Old/New Testament
3 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job answered:
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness.
Don’t let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
Let a cloud dwell on it.
Let all that makes the day black terrify it.
6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Behold, let that night be barren.
Let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none,
neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb?
Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breast, that I should nurse?
13 For now I should have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up waste places for themselves;
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver;
16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
as infants who never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling.
There the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there.
The servant is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it doesn’t come;
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat.
My groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,
that which I am afraid of comes to me.
26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither do I have rest;
but trouble comes.”
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,
2 “If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved?
But who can withhold himself from speaking?
3 Behold, you have instructed many,
you have strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have supported him who was falling,
you have made the feeble knees firm.
5 But now it has come to you, and you faint.
It touches you, and you are troubled.
6 Isn’t your piety your confidence?
Isn’t the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Remember, now, who ever perished, being innocent?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble, reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish.
By the blast of his anger are they consumed.
10 The roaring of the lion,
and the voice of the fierce lion,
the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey.
The cubs of the lioness are scattered abroad.
12 “Now a thing was secretly brought to me.
My ear received a whisper of it.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
14 fear came on me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face.
The hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stood still, but I couldn’t discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes.
Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,
17 ‘Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Behold, he puts no trust in his servants.
He charges his angels with error.
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed before the moth!
20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed.
They perish forever without any regarding it.
21 Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them?
They die, and that without wisdom.’
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen; 45 which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers to the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built him a house. 48 However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,
49 ‘heaven is my throne,
and the earth a footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord.
‘Or what is the place of my rest?
50 Didn’t my hand make all these things?’(A)
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. 52 Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 53 You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”
54 Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly 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 at the right hand of God!”
57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. 58 They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
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