Job 17-19

New American Standard Bible

Job Says He Has Become a Proverb

17 “My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,
The ^[a]^(A)grave is ready for me.
²^(B)Mockers are certainly with me,
And my eye ^[b]gazes on their provocation.

³“Make a pledge ^(C)for me with Yourself;
Who is there that will ^[c]be my guarantor?
⁴For You have ^[d]^(D)kept their hearts away from understanding;
Therefore You will not exalt them.
⁵He who ^(E)informs against friends for a share of the spoils,
The ^(F)eyes of his children also will perish.

⁶“But He has made me a ^(G)proverb among the people,
And I am ^[e]one at whom people ^(H)spit.
⁷My eye has also become ^(I)inexpressive because of grief,
And all my ^(J)body parts are like a shadow.
⁸The upright will be appalled at this,
And the ^(K)innocent will stir himself up against the godless.
⁹Nevertheless ^(L)the righteous will hold to his way,
And ^(M)the one who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
¹⁰But come again all of ^[f]you now,
For I ^(N)do not find a wise man among you.
¹¹My ^(O)days are past, my plans are torn apart,
The wishes of my heart.
¹²They make night into day, saying,
‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.
¹³If I hope for ^[g]^(P)Sheol as my home,
I ^[h]make my bed in the darkness;
¹⁴If I call to the ^(Q)grave, ‘You are my father’;
To the ^(R)maggot, ‘my mother and my sister’;
¹⁵Where then is ^(S)my hope?
And who looks at my hope?
¹⁶^[i]Will it go down with me to Sheol?
Shall we together ^(T)go down into the dust?”

Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,

²“How long will you hunt for words?
Show understanding, and then we can talk.
³Why are we ^(U)regarded as animals,
As stupid in your eyes?
⁴^[j]You who tear yourself in your anger—
Should the earth be abandoned for your sake,
Or the rock moved from its place?

⁵“Indeed, the ^(V)light of the wicked goes out,
And the spark from his fire does not shine.
⁶The light in his tent is ^(W)darkened,
And his lamp goes out above him.
⁷His ^[k]vigorous stride is shortened,
And his ^(X)own plan brings him down.
⁸For he is ^(Y)thrown into the net by his own feet,
And he steps on the webbing.
⁹A snare seizes him by the heel,
And a trap snaps shut on him.
¹⁰A noose for him is hidden in the ground,
And a trap for him on the pathway.
¹¹All around ^(Z)sudden terrors frighten him,
And ^(AA)harass him at every step.
¹²His strength is ^(AB)famished,
And disaster is ready at his side.
¹³^[l]It devours parts of his skin,
The firstborn of death ^(AC)devours his ^[m]limbs.
¹⁴He is ^(AD)torn from ^[n]the security of his tent,
And ^[o]they march him before the king of ^(AE)terrors.
¹⁵^[p]Nothing of his dwells in his tent;
^(AF)Brimstone is scattered on his home.
¹⁶His ^(AG)roots are dried below,
And his ^(AH)branch withers above.
¹⁷^(AI)The memory of him perishes from the earth,
And he has no name abroad.
¹⁸^[q]He is driven from light ^(AJ)into darkness,
And ^(AK)chased from the inhabited world.
¹⁹He has no ^(AL)offspring or descendants among his people,
Nor any survivor where he resided.
²⁰Those in the west are appalled at ^(AM)his ^[r]fate,
And those in the east are seized with horror.
²¹Certainly these are the ^(AN)dwellings of the wicked,
And this is the place of him who does not know God.”

Job Feels Insulted

19 Then Job responded,

²“How long will you torment ^[s]me
And crush me with words?
³These ten times you have insulted me;
You are not ashamed to wrong me.
⁴Even if I have truly done wrong,
My error stays with me.
⁵If indeed you ^(AO)exalt yourselves against me
And prove my disgrace to me,
⁶Know then that ^(AP)God has wronged me
And has surrounded me with ^(AQ)His net.

Everything Is Against Him

⁷“Behold, ^(AR)I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;
I shout for help, but there is no justice.
⁸He has ^(AS)blocked my way so that I cannot pass,
And He has put ^(AT)darkness on my paths.
⁹He has ^(AU)stripped my honor from me
And removed the ^(AV)crown from my head.
¹⁰He ^(AW)breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
And He has uprooted my ^(AX)hope ^(AY)like a tree.
¹¹He has also ^(AZ)kindled His anger against me
And ^(BA)considered me as His enemy.
¹²His ^(BB)troops come together
And ^(BC)build up their ^[t]way against me
And camp around my tent.

