Old/New Testament
30 Job: But now they mock me,
these young men whose fathers I hold in such contempt.
I wouldn’t trust them with my herds
as I do my dogs.
2 What good does their strength do me?
Their potency has wilted.
3 Gaunt from starvation, haggard from hunger that drives them to gnaw the ground in the night,
a ground all wasted and hollowed-out,
4 They are left with the desperate foods of the famished—
plucking mallow from the bushes by the salt marshes,
and making the ashy broom tree root their staple.
5 The people from the town chase each one out of his neighborhood;
they howl at all of them as if they were common thieves,
6 And push them out to live in the deep valleys of the wadis—
those desert streams that come and go—
So these outcasts seek shelter in the overhangs and crumbling caves
that line the banks of no-man’s-land.
7 Braying like donkeys from the bushes,
huddled together in the prickly undergrowth are
8 Fools and sons of no-names,
driven by lashes out from the bosom of the land.
Even the fools and outcasts use Job’s name as an insult. His character has been brought low by those who should be beneath him.
9 And now they sing of me in taunt and parody,
and make my name a byword among them.
10 They abhor me, keep their distance,
and feel free to spit in my face.
11 Because God has unstrung His bowstring and stricken me with suffering,
they are no longer restrained toward me.
12 To my right, the horde[a] arises.
They seek to knock me off my feet,
piling their disastrous ways against me.
13 They lay waste to my path
and benefit from my destruction,
and no one is there to stop them.
14 As through a wall breached, they advance easily.
Their thunderstorm of wheels rolled across my ruins.
15 Alas! A storm of terrors has turned toward me and is upon me;
my dignity is blown away as by the wind;
my prosperity vanishes like a wispy cloud.
16 And now my own soul is drawn out, poured over me.
The days of misery have taken hold of me;
I am firmly in their grasp.
17 By night, my pain is at work, boring holes in my bones;
it gnaws at me and never lies down to rest.
18 With great force, God wraps around me like my clothing.
He binds tightly about my neck as if He were the collar of my tunic.[b]
19 He has pushed me off into the mud,
and I am reduced from man to dust and ashes.
20 I call out to You, God, but You refuse to answer me.
When I arise, You merely examine me.
21 You have changed.
Now You are cruel to me;
You employ Your strength to attack me.
22 You pull me up into the wind and make me ride upon it
until I am fractured and dissipated in the storm.
23 I know where this ends.
You will send me off to death
and usher me to that meetinghouse where all the living one day go.
24 And yet does not a person trapped in ruins stretch out his hand,
and in this disaster does he not cry out for help?[c]
25 Did I not grieve for the hard days of another
or weep for the pains of the poor?
26 And yet when I longed for the good, evil came;
when I awaited the light, thick darkness arrived instead.
27 I am boiling on the inside,
and it will not quit;
yet the days of misery still come for me.
28 I drift in darkness, the sun absent;
I arise in the assembly
and call out for help.
29 But who will come now that I am roaming the wilderness?
I am a brother to jackals, a friend of ostriches.
30 Despite my earnest cries, my skin burns until it is black and flakes off,
and my bones burn with fever.
31 And so my harp is tuned to the key of mourning,
and my flute is pitched to the sound of weeping.
31 Job: I have made a sacred pledge with my eyes.
How then could I stare at a young woman with desire?
2 And what share has God set aside for us from above?
What is the heritage we can expect from the lofty God, the Highest One?[d]
3 Has it not been made clear these many years?
Is there not supposed to be punishment poured out on the wicked
and disaster on those wrongdoers?
4 Does God not see the paths of my choosing;
does He not count every single step I take?
In this speech, Job is actually recording his deposition; he is calling God to come answer the charges he is laying out. Using a rigid format, Job explains away eight areas of potential sin in his life. So certain is Job that he is innocent of wickedness, he actually pronounces curses upon himself if the all-knowing God finds him guilty of any of the sins. This ethereal courtroom procedure would be like any human going to a court to explain how he did not violate the law of the land and prefacing his testimony with a proposed sentence of the death penalty if the judgment goes against him. Job will soon learn that it is never appropriate to assume he knows more about justice than God, the very author of justice.
Job: 5 If I have walked alongside lies
or if my feet have rushed toward deception,
6 Then let God weigh me on a truly balanced set of scales.
He will know and see my integrity.
7 If my steps have veered off God’s prescribed path
or if my heart has followed any of the evil my eyes have seen
or if my hands are soiled,
8 Then let me sow, but then let another one eat the produce!
Let my sprouts be pulled up by their roots!
9 If my heart has been seduced by another woman
or if I have waited by a friend’s door for a liaison with his wife,
10 Then let my wife be taken by another,
to grind his grain or do whatever he pleases,
And let other men kneel down over her
11 because adultery is such a lewd, scandalous act,
an offense punishable by the court,
12 For it is a fire that burns until the destruction is complete.
Had I done it, it would have undone all that I had gained.
13 If I have refused justice to my servants—either male or female—
when they have had cause for dispute with me,
14 Then what ought I do when God stands to judge me?
How will I answer when He calls me to account for my actions?
15 Did not God, who made me in my mother’s womb, make my servants as well?
Is He not the same One who made us each in our own mother’s womb?
