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Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

“How long will you say these things,
    and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
Does God pervert justice?
    Or does the Almighty[a] pervert the right?
If your children sinned against him,
    he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
If you will seek God
    and make supplication to the Almighty,[b]
if you are pure and upright,
    surely then he will rouse himself for you
    and restore to you your rightful place.
Though your beginning was small,
    your latter days will be very great.

“For inquire now of bygone generations,
    and consider what their ancestors have found;
for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
    for our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
    and utter words out of their understanding?

11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
    they wither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
    the hope of the godless shall perish.
14 Their confidence is gossamer,
    a spider’s house their trust.
15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
    if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
16 The wicked thrive[c] before the sun,
    and their shoots spread over the garden.
17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
    they live among the rocks.[d]
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
    then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19 See, these are their happy ways,[e]
    and out of the earth still others will spring.

20 “See, God will not reject a blameless person,
    nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
    and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
    and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job Replies: There Is No Mediator

Then Job answered:

“Indeed I know that this is so;
    but how can a mortal be just before God?
If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength
—who has resisted him, and succeeded?—
he who removes mountains, and they do not know it,
    when he overturns them in his anger;
who shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the Sea;[f]
who made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond understanding,
    and marvelous things without number.
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.
14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.[g]
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest,
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[h]
20 Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21 I am blameless; I do not know myself;
    I loathe my life.
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
    he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity[i] of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he covers the eyes of its judges—
    if it is not he, who then is it?

25 “My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee away, they see no good.
26 They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint;
    I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’
28 I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?
30 If I wash myself with soap
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
31 yet you will plunge me into filth,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
32 For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
33 There is no umpire[j] between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
34 If he would take his rod away from me,
    and not let dread of him terrify me,
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[k]

Job: I Loathe My Life

10 “I loathe my life;
    I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.
Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the schemes of the wicked?
Do you have eyes of flesh?
    Do you see as humans see?
Are your days like the days of mortals,
    or your years like human years,
that you seek out my iniquity
    and search for my sin,
although you know that I am not guilty,
    and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?
Your hands fashioned and made me;
    and now you turn and destroy me.[l]
Remember that you fashioned me like clay;
    and will you turn me to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;
    I know that this was your purpose.
14 If I sin, you watch me,
    and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
    If I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head,
for I am filled with disgrace
    and look upon my affliction.
16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;
    you repeat your exploits against me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me,
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.[m]

18 “Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me,
19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not the days of my life few?[n]
    Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort[o]
21 before I go, never to return,
    to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22 the land of gloom[p] and chaos,
    where light is like darkness.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 8:3 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
  2. Job 8:5 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
  3. Job 8:16 Heb He thrives
  4. Job 8:17 Gk Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
  5. Job 8:19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  6. Job 9:8 Or trampled the back of the sea dragon
  7. Job 9:15 Or for my right
  8. Job 9:19 Compare Gk: Heb me
  9. Job 9:23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  10. Job 9:33 Another reading is Would that there were an umpire
  11. Job 9:35 Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself
  12. Job 10:8 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb made me together all around, and you destroy me
  13. Job 10:17 Cn Compare Gk: Heb toward me; changes and a troop are with me
  14. Job 10:20 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb Are not my days few? Let him cease!
  15. Job 10:20 Heb that I may brighten up a little
  16. Job 10:22 Heb gloom as darkness, deep darkness

Solomon Like Other Mortals

I also am mortal, like everyone else,
a descendant of the first-formed child of earth;
and in the womb of a mother I was molded into flesh,
within the period of ten months, compacted with blood,
from the seed of a man and the pleasure of marriage.
And when I was born, I began to breathe the common air,
and fell upon the kindred earth;
my first sound was a cry, as is true of all.
I was nursed with care in swaddling cloths.
For no king has had a different beginning of existence;
there is for all one entrance into life, and one way out.

Solomon’s Respect for Wisdom

Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepters and thrones,
and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her.
Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem,
because all gold is but a little sand in her sight,
and silver will be accounted as clay before her.
10 I loved her more than health and beauty,
and I chose to have her rather than light,
because her radiance never ceases.
11 All good things came to me along with her,
and in her hands uncounted wealth.
12 I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom leads them;
but I did not know that she was their mother.
13 I learned without guile and I impart without grudging;
I do not hide her wealth,
14 for it is an unfailing treasure for mortals;
those who get it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from instruction.

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Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,

“Blessed is the king
    who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
    and glory in the highest heaven!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”[a]

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46 and he said, “It is written,

‘My house shall be a house of prayer’;
    but you have made it a den of robbers.”

47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

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Footnotes

  1. Luke 19:44 Gk lacks from God

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