21 But Job answered and said,

² Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.

³ Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

⁴ As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

⁵ Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

⁶ Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

⁷ Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

⁸ Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

⁹ Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰ Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

¹¹ They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

¹² They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

¹³ They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

¹⁴ Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

¹⁵ What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

¹⁶ Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷ How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.

¹⁸ They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

¹⁹ God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.

²⁰ His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹ For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?

²² Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.

²³ One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴ His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

²⁵ And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

²⁶ They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

²⁷ Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

²⁸ For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

²⁹ Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

³⁰ That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

³¹ Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

³² Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

³³ The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

³⁴ How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

² Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

³ Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?

⁴ Will he reprove thee for fear of thee? will he enter with thee into judgment?

⁵ Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

⁶ For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷ Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

⁸ But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

⁹ Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰ Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee;

¹¹ Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters cover thee.

¹² Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

¹³ And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?

¹⁴ Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.

¹⁵ Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?

¹⁶ Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:

¹⁷ Which said unto God, Depart from us: and what can the Almighty do for them?

¹⁸ Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹ The righteous see it, and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

²⁰ Whereas our substance is not cut down, but the remnant of them the fire consumeth.

²¹ Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

²² Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

²³ If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

²⁴ Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.

²⁵ Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

²⁶ For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

²⁷ Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

²⁸ Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

²⁹ When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.

³⁰ He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

23 Then Job answered and said,

² Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

³ Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!

⁴ I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵ I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

⁶ Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

⁷ There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

⁸ Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:

⁹ On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

¹⁰ But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

¹¹ My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

¹² Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³ But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

¹⁴ For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

¹⁵ Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶ For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:

¹⁷ Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

6 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

² Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

³ Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

⁴ But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

⁵ And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

⁶ Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

⁷ And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

⁸ And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

⁹ Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.

¹⁰ And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

¹¹ Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.

¹² And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,

¹³ And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

¹⁴ For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

¹⁵ And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

7 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

² And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

³ And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.

⁴ Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.

⁵ And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

⁶ And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

⁷ And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.

⁸ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

¹⁰ And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹ Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.

¹² But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

¹³ And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.

¹⁴ Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

¹⁵ So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,

¹⁶ And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

¹⁷ But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸ Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.

¹⁹ The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

²⁰ In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:

²¹ And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

²³ And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

²⁴ And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

²⁵ For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

²⁶ And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

²⁷ But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸ Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹ Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.

³⁰ And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹ When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,

³² Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

³³ Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.

³⁴ I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.

³⁵ This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶ He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

³⁷ This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

³⁸ This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

³⁹ To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

⁴⁰ Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

⁴¹ And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴² Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³ Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴ Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.

⁴⁵ Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

⁴⁶ Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ But Solomon built him an house.

⁴⁸ Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

⁴⁹ Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰ Hath not my hand made all these things?

⁵¹ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

⁵² Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

⁵³ Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

⁵⁶ And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

⁵⁷ Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

⁵⁸ And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

⁶⁰ And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.