Old/New Testament
Bildad speaks a third time[a]
25 Then Bildad, the man from Shuah, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘God rules everything
and we should be afraid of his great power.
In heaven above he causes there to be peace.
3 The number of angels in his armies are too many to count.
His light shines over everyone.
4 No human is righteous when he stands in front of God.
He cannot be pure.
5 When God looks at the moon and the stars,
they do not seem to be pure and bright.
6 So when God looks at us humans,
we do not seem important to him.
To him, we are as useless as worms.’
Job replies to Bildad[b]
26 Then Job replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Do not think that you have helped me,
a weak and helpless man.
Nothing that you have said makes me feel stronger.
3 What good advice have you given me
to make me wise?
You have not really shown me how clever you are!
4 Someone must have helped you to say these wise words.
Who has put all these thoughts in your minds?
5 Dead people shake with fear.
They are under the deep waters.
6 God sees everything that happens
in the place of dead people.
Nothing can hide that terrible place from him.
7 He puts the skies in their place in the north,
so that they cover empty space.
He hangs the earth in the skies
and it stays there.
8 He fills the clouds with water.
They become heavy but they do not break.
9 When the moon is big and round, he hides it.
He causes clouds to cover it.
10 He marks the border between the sea and the sky.
It is the place where the night finishes and the day begins.
11 When God is angry,
he shouts at the pillars under the sky.
When they hear his command,
they shake with fear.
12 He used his power to control the sea.
He used his wisdom to destroy Rahab,
the great sea monster.
13 He used his breath to make the sky become bright.
With his hand he cut the great sea snake
as it ran away.
14 These are only a few of the things that God does.
We only know about a few small things.
If he used all of his power,
we could never understand.’
Job continues to speak
27 Job continued to speak. This is what he said:
2 ‘Almighty God has not been fair to me.
He has caused my life to be very sad.
As surely as he lives, I promise this:
3 As long as God's Spirit gives me life,
4 I will never speak any lies.
I will always be honest.
5 I will never agree that you, my three friends, are right.
Until the day of my death,
I will continue to say what I know is right.
6 I will never agree that I am guilty.
During all of my life,
my thoughts do not say that I am doing anything wrong.
7 I pray that God will punish my enemies
as he punishes all wicked people.
They do bad things to me,
so they deserve punishment.
8 When God chooses to remove wicked people,
they cannot hope for any good thing.
God will cause them to die.
9 When they are in trouble and they pray for help,
God will not listen to them.
10 People like that are not happy that Almighty God is their friend.
They do not like to pray to him all the time.
11 I will teach you about the power of Almighty God.
I will explain to you what he is thinking.
12 You yourselves have all seen what God has done.
So you should stop saying all these useless things!
13 I will tell you what Almighty God does to wicked people.
He punishes cruel people as they deserve.
14 Wicked people may have many children,
but they will die in war.
Their children will never have enough food to eat.
15 Illness will kill any children who continue to live.
Their widows will not weep when they are dead.
16 Wicked people may have lots of money.
They may have silver like heaps of sand.
They may have more clothes than they could ever wear.
17 But one day righteous people will wear those clothes.
Honest people will share the silver among themselves.
18 The houses that wicked people build are not strong.
They are as weak as a spider's web,[c]
or a shepherd's hut,
19 Their riches quickly disappear.
They are rich when they go to sleep,
but poor when they wake up.
20 Troubles come to them like a flood of water,
and they are very afraid.
A storm comes in the night to carry them away.
21 The east wind picks them up and takes then far away.[d]
It removes them from their homes.
22 It is a strong wind that hits wicked people
and it never stops.
It continues to beat them as they try to escape.
23 The cruel wind laughs at them
as they run away in fear.’
King Herod puts Peter in prison
12 At that time, King Herod took hold of some of the group of believers in Jerusalem. He wanted to cause them to suffer. 2 He sent his soldiers to cut off James's head. James was John's brother.[a]
3 King Herod saw that the Jews were happy because he had killed James. So he sent his soldiers to take hold of Peter too. This happened during the Festival of Flat Bread.[b]
4 After the soldiers caught Peter, they put him in prison. While he was in prison, four different groups of soldiers guarded him. There were four soldiers in each group.[c] Herod wanted to judge Peter in front of everybody. After the Passover festival had finished, he would bring Peter out of the prison to do this.
