Old/New Testament
God continues to ask Job questions
41 ‘It is the same with the sea monsters called Leviathan.[a]
Can you catch them with a hook?
Can you use a rope to keep their mouths shut?
2 Can you tie a rope through their noses?
Can you put a hook into their mouths.
3 No! They will not ask you nicely to be kind
and let them go free.
4 They will not make any agreement with you.
You cannot make them your slaves
to work for you as long as they live.
5 Leviathan is not something to enjoy at home, like a bird.
You cannot tie it with a rope,
so that your girls can play with it.
6 Traders do not buy it at the market.
They do not cut it up to sell it.
7 Job, can you throw spears into Leviathan's body to kill it?
Can you shoot arrows into its head?
8 If you try to take hold of it,
you will never forget the fight!
You will never try to do that again!
9 If anyone hopes to catch it,
he is deceiving himself.
As soon as he sees it,
he no longer feels so brave!
10 No one is brave enough to wake it.
So is anyone brave enough to argue against me?
11 Nobody has ever won against me
to make me pay them anything.
Everything in the whole world belongs to me.
12 I must tell you how strong Leviathan's legs are.
Their bodies are very strong
and they have a wonderful shape.
13 Nobody is able to remove their thick skin.
It is like armour that nobody can cut through.
14 Nobody is strong enough to open its mouth.
Its teeth make everyone afraid.
15 Its back is like rows of shields.
They are as hard as stone with no spaces between them.
16 Each shield is very near the next one.
Not even air can pass between them.
17 They are strongly joined together,
and nothing can pull them apart.
18 When Leviathan breathes out loudly,
bright light shines from its nose.
Its eyes shine like the red sun at dawn.
19 Fire comes out from its mouth.
Bright flames shoot out!
20 Smoke pours out from its nose,
like reeds that burn under a pot.
21 Its breath is hot enough to light a fire!
Flames pour out of its mouth.
22 Its neck is very strong.
Wherever it goes,
people shake with fear.
23 There are no weak places in its skin.
Its skin is as hard as iron.
24 It is cruel and it has no fear.
Its heart is as hard as stone.
25 Even the bravest people are afraid
when Leviathan appears.
They run away when it starts to move.
26 If you hit it with a sword,
you will not hurt it.
Spears, arrows and knives will be useless.
27 It can easily break iron or bronze weapons.
It breaks them as easily as grass or soft wood.
28 If you shoot arrows at it,
it will not run away.
If you use a sling to throw stones at it,
the stones will hurt it no more than bits of chaff.
29 If you hit it with a heavy stick,
that hurts it no more than a piece of straw.
If you throw a spear at it,
it laughs!
30 Its stomach has sharp pieces,
like bits of a pot that someone has broken.
When it moves along,
it ploughs the soil under it.
31 When it swims in the deep water of the sea,
the water seems to boil.
It makes big waves,
like oil that is boiling in a pot.
32 As it swims, the water behind it shines.
It makes waves that look like white hair on the sea.
33 There is no other animal like it in the whole world.
It is not afraid of anything.
34 It does not respect any other great animal.
It rules as king over all the proud animals.’
Job replies to God[b]
42 Then Job replied to the Lord. He said this:
2 ‘I know that you can do all things.
You can do anything that you want to do.
Nobody can stop you.
3 You asked me, “Why do you ask questions about my wisdom,
when you do not understand anything?”
It is true. I was speaking about things that I do not understand.
They are things that are too wonderful for me to know.
4 You said to me, “Listen carefully to what I will say.
I will ask you questions and you must answer them.”
5 In the past, I had heard about you from other people.
Now I have seen you for myself.
6 So I am ashamed of the things that I said.
I sit here in dirt and in ashes
to show you that I am very sorry.’
The end of the story[c]
7 When the Lord had spoken to Job, he said this to Eliphaz, the man from Teman:
‘I am very angry with you and with your two friends. The things that my servant Job has said about me are true. But the things that you said were not right. 8 You three men must now go to Job. Take seven bulls and seven male sheep with you. Burn them as sacrifices for yourselves. After you have done that, my servant Job will pray for you. I will answer his prayer. Then I will not punish you as you deserve because of your foolish words. My servant Job has spoken the truth about me, but you have not.’
