God’s Power Shown in Creatures

Job’s Confession

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said,

God Is Displeased with Job’s Friends

⁷ It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, ^(O)as My servant Job has. ⁸ Now therefore, take for yourselves ^(P)seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a ^(Q)burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will ^(R)pray for you. ^(S)For I will ^[t]accept him so as not to do with you as your foolishness deserves, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, as My servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord ^[u]accepted Job.

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

¹⁰ The Lord also ^(T)restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased double all that Job had. ¹¹ Then all his ^(U)brothers, all his sisters, and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they ^(V)sympathized with him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him a ^[v]piece of money, and each a ring of gold. ^12 (W)The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; ^(X)and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. ^13 (Y)He also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵ In all the land no women were found as beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritances among their brothers. ¹⁶ After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. ^17 (Z)And Job died, an old man and full of days.

Introduction

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle of ^(B)Christ Jesus ^(C)by the will of God, and our brother ^(D)Timothy,

To ^(E)the church of God which is at ^(F)Corinth with all the ^[a]saints who are throughout ^(G)Achaia:

^2 (H)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

^3 (I)Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and ^(J)God of all comfort, ⁴ who ^(K)comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in ^[b]any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For just ^(L)as the sufferings of Christ are ^[c]ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. ⁶ But if we are afflicted, it is ^(M)for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; ⁷ and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that ^(N)as you are partners in our sufferings, so also you are in our comfort.

⁸ For ^(O)we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our ^(P)affliction which occurred in ^[d](Q)Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. ^9 [e]Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰ who ^(R)rescued us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, He ^[f](S)on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, ¹¹ if you also join in ^(T)helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by ^(U)many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Integrity

¹² For our ^[g]proud confidence is this: the testimony of ^(V)our conscience, that in holiness and ^(W)godly sincerity, ^(X)not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. ¹³ For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand ^(Y)until the end; ¹⁴ just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, on ^(Z)the day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ In this confidence I intended at first to ^(AA)come to you, so that you might ^[h]twice receive a ^[i](AB)blessing; ^16 [j]that is, to ^(AC)pass ^[k]your way into ^(AD)Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be ^(AE)helped on my journey to Judea. ¹⁷ Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what I decide, do I decide ^(AF)according to the flesh, so that with me there will be ^[l]yes, yes and no, no at the same time? ¹⁸ But as ^(AG)God is faithful, ^(AH)our word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹ For ^(AI)the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and ^(AJ)Silvanus and ^(AK)Timothy—was not yes and no, but has been yes ^(AL)in Him. ²⁰ For ^(AM)as many as the promises of God are, ^(AN)in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is ^(AO)our Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹ Now He who ^(AP)establishes us with you in Christ and ^(AQ)anointed us is God, ²² who also ^(AR)sealed us and ^(AS)gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a ^[m]pledge.

²³ But ^(AT)I call God as witness to my soul, that it was ^(AU)to spare you that I did not come again to ^(AV)Corinth. ²⁴ Not that we ^(AW)domineer over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are ^(AX)standing firm.

Reaffirm Your Love

2 But I decided this ^[n]for my own sake, that I ^(AY)would not come to you in sorrow again. ² For if I ^(AZ)cause you sorrow, who then will be the one making me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me? ³ This is the very thing I ^(BA)wrote you, so that ^(BB)when I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having ^(BC)confidence in you all that my joy was the joy of you all. ⁴ For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I ^(BD)wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

⁵ But ^(BE)if anyone has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not for me, but in some degree—^[o]not to say too much—for all of you. ⁶ Sufficient for such a person is ^(BF)this punishment which was imposed by the majority, ⁷ so that on the other hand, you should rather ^(BG)forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a person might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸ Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹ For to this end ^(BH)I also wrote, so that I might ^[p](BI)put you to the test, whether you are ^(BJ)obedient in all things. ¹⁰ But one whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did so for your sakes ^(BK)in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ so that no advantage would be taken of us by ^(BL)Satan, for ^(BM)we are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹² Now when I came to ^(BN)Troas for the ^(BO)gospel of Christ and when a ^(BP)door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³ I ^(BQ)had no rest for my spirit, not finding ^(BR)Titus my brother; but ^(BS)saying goodbye to them, I went on to ^(BT)Macedonia.

^14 (BU)But thanks be to God, who always ^(BV)leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the ^(BW)fragrance of the ^(BX)knowledge of Him in every place. ¹⁵ For we are a ^(BY)fragrance of Christ to God among ^(BZ)those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: ^16 (CA)to the one an ^[q]aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is ^(CB)adequate for these things? ¹⁷ For we are not like the many, ^[r](CC)peddling the word of God, but ^(CD)as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ ^(CE)in the sight of God.