Job 29-30

New King James Version

Job’s Summary Defense

29 Job further continued his discourse, and said:

²“Oh, that I were as in months ^(A)past,
As in the days when God ^(B)watched over me;
³^(C)When His lamp shone upon my head,
And when by His light I walked through darkness;
⁴Just as I was in the days of my prime,
When ^(D)the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;
⁵When the Almighty was yet with me,
When my children were around me;
⁶When ^(E)my steps were bathed with ^[a]cream,
And ^(F)the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!

⁷“When I went out to the gate by the city,
When I took my seat in the open square,
⁸The young men saw me and hid,
And the aged arose and stood;
⁹The princes refrained from talking,
And ^(G)put their hand on their mouth;
¹⁰The voice of nobles was hushed,
And their ^(H)tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
¹¹When the ear heard, then it blessed me,
And when the eye saw, then it approved me;
¹²Because ^(I)I delivered the poor who cried out,
The fatherless and the one who had no helper.
¹³The blessing of a perishing man came upon me,
And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
¹⁴^(J)I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
My justice was like a robe and a turban.
¹⁵I was ^(K)eyes to the blind,
And I was feet to the lame.
¹⁶I was a father to the poor,
And ^(L)I searched out the case that I did not know.
¹⁷I broke ^(M)the fangs of the wicked,
And plucked the victim from his teeth.

¹⁸“Then I said, ^(N)‘I shall die in my nest,
And multiply my days as the sand.
¹⁹^(O)My root is spread out ^(P)to the waters,
And the dew lies all night on my branch.
²⁰My glory is fresh within me,
And my ^(Q)bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me and waited,
And kept silence for my counsel.
²²After my words they did not speak again,
And my speech settled on them as dew.
²³They waited for me as for the rain,
And they opened their mouth wide as for ^(R)the spring rain.
²⁴If I mocked at them, they did not believe it,
And the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
²⁵I chose the way for them, and sat as chief;
So I dwelt as a king in the army,
As one who comforts mourners.

Job’s Wealth Now Poverty

30 “But now they mock at me, men ^[b]younger than I,
Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
²Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?
Their vigor has perished.
³They are gaunt from want and famine,
Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,
⁴Who pluck ^[c]mallow by the bushes,
And broom tree roots for their food.
⁵They were driven out from among men,
They shouted at them as at a thief.
⁶They had to live in the clefts of the ^[d]valleys,
In ^[e]caves of the earth and the rocks.
⁷Among the bushes they brayed,
Under the nettles they nestled.
⁸They were sons of fools,
Yes, sons of vile men;
They were scourged from the land.

⁹“And^(S) now I am their taunting song;
Yes, I am their byword.
¹⁰They abhor me, they keep far from me;
They do not hesitate ^(T)to spit in my face.
¹¹Because ^(U)He has loosed ^[f]my bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off restraint before me.
¹²At my right hand the rabble arises;
They push away my feet,
And ^(V)they raise against me their ways of destruction.
¹³They break up my path,
They promote my calamity;
They have no helper.
¹⁴They come as broad breakers;
Under the ruinous storm they roll along.
¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me;
They pursue my honor as the wind,
And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁶“And^(W) now my soul is ^(X)poured out because of my plight;
The days of affliction take hold of me.
¹⁷My bones are pierced in me at night,
And my gnawing pains take no rest.
¹⁸By great force my garment is disfigured;
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
¹⁹He has cast me into the mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I ^(Y)cry out to You, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, and You regard me.
²¹But You have become cruel to me;
With the strength of Your hand You ^(Z)oppose me.
²²You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;
You spoil my success.
²³For I know that You will bring me to death,
And to the house ^(AA)appointed for all living.

²⁴“Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins,
If they cry out when He destroys it.
²⁵^(AB)Have I not wept for him who was in trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
²⁶^(AC)But when I looked for good, evil came to me;
And when I waited for light, then came darkness.
²⁷^[g]My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest;
Days of affliction confront me.
²⁸^(AD)I go about mourning, but not in the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
²⁹^(AE)I am a brother of jackals,
And a companion of ostriches.
³⁰^(AF)My skin grows black and falls from me;
^(AG)My bones burn with fever.
³¹My harp is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the voice of those who weep.

Footnotes

Job 29:6 So with ancient vss. and a few Heb. mss. (cf. Job 20:17); MT wrath
Job 30:1 Lit. of fewer days
Job 30:4 A plant of the salty marshes
Job 30:6 wadis
Job 30:6 Lit. holes
Job 30:11 So with MT, Syr., Tg.; LXX, Vg. His
Job 30:27 I seethe inside

Acts 12

New King James Version

Herod’s Violence to the Church

12 Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. ²Then he killed James ^(A)the brother of John with the sword. ³And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during ^(B)the Days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴So ^(C)when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four ^[a]squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

Peter Freed from Prison

⁵Peter was therefore kept in prison, but ^[b]constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. ⁶And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were ^[c]keeping the prison. ⁷Now behold, ^(D)an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. ⁸Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” ⁹So he went out and followed him, and ^(E)did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought ^(F)he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, ^(G)which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

¹¹And when Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that ^(H)the Lord has sent His angel, and ^(I)has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”

¹²So, when he had considered this, ^(J)he came to the house of Mary, the mother of ^(K)John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together ^(L)praying. ¹³And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. ¹⁵But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, ^(M)“It is his angel.”

¹⁶Now Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷But ^(N)motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.” And he departed and went to another place.

¹⁸Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small ^[d]stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. ¹⁹But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death.

And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.

Herod’s Violent Death

²⁰Now Herod had been very angry with the people of ^(O)Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus ^[e]the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because ^(P)their country was ^[f]supplied with food by the king’s country.

²¹So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. ²²And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” ²³Then immediately an angel of the Lord ^(Q)struck him, because ^(R)he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and ^[g]died.

²⁴But ^(S)the word of God grew and multiplied.

Barnabas and Saul Appointed

²⁵And ^(T)Barnabas and Saul returned ^[h]from Jerusalem when they had ^(U)fulfilled their ministry, and they also ^(V)took with them ^(W)John whose surname was Mark.