraid of the animals of the earth. ²³ For you will be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field will be at peace with you. ²⁴ You will know that your tent is in peace. You will visit your fold, and will miss nothing. ²⁵ You will know also that your offspring will be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth. ²⁶ You will come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season.

¹³ “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him. ¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. ¹⁵ Surely then you will lift up your face without spot; Yes, you will be steadfast, and will not fear: ¹⁶ for you will forget your misery. You will remember it like waters that have passed away. ¹⁷ Life will be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it will be as the morning. ¹⁸ You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will search, and will take your rest in safety. ¹⁹ Also you will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will court your favor.

⁸ Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

¹⁶ Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, into a wide place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.

⁶ Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus,

¹³ “If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

² Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation.

¹⁹ Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.

¹³ who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers,

⁹ Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

³ But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? ⁴ While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”

²² Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. ¹⁵ Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.

⁴ God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and prospered?

³ Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?

²⁵ Because he has stretched out his hand against God, and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty, ²⁶ he runs at him with a stiff neck, with the thick shields of his bucklers, ²⁷ because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.

¹³ Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.

¹³ “Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.

² For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also. ³ Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. ⁴ Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. ⁵ So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.

⁴⁶ If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

³⁶ “If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near;

² “Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?

⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

⁴ How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean? ⁵ Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight; ⁶ How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”

³ They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

⁵ Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

⁹ Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?”

²⁰ Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and doesn’t sin.

²⁹ Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

¹⁸ For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.

²² But the Scripture imprisoned all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. ³ We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

¹⁸ Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

¹ “Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

⁵ Behold, even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight;

² Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. ³ One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” ⁴ The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”

¹⁹ How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

¹² “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,

⁷ What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,

⁶ Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

¹ For the Chief Musician. By David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. ² Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. ³ They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

³ Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

²⁸ A corrupt witness mocks justice, and the mouth of the wicked gulps down iniquity.

²⁸ Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, ³⁰ backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

⁹ What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. ¹⁰ As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. ¹¹ There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. ¹² They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.” ¹³ “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips.” ¹⁴ “Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” ¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood. ¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways. ¹⁷ The way of peace, they haven’t known.” ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

³ For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.

²⁷ Look at this. We have searched it. It is so. Hear it, and know it for your good.”

¹ “However, Job, please hear my speech, and listen to all my words.

² “Hear my words, you wise men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

² “Bear with me a little, and I will show you; for I still have something to say on God’s behalf.

⁸ “Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers.

¹⁸ Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.

³ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. ⁴ We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. ⁵ For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; ⁶ that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.

²⁵ To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother’s name was Joktan.

³² These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their generations, according to their nations. The nations divided from these in the earth after the flood.

⁸ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

¹⁷ “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more.

¹ “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

¹³ “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

³ You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.” ⁴ For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.

¹² So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

³ This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

¹⁹ I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’ ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’ ²¹ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

²² For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. ² Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. ⁴ Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. ⁵ You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.

⁹ Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

³⁶ “‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

³⁶ Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing until the morning light. ³⁷ In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.

⁶ For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots, and the sound of horses, even the noise of a great army; and they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.”

¹³ It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷ While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸ While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

¹¹ Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.

⁵ that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment? ⁶ Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, ⁷ yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

²² In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. ²³ When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. ²⁴ He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. ²⁵ He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

²⁰ Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.

¹⁸ Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. ¹⁹ How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors. ²⁰ As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.

⁷ though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.

²⁶ I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you, ²⁷ when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.

²¹ On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them. ²² The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.

¹⁰ Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.

³ For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.

¹¹ They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is “Abaddon”, but in Greek, he has the name “Apollyon”.

³³ While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “Behold, this evil is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”

¹¹ What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

¹⁶ If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

²⁹ be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

¹⁴ If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

²¹ They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry. It will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward, ²² and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.

⁵ He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.

¹² From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”

⁵ “Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine. ⁶ The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out.

¹² His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side.

¹⁸ He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

³ They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. ⁴ They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

¹⁵ They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.

¹⁰ Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.

⁸ Yes, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.

⁶ We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

⁹ We get our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

² A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.

²⁰ Won’t the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

¹⁵ That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,

²⁷ but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.

³⁷ They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.

² “Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances! ³ For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.

²⁷ when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when your disaster comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you.

¹¹ so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

³⁴ so your poverty will come as a robber and your want as an armed man.

³ I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.

³⁷ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”

⁹ oppression, and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

² Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.” ³ They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword.”

¹⁷ because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go.

