Job. Chapter 4. Elephaz speaks. The innocent prosper. Then Elephaz the Temmonite answered and said, If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient. It touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember who that was innocent ever perished, or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same, by the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed, the roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken, the strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. Now a word was brought to me stealthily. My ear received the whisper of it. A mid-thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face. The hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence. Then I heard a voice. When mortal man, being the right before God, can a man be pure before his maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error. How much more those who dwell in houses acclay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth? Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces they perish forever without anyone regarding it, is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? Do they not die? And that without wisdom? Job Chapter 5 Call now, is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple. I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them. The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth. For affliction does not come from the dust. Nor does trouble sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward. As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsurchable, marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields. He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end. They meet with darkness in the daytime and grow up at noon day, as in the night. But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth. Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, therefore despise not the discipline of the almighty, for he wounds, but he binds up, he shatters, but his hands heal. He will deliver you from six troubles, and in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth. You shall come to your grave and ripe old age, like a sheath gathered up in its season. He holds this we have searched out. It is true, here and know it for your good. Job Chapter 6 Job replies, My complaint is just. Then Job answered and said, O that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances. For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. Therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are in me. My spirit drinks their poison. The terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey braille when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder? Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the juice of the malo? My appetite refuses to touch them. They are as food that is loathsome to me. O that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. This would be my comfort. I would even exalt and pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the holy one. What is my strength that I should wait, and what is my end that I should be patient? Does my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze? Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me? He who withholds kindness from a friend, for sakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers are treacherous as a torrent bed, as torrential streams that pass away, which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. When they melt, they disappear. When it is hot, they vanish from their place. The caravans turn aside from their cores. They go up into the waste and perish. The caravans of Tama look, the travelers of Shiba, hope. They are ashamed because they were confident. They come there and are disappointed. For you have now become nothing. You see my calamity and are afraid. Have I said, make me a gift, or from your wealth offer a bribe for me, or deliver me from the adversary's hand, or redeem me from the hand of the ruthless? Teach me, and I will be silent. Make me understand how I have gone astray, how forceful are upright words. But what does reproof from you reproof? Do you think that you can reproof words when the speech of a despairing man is wind? You would even cast lots over the fatherless and bargain over your friend. But now be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face. Please turn, let no injustice be done. Turn now, my vindication is at stake. Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity? Job Chapter 7 Job continues. My life has no hope. Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery are apportion to me. When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise? But the night is long and I toss and turn till the dawn. My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt, my skin hardens, then breaks out of fresh. My days are swifter than a weavers' shuttle, and come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath, my eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more. While your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to shey old does not come up. He returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth, I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me? When I say, my bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint, then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me with visions, so that I would choose strangling and death rather than my bones. I loathe my life I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. What is man that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth, you will seek me, but I shall not be. Matthew chapter 19 verses 1 through 15. Teaching about divorce. Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to him, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? He said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. The disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry, but he said to them, not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are unix who have been so from birth, and there are unix who have been made unix by men, and there are unix who have made themselves unix for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. Let the children come to me. Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and went away. Psalm 18 verses 25 through 36. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you show yourself pure. And with the crooked, you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. For it is you who light my lamp, the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. For who is God, but the Lord, and who is a rock, except our God, the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deep and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend above of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. It gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.