16 If I have stood between the poor and the object of their desire,
if I have caused a widow to lose her love of life,
17 If I have eaten my food alone
and not shared it with the hungry orphan
18 (Indeed, from as far back as I can remember, I have cared for them all—
from my youth, been a father to the orphan;
from my own birth, cared for the widow),
19 If I have idly watched anyone die from exposure simply due to a lack of clothing
or seen the poor without any kind of covering,
20 If ever people in such conditions did not physically bless and thank me
for warming them up with the fleeces of my own sheep,
21 If I ever used my civic strength to condemn the fatherless
simply because I knew I had allies in the courts;
22 Then let my arm be pulled from its socket!
Let my forearm be snapped off at the elbow for raising it against the orphan!
23 See, I have always dreaded the kind of disaster wrought by God;
I was never able to withstand His majesty.
24 If I have put my confidence in my stash of gold,
if I have trusted in a metal so well-refined,
25 If I have exulted in my immense wealth
(for I had accumulated so much),
26 If I saw the sun in its radiant glory
or the moon sliding across the sky in its splendor,
27 If such sights secretly seduced my heart
and made my hand throw kisses to the false gods of sun and moon,
28 Then these things, too, would have been punishable offenses
because they would have shown me untrue to the God above.
29 Have I gloated at my enemy’s downfall
or been excited when he encountered evil?
30 No. I have not permitted my mouth to sin
by uttering a curse against his very life.
31 Have my guests ever left my dwelling saying,
“Anyone still hungry? Who didn’t get enough to eat?”
32 Have I ever left the foreigner to sleep outside?
No. My door was always open to the traveler.
33 If I have covered my sin as people do
or attempted to hide my wrongdoing in the recesses of my heart
34 (Because of my fear of the opinions of the crowd
or my fright at the disdain of my family)
And kept silent hiding indoors away from all possible discovery of flaws;
35 (if only someone were listening!)
Now, here to these oaths, these curses,
I make my signature!
Let the Highest One answer me!
Let my adversary put his case in writing!
36 If He does, I would place it on my shoulder for all to see;
I would put it on my head and wear it like a crown.
37 I would offer Him an account of the steps I’ve taken along my life’s path
and approach Him directly like a prince.
38 If my land cries out against me,
if my furrows gather together to weep over my mistreatment of them,
39 If I have eaten the fruit of the land
without payment to those who tend it
or exasperated the lives of its tenants, the farmers, in pursuit of greater harvest, or in poor management of them;
40 Then let thistles grow instead of wheat
and stinkweed instead of barley.
This concludes the words of Job.
26 My brothers, fellow descendants of our common father Abraham, and others here who fear God, we are the ones to whom God has sent this message of salvation.
27 But you know the people of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus. They didn’t understand the words of the prophets that are read in the synagogues on Sabbath after Sabbath. As a result, they fulfilled the ancient prophecies by condemning Jesus. 28 Even though they could find no offense punishable by death, still they asked Pilate to execute Jesus. 29 When they carried out everything that had been foretold by the prophets, they took His body down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But that was not the end: God raised Him from the dead, 31 and over a period of many days, He appeared to those who had been His companions from the beginning of their journey in Galilee until its end in Jerusalem. They are now witnesses to everyone. 32 We are here to bring you the good news of God’s promise to our ancestors, 33 which He has now fulfilled for our children by raising Jesus. Consider the promises fulfilled in Jesus. The psalmist says, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.”[a]
34 Elsewhere God promises that Jesus will rise and never return to death and corruption again: “I will make You the holy and faithful promises I made to David.”[b] 35 Similarly, another psalm says, “You will not abandon Me to experience death and the grave or leave Me to rot alone.”[c] 36 We all know David died and was reduced to dust after he served God’s purpose in his generation; 37 these words obviously apply not to David but to the One God raised from death before suffering decay. 38 So you must realize, my brothers, that through this resurrected man forgiveness of sins is assured to you. 39 Through Jesus, everyone who believes is set free from all sins—sins which the law of Moses could not release you from. 40 In light of all this, be careful that you do not fulfill these words of the prophet Habakkuk:
41 Look, you scoffers!
Be shocked to death.
For in your days I am doing a work,
a work you will never believe, even if someone tells you plainly![d]
42 Paul and Barnabas prepared to leave the synagogue, but the people wanted to hear more and urged them to return the following Sabbath. 43 As the people dispersed after the meeting, many Jews and converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. Privately Paul and Barnabas continued teaching them and urged them to remain steadfast in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath, it seemed the whole city had gathered to hear the message of the Lord. 45 But some of the Jewish leaders were jealous when they saw these huge crowds. They began to argue with and contradict Paul’s message, as well as slander him. 46 Paul and Barnabas together responded with great confidence.
Paul and Barnabas: OK, then. It was only right that we should bring God’s message to you Jewish people first. But now, since you are rejecting our message and identifying yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the outsiders. 47 The Lord has commanded us to do this. Remember His words:
I have appointed you a light to the nations beyond Israel,
so you can bring redemption to every corner of the earth.[e]
48 These words created two strong reactions. The outsiders were thrilled and praised God’s message, and all those who had been appointed for eternal life became believers. 49 Through them the Lord’s message spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders united the aristocratic religious women and the city’s leading men in opposition to Paul and Barnabas, and soon they were persecuted and driven out of the region. 51 They simply shook the dust off their feet in protest and moved on to Iconium. 52 The disciples weren’t intimidated at all; rather, they were full of joy and the Holy Spirit.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.