5 So Herod kept Peter in prison. But during that time, the group of believers prayed that God would help Peter.
Peter walks out of the prison
6 It was the night before King Herod wanted to bring Peter out of the prison and judge him. The soldiers had tied Peter to themselves with chains. So Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Some other soldiers were guarding the doors of the prison. 7 Then, an angel from the Lord God suddenly appeared in the prison. A bright light shone in the room where Peter was sleeping. The angel touched Peter's shoulder so that Peter woke up. He said to Peter, ‘Hurry! Stand up!’ Immediately the chains fell off Peter's hands.
8 Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and your shoes.’ Peter did what the angel told him to do. Then the angel said, ‘Now put on your coat and follow me.’ 9 So Peter followed the angel out of the prison. He was not sure that all these things were really happening to him. He thought that he might be dreaming. 10 Peter and the angel walked past the first group of soldiers in the prison. Then they walked past the second group of soldiers. After that, they came to the big metal gate in the wall of the prison. The city was outside this gate. The gate opened by itself in front of them. So Peter and the angel went out of the prison through the gate. They walked together along one street and then, suddenly, the angel went away.
11 Then Peter understood what had happened. He said to himself, ‘Now I know that these things really have happened to me. The Lord God sent one of his angels to rescue me from Herod's power. The Jewish leaders wanted Herod to cause me to suffer. But God has saved me from those bad things.’
12 When Peter realized what God had done for him, he went to Mary's house. She was the mother of John Mark. Many people were meeting together in her house. They were praying to God.[d]
13 Peter knocked on the outside door of the house. A servant girl called Rhoda came to the door. 14 She recognized Peter's voice and she was very happy. But she did not open the door. Instead, she ran back into the house and she said to all the people there, ‘Peter is standing outside the door!’
15 The people in the house said to her, ‘You are crazy.’ But she told them again that Peter really was there. So then they said, ‘It is not him, but it is his angel.’[e]
16 While all this was happening, Peter was still knocking at the door. Then someone went and opened the door. They were all very surprised when they saw him there. 17 Peter raised his hand towards them so that they would all be quiet. Then he explained to them how the Lord God had brought him out of the prison. He said to them, ‘Tell James and all the other believers what has happened to me.’[f] Then he left the house and he went away to another place.
18 When morning arrived, there was a lot of trouble at the prison. The soldiers did not understand what had happened to Peter. 19 When Herod knew about it, he said to the soldiers, ‘Go and look for Peter!’ But they could not find him anywhere. Herod then asked the soldiers who guarded the prison some questions. They could not explain what had happened. So Herod commanded other soldiers to cut off their heads.
After this happened, Herod left Judea. He went to Caesarea and he stayed there for some time.
King Herod dies
20 At that time, King Herod was angry with the people who lived in Tyre and Sidon. A group of men from these cities went together to speak to Herod about the problem. A man called Blastus was an important servant in King Herod's house. The group of men said to Blastus, ‘Please help us when we speak to King Herod.’ Then they went and they said to Herod, ‘Please stop being angry with our people. We want to be friends again.’ They said this because they needed to buy food in King Herod's country.[g]
21 Herod decided on which day he would meet with them. He put on his beautiful clothes and he sat in his special seat as king. Then he spoke his message to all the people. 22 When he spoke, the people shouted, ‘This is not a man who is speaking to us. This is the voice of a god!’
23 Herod let the people praise him, instead of God. So, immediately, an angel of the Lord God caused him to become very ill. Worms ate his body and later he died.
Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch
24 Everywhere that the believers went, they told people God's message. People heard the message in more and more places and many of them believed in Jesus.
25 Barnabas and Saul had gone to Jerusalem to help the believers there. They finished their work and then they returned to Antioch. They took John Mark with them.
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