²³ “‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,

⁷ The Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp.” They said, “Woe to us! For there has not been such a thing before. ⁸ Woe to us! Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. ⁹ Be strong and behave like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Strengthen yourselves like men, and fight!”

⁶ Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn’t they let the people go, and they departed?

⁹ then he shows them their work, and their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

⁹ Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him? ¹⁰ “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty. ¹¹ Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.

⁷ “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.”

⁹ They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.

¹¹ They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

⁹ Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered! ¹⁰ Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”

¹² Therefore it will happen that when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his arrogant looks. ¹³ For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers. ¹⁴ My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, I have gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”

⁴ Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

⁴ Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” ⁵ The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. ⁶ Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” ⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good;” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

²³ but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.

⁵ He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

¹ Now about that time, King Herod stretched out his hands to oppress some of the assembly.

²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.

⁸ “Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father’s sons will bow down before you.

²² In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.

¹³ Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand? ¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand? ¹⁵ Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?” ¹⁶ His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.”

¹² I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

⁴⁰ You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me.

¹⁵ But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁰ But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you.

¹⁰ They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.

⁷ Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.

³¹ when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of their fattest, and struck down the young men of Israel.

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

²⁸ They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

¹⁴ with kings and counselors of the earth, who built up waste places for themselves;

¹⁵ There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.

⁸ Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land! ⁹ In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied. ¹⁰ For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield an ephah.”

¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

¹⁸ “Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’

³⁷ Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

¹² Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.

²² In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. ²³ When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. ²⁴ He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. ²⁵ He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. ²⁶ All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent. ²⁷ The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him. ²⁸ The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath.

¹⁵ Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, ¹⁶ who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream, ¹⁷ who said to God, ‘Depart from us;’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’ ¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good things, but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. ¹⁹ The righteous see it, and are glad. The innocent ridicule them, ²⁰ saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’

¹⁶ Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; ¹⁷ he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁶ Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; ¹⁷ for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him.

² He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

¹⁹ “Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. ²⁰ A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was taken to his gate, full of sores, ²¹ and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.

¹¹ For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So the rich man will also fade away in his pursuits.

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. ² Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

⁹ By the breath of God they perish. By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night.

²¹ before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ²² the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.’”

²² He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

²⁶ All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁰ saying, ‘Surely those who rose up against us are cut off. The fire has consumed their remnant.’

⁴ but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

³³ For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

⁴ Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work? ⁵ Behold, when it was whole, it was suitable for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it has been burned, will it yet be suitable for any work?” ⁶ Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ⁷ I will set my face against them. They will go out from the fire, but the fire will devour them. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, when I set my face against them.

⁴⁷ Tell the forest of the South, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. ⁴⁸ All flesh will see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.”’”

¹² but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³ Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.’

⁴¹ Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched— ⁴⁶ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

⁸ punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, ⁹ who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

¹⁷ These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

¹³ wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁵ Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.

⁸ According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.

¹⁶ With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁰ Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.

⁸ He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the rock of your strength. Therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set out foreign seedlings. ¹¹ In the day of your planting, you hedge it in. In the morning, you make your seed blossom, but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

²⁰ He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

⁴ No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.

⁷ For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

⁸ Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

³ For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

⁷ Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

¹⁶ He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. ¹⁷ His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. ¹⁸ If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ ¹⁹ Behold, this is the joy of his way: out of the earth, others will spring.

⁷ “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. ⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, ⁹ yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.

¹⁶ His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above. ¹⁷ His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.

¹⁶ who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

⁵ God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. ⁶ The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying, ⁷ “Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.” ⁸ But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.

²³ But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.

¹⁷ Don’t be too wicked, neither be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

⁸ It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might produce branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a good vine.”’ ⁹ “Say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? It can’t be raised from its roots by a strong arm or many people. ¹⁰ Yes, behold, being planted, will it prosper? Won’t it utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the beds where it grew.”’”

¹⁶ Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”

⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon. ⁶ His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. ⁷ Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁶ If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

³⁹ You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. ⁴⁰ You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.

⁹ The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹³ The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind.

³ His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned away after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

³ Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”

¹³ So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish,

²² Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”

¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

¹ Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

⁵ Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities. ⁶ For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing. ⁷ You haven’t given water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. ⁸ But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it. ⁹ You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

⁸ For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

¹² Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ¹³ the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. ¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ¹⁶ I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ¹⁷ I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹³ “But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? ¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks blamelessly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil—

¹¹ Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. ¹² For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.

² The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.

⁵¹ and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.

¹⁴ Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.

⁴ No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

¹³ You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

¹⁵ Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.