Job 8-10
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long will you say these things
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty[a] pervert the right?(A)
4 If your children sinned against him,
he delivered them into the power of their transgression.(B)
5 If you will seek God
and make supplication to the Almighty,[b](C)
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore to you your rightful place.(D)
7 Though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.(E)
8 “For inquire now of bygone generations
and consider what their ancestors have found,(F)
9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
for our days on earth are but a shadow.(G)
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.(H)
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.(I)
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.(J)
16 The wicked thrive[c] before the sun,
and their shoots spread over the garden.(K)
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.’(L)
19 See, these are their happy ways,[e]
and out of the earth still others will spring.
20 “See, God will not reject the blameless,
nor take the hand of evildoers.(M)
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.(N)
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”(O)
Job Replies: There Is No Mediator
9 Then Job answered:
2 “Indeed, I know that this is so,
but how can a mortal be just before God?(P)
3 If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand.(Q)
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has resisted him and succeeded?(R)
5 He removes mountains, and they do not know it
when he overturns them in his anger;
6 he shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;(S)
7 he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
he seals up the stars;
8 he alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the Sea;[f](T)
9 he made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;(U)
10 he does great things beyond understanding
and marvelous things without number.(V)
11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.(W)
12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’(X)
13 “God will not turn back his anger;
the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.(Y)
14 How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal to my accuser for my right.(Z)
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;(AA)
18 he will not let me get my breath
but fills me with bitterness.(AB)
19 If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?[g]
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.(AC)
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’(AD)
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity[h] of the innocent.(AE)
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?(AF)
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.(AG)
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?(AH)
30 If I wash myself with soap
and cleanse my hands with lye,(AI)
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.(AJ)
33 There is no mediator[i] between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.(AK)
34 If he would take his rod away from me
and not let dread of him terrify me,(AL)
35 then I would speak without fear of him,
for I know I am not what I am thought to be.[j]
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.(AM)
2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.(AN)
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?(AO)
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?(AP)
5 Are your days like the days of mortals
or your years like human years,(AQ)
6 that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is no one to deliver out of your hand?(AR)
8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you turn and destroy me.[k](AS)
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay,
and will you turn me to dust again?(AT)
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?(AU)
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.(AV)
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.(AW)
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.(AX)
16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;
you repeat your exploits against me.(AY)
17 You renew your witnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you bring fresh troops against me.[l](AZ)
18 “ ‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me(BA)
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?[m]
Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort[n](BB)
21 before I go, never to return,
to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22 the land of gloom[o] and chaos,
where light is like darkness.’ ”
Footnotes
- 8.3 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
- 8.5 Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
- 8.16 Heb He thrives
- 8.17 Gk Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 8.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 9.8 Or trampled the back of the sea dragon
- 9.19 Compare Gk: Heb me
- 9.23 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 9.33 Another reading is Would that there were a mediator
- 9.35 Cn: Heb for I am not so in myself
- 10.8 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb made me together all around, and you destroy me
- 10.17 Cn Compare Gk: Heb toward me; changes and a troop are with me
- 10.20 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb Are not my days few? Let him cease!
- 10.20 Heb that I may brighten up a little
- 10.22 Heb gloom as darkness, deep darkness
Acts 8:26-40
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)(A) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship(B) 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”(C) 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.(D)
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.(E) 36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”[b](F) 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip[c] baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.(G) 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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