Job chapter 15. Eliphaz accuses, Job does not fear God. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he argue in unprofitable talk or in words with which he can do no good? but you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God. For your iniquity teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you and not I. Your own lips testify against you. Are you the first man who was born or were you brought forth before the hills? Have you listened in the counsel of God and do you limit wisdom to yourself? What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us? Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, older than your father. Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth? What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight. How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water. I will show you, hear me, and what I have seen I will declare, what wise men have told without hiding it from their fathers, to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them. The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless. Dreadful sounds are in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come upon him. He does not believe that he will return out of darkness, and he is marked for the sword. He wanders abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand. Distress and anguish terrify him. They prevail against him, like a king ready for battle, because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty, running stubbornly against him with a thickly bossed shield, because he has covered his face with his fat and gathered fat upon his waist and has lived in desolate cities in houses that none should inhabit which were ready to become heaps of ruins he will not be rich and his wealth will not endure nor will his possessions spread over the earth he will not depart from darkness the flame will dry up his shoots and by the breath of his mouth he will depart Let him not trust in emptiness deceiving himself for emptiness will be his payment It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery. They conceive trouble and give birth to evil, and their womb prepares deceit. Job chapter 16 Job replies, Miserable comforters, are you? Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters, are you all? Shall windy words have an end? or what provokes you that you answer. I also could speak as you do if you were in my place. I could join words together against you and shake my head at you. I could strengthen you with my mouth and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. If I speak, my pain is not assuaged and if I forbear how much of it leaves me. Surely now God has worn me out. He has made desolate all my company, and he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me, and my leanness has risen up against me. It testifies to my face. He has torn me in his wrath and hated me. He has gnashed his teeth at me. My adversary sharpens his eyes against me. Men have gaped at me with their mouth. They have struck me insolently on the cheek. They mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked I was at ease and he broke me apart He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces He set me up as his target His archers surround me He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare He pours out my gall on the ground He breaks me with breach upon breach He runs upon me like a warrior I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin and have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping, and on my eyelids is deep darkness, although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place. Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high. My friends scorn me. My eye pours out tears to God that he would argue the case of a man with God as a son of man does with his neighbor. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return. Job chapter 17 Job continues Where then is my hope My spirit is broken My days are extinct The graveyard is ready for me Surely there are mockers about me and my eye dwells on their provocation Lay down a pledge for me with you Who is there who will put up security for me? Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail. He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit. My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow. The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless. Yet the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger. But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you My days are past, my plans are broken off The desires of my heart, they make night into day The light, they say, is near to the darkness If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness If I say to the pit, you are my father And to the worm, my mother, or my sister Where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust? Job chapter 18 Bildad speaks God punishes the wicked Then Bildad the Shuite answered and said, How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak. Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place? Indeed the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out. His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel A snare lays hold of him A rope is hidden for him in the ground A trap for him in the path Terrors frighten him on every side And chase him at his heels His strength is famished And calamity is ready for his stumbling It consumes the parts of his skin The firstborn of death consumes his limbs He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors. In his tent dwells that which is none of his. Sulfur is scattered over his habitation. His roots dry up beneath and his branches wither above. His memory perishes from the earth and he has no name in the street. He is thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world He has no posterity or progeny among his people and no survivor where he used to live They of the west are appalled at his day and horror seizes them of the east. Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God. Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 through 34 A Mother's Request Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, What do you want? She said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom. him. Jesus answered, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? They said to him, We are able. He said to them, You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father. And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus heals two blind men. do for you. They said to him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. Psalm chapter 19 verses 1 through 6. The law of the Lord is perfect. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork, day to day pours out speech, and night to night It reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Thank you.
