19 Then Job answered:

² How long will you vex and torment me and break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange [harden yourselves against me and deal severely with me].

⁴ And if it were true that I have erred, my error would remain with me [I would be conscious of it].

⁵ If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and plead against me my reproach and humiliation,

⁶ Know that God has overthrown and put me in the wrong and has closed His net about me.

⁷ Behold, I cry out, Violence! but I am not heard; I cry aloud for help, but there is no justice.

⁸ He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths.

⁹ He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope has He pulled up like a tree.

¹¹ He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His adversaries.

¹² His troops come together and cast up their way and siege works against me and encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Those who live temporarily in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer, though I beseech him with words.

¹⁷ I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸ Even young children despise me; when I get up, they speak against me.

¹⁹ All the men of my council and my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

²² Why do you, as if you were God, pursue and persecute me? [Acting like wild beasts] why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book [carved on a tablet of stone]!

²⁴ That with an iron pen and [molten] lead they were graven in the rock forever!

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth.^(A)

²⁶ And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,

²⁷ Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me.

11 When Jesus had finished His charge to His twelve disciples, He left there to teach and to preach in their [Galilean] cities.

² Now when John in prison heard about the activities of Christ, he sent a message by his disciples

³ And asked Him, Are You the One Who was to come, or should we keep on expecting a different one?^(A)

⁴ And Jesus replied to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see:

⁵ The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them.^(B)

⁶ And blessed (happy, fortunate, and ^[a]to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.

⁷ Then as these men went their way, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: What did you go out in the wilderness (desert) to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

⁸ What did you go out to see then? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in the houses of kings.

⁹ But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one [^[b]out of the common, more eminent, more remarkable, and] ^[c]superior to a prophet.

¹⁰ This is the one of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, who shall make ready Your way before You.^(C)

¹¹ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

¹² And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a ^[d]share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].

¹³ For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied up until John.

¹⁴ And if you are willing to receive and accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come [before the kingdom].^(D)

¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him consider and ^[e]perceive and comprehend by hearing.

¹⁶ But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like little children sitting in the marketplaces who call to their playmates,

¹⁷ We piped to you [playing wedding], and you did not dance; we wailed dirges [playing funeral], and you did not mourn and beat your breasts and weep aloud.

¹⁸ For John came neither eating nor drinking [with others], and they say, He has a demon!

¹⁹ The Son of Man came eating and drinking [with others], and they say, Behold, a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and [^[f]especially wicked] sinners! Yet wisdom is justified and vindicated by what she does (her deeds) and by ^[g]her children.

²⁰ Then He began to censure and reproach the cities in which most of His mighty works had been performed, because they did not repent [and their hearts were not changed].

²¹ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes [and their hearts would have been changed].

²² I tell you [further], it shall be more endurable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

²³ And you, Capernaum, are you to be lifted up to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades [the region of the dead]! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have continued until today.

²⁴ But I tell you, it shall be more endurable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

²⁵ At that time Jesus began to say, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth [and ^[h]I acknowledge openly and joyfully to Your honor], that You have hidden these things from the wise and clever and learned, and revealed them to babies [to the ^[i]childish, untaught, and unskilled].

²⁶ Yes, Father, [I praise You that] such was Your gracious will and good pleasure.

²⁷ All things have been entrusted and delivered to Me by My Father; and no one ^[j]fully knows and ^[k]accurately understands the Son except the Father, and no one ^[l]fully knows and ^[m]accurately understands the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son ^[n]deliberately wills to make Him known.

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ^[o]ease and relieve and ^[p]refresh ^[q]your souls.]

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (^[r]relief and ease and refreshment and ^[s]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.^(E)

³⁰ For My yoke is wholesome (useful, ^[t]good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

5 I warn and counsel the elders among you (the pastors and spiritual guides of the church) as a fellow elder and as an eyewitness [called to testify] of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a sharer in the glory (the honor and splendor) that is to be revealed (disclosed, unfolded):

² Tend (nurture, guard, guide, and fold) the flock of God that is [your responsibility], not by coercion or constraint, but willingly; not dishonorably motivated by the advantages and profits [belonging to the office], but eagerly and cheerfully;

³ Not domineering [as arrogant, dictatorial, and overbearing persons] over those in your charge, but being examples (patterns and models of Christian living) to the flock (the congregation).

⁴ And [then] when the Chief Shepherd is revealed, you will win the ^[a]conqueror’s crown of glory.

⁵ Likewise, you who are younger and of lesser rank, be subject to the elders (the ministers and spiritual guides of the church)—[giving them due respect and yielding to their counsel]. Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, ^[b]so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)—[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble.^(A)

⁶ Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,

⁷ Casting the ^[c]whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, ^[d]once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you ^[e]watchfully.^(B)

⁸ Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [^[f]in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

⁹ Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset—rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (^[g]identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world.

¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.

¹¹ To Him be the dominion (power, authority, rule) forever and ever. Amen (so be it).