¹³“He has ^(BD)removed my brothers far from me,
And my ^(BE)acquaintances have completely turned away from me.
¹⁴My relatives have failed,
And my ^(BF)close friends have forgotten me.
¹⁵Those who live in my house and my servant women consider me a stranger.
I am a foreigner in their sight.
¹⁶I call to my servant, but he does not answer;
I have to implore his favor with my mouth.
¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife,
And I am loathsome to my own brothers.
¹⁸Even young children despise me;
I stand up and they speak against me.
¹⁹All ^[u]my ^(BG)associates loathe me,
And those I love have turned against me.
²⁰My ^(BH)bone clings to my skin and my flesh,
And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
²¹Pity me, pity me, you friends of mine,
For the ^(BI)hand of God has struck me.
²²Why do you ^(BJ)persecute me as God does,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says My Redeemer Lives

²³“Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were ^(BK)recorded in a book!
²⁴That with an iron stylus and lead
They were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵Yet as for me, I know that ^(BL)my Redeemer lives,
And at the last, He will take His stand on the ^[v]earth.
²⁶Even after my skin ^[w]is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I will ^(BM)see God,
²⁷Whom I, on my part, shall behold for myself,
And whom my eyes will see, and not another.
My ^[x]heart ^(BN)faints ^[y]within me!
²⁸If you say, ‘How shall we ^(BO)persecute him?’
And ‘^[z]What pretext for a case against him can we find?’
²⁹Then be afraid of ^(BP)the sword for yourselves,
For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
So that you may know ^(BQ)there is judgment.”

Footnotes

Job 17:1 Lit graves are
Job 17:2 Lit dwells
Job 17:3 Lit strike hands with me
Job 17:4 Lit hidden
Job 17:6 Lit a spitting to the faces
Job 17:10 As in some mss and ancient versions; MT them
Job 17:13 I.e., the netherworld
Job 17:13 Lit spread out
Job 17:16 As in LXX; Heb possibly Let my limbs sink down to Sheol, since there is rest in the dust for all.
Job 18:4 Lit The one who tears himself in his
Job 18:7 Lit steps of his strength
Job 18:13 Another reading is His skin is devoured by illness
Job 18:13 Or parts
Job 18:14 Lit his tent his trust
Job 18:14 Lit you march or she marches
Job 18:15 Another reading is Fire dwells in his tent
Job 18:18 Lit They drive him...And chase him
Job 18:20 Lit day
Job 19:2 Lit my soul
Job 19:12 I.e., siege ramp
Job 19:19 Lit the men of my council
Job 19:25 Lit dust
Job 19:26 Lit which they have cut off
Job 19:27 Lit kidneys
Job 19:27 Lit in my loins
Job 19:28 Or the root of the matter is found in him

Acts 10:1-23

New American Standard Bible

Cornelius’ Vision

10 Now there was a man in ^(A)Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was ^(B)called the Italian ^[a]cohort, ²a devout man and ^(C)one who feared God with all his household, and ^(D)made many charitable contributions to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. ³About ^(E)the ^[b]ninth hour of the day he clearly saw ^(F)in a vision ^(G)an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴And he ^(H)looked at him intently and became terrified, and said, “What is it, lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and charitable gifts ^(I)have ascended ^(J)as a memorial offering before God. ⁵Now dispatch some men to ^(K)Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; ⁶he is staying with a tanner named ^(L)Simon, whose house is by the sea.” ⁷When the angel who *spoke to him left, he summoned two of his ^[c]servants and a devout soldier from his personal attendants, ⁸and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to ^(M)Joppa.

⁹On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, ^(N)Peter went up on ^(O)the ^[d]housetop about ^[e]^(P)the sixth hour to pray. ¹⁰But he became hungry and wanted to eat; but while they were making preparations, he ^(Q)fell into a trance; ¹¹and he *saw ^(R)the sky opened up, and an ^[f]object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, ¹²and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and ^[g]crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. ¹³A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, ^[h]kill and eat!” ¹⁴But Peter said, “By no means, ^(S)Lord, for ^(T)I have never eaten anything ^[i]unholy and unclean.” ¹⁵Again a voice came to him a second time, “^(U)What God has cleansed, no longer ^[j]consider unholy.” ¹⁶This happened three times, and immediately the ^[k]object was taken up into the sky.

¹⁷Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in ^[l]mind as to what ^(V)the vision which he had seen might ^[m]mean, behold, ^(W)the men who had been sent by Cornelius had asked directions to Simon’s house, and they appeared at the gate; ¹⁸and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹While Peter was reflecting on ^(X)the vision, ^(Y)the Spirit said to him, “Behold, ^[n]three men are looking for you. ²⁰But get up, go downstairs and ^(Z)accompany them ^[o]without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” ²¹Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” ²²They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and ^(AA)God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, ^(AB)was divinely directed by a ^(AC)holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear ^[p]^(AD)a message from you.” ²³So he invited them in and gave them lodging.