9 So Eliphaz, the man from Teman, Bildad, the man from Shuah, and Zophar, the man from Naamah, did what the Lord had told them to do. And the Lord answered Job's prayer.
10 After Job prayed for his three friends, the Lord made him a rich man again. He gave Job twice as many things as he had before. 11 Then Job's brothers and sisters came to eat a big meal with him in his house. People who had been Job's friends came also. They all told him that they were sad about his troubles. They were upset because the Lord had caused him to suffer. Each of them gave Job a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 After this, the Lord blessed Job more than in the beginning of his life. All these animals belonged to Job: 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 pairs of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had seven sons and three daughters. 14 The daughters' names were Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch. 15 They were the most beautiful women in the whole land of Uz. Job said that they should receive some of his things after he died, along with their brothers.[d]
16 Job lived for 140 years after this. He was still alive when his grandchildren and their grandchildren were born. 17 So when Job died, he had lived for a long time.
22 A lot of people quickly came together there. They started to attack Paul and Silas. So the important officers said to their soldiers, ‘Tear the clothes off Paul and Silas. Then hit them with sticks!’ 23 The soldiers hit Paul and Silas many times. Then they took hold of them and they pushed them into the prison. The officers said to the prison guard, ‘Lock the prison door carefully so that these men cannot get free.’
24 The prison guard did what he had been told to do. He put Paul and Silas in a room in the middle of the prison. He put their feet between big heavy pieces of wood so that they could not move their legs.
25 At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. They were also singing songs to praise God. The other people in the prison were listening to them. 26 The ground under the prison suddenly shook strongly. Immediately, all the prison doors opened. The chains that held the people in the prison all fell off. 27 The prison guard woke up. He saw that the prison doors were open. He thought that all the people in the prison had become free. He decided that he should kill himself. So he pulled out his sword.[a]
28 Paul shouted very loudly to him, ‘Do not hurt yourself! We are all still in here!’
29 The guard said, ‘Bring me some lights.’ Then he ran to the prison room where Paul and Silas were. He was very frightened. He went down on his knees in front of them. 30 Then he led Paul and Silas out of the prison. He said to them, ‘Masters, what must I do so that God will save me? Tell me!’
31 Paul and Silas said to him, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and then God will save you. He will save you and the people who live in your house, if they believe too.’ 32 Then Paul and Silas went to the guard's house. They spoke God's message about the Lord Jesus to him and to all the people in his house. 33 In the middle of the night, the man took care of them. He washed their bodies where the soldiers had hurt them. Immediately after this, Paul and Silas baptized the man and his whole family. 34 The man gave them some food to eat in his house. The guard and all his family were very happy because now they believed in God.
35 The next morning, the important officers sent their police to the prison with a message for the guard. They told him, ‘Let those men go free.’ 36 The guard went to Paul and he told him, ‘The city officers have sent a message to me. They said, “Let Paul and Silas go free.” So now you can leave the prison. Nobody will hurt you any more.’
37 But Paul spoke to the police who had brought the message. He said, ‘The city officers did not find that we had done anything wrong. But they commanded their soldiers to hit us with sticks in front of everybody. We are citizens of Rome but they still did this to us. They even put us into prison. Now they want us to leave the prison and go away. They want to send us away secretly. We will not agree! The Roman officers must come here to the prison themselves. Then they must lead us out for everyone to see.’
38 The police returned to the city officers. They told them what Paul had said. The officers now understood that Paul and Silas were citizens of Rome. This made them very afraid. 39 So they went to see Paul and Silas in the prison. They told Paul and Silas that they were very sorry. Then they led Paul and Silas out of the prison. They asked them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas left the prison, they went to Lydia's house. There they met the other believers. They spoke to the believers to make them strong. Then Paul and Silas left Philippi.[b]
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