Old/New Testament
Job continues to speak
17 I am very weak and I will soon die.
Then my friends will bury me in my grave.
2 All around me, people are laughing at me.
I have to watch them as they insult me.
3 God, please help me to become free again.
Nobody else will pay the price to do that for me.
4 You have stopped my friends from thinking properly.
So do not allow them to win the argument.
5 People may turn against their friends
to get things for themselves.
If they do that, their children should become blind.
6 You have caused people to insult me,
like that proverb says.
People even spit at my face.
7 I have cried so much that my eyes have become weak.
My body is so thin that I am like a shadow.
8 Good people are upset,
when they see what is happening to me.
They are angry with those who turn away from you.
9 Righteous people continue to do things that are right.
People who do good things become stronger.
10 But you, my friends, come here!
Try again to help me, all of you!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 I will not live for many more days.
I will never do the things that I wanted to do.
12 My friends say, “It is day”,
when it is still night.
They do not know the difference between light and dark.
13 The only home that I hope to go to is my grave.
I will lie down to sleep there in the dark.
14 I will say to the grave,
“You are my father.”
I will say to the worms that eat me,
“Hello, my mother. Hello, my sister.”
15 I can hope for nothing that is better than that.
No one can find anything better for me.
16 When I go to the world of dead people,
all my hope will have finished.
Everything that I had hoped for will lie with me in the dust.’
Bildad speaks to Job again[a]
18 Then Bildad, the man from Shuah, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘You should not continue to talk like that!
Stop and think carefully. Then we can talk.
3 You should not think that we are as foolish as cows.
4 You are so angry that you are hurting yourself.
You will never change the way that things happen in the world.
Your anger will not cause the earth to shake,
or any rocks to move from their places.
What happens to wicked people
5 The light of a wicked person's life will stop shining.
His fire will no longer burn brightly.
6 His tent will be dark.
The lamp that gives him light will stop burning.
7 Once he was strong
but now his legs are weak.
His own ideas cause him to fall down.
8 He does not know where he is going
and he walks into a dangerous trap.
9 A trap catches his foot
and he cannot move.
10 Someone has hidden a rope on the ground.
It catches him as he walks along.
11 Everywhere a wicked person goes,
things frighten him.
He cannot escape from them.
12 Now he is hungry
and his strength has disappeared.
Terrible trouble is ready to take hold of him
whenever it has the chance.
13 A bad disease eats his skin.
It causes his arms and his legs to become useless
and he dies.
14 Then he has to leave his tent
where he had lived safely.
He will have to meet the terrible king of death.
15 Other people will live in his tent.
They have used sulphur to burn all his things.[b]
16 He is like a tree whose roots have become dry,
and its branches have fallen off.
17 Nobody remembers that he ever lived.
They have forgotten his name.
18 The wicked person has had to leave this world.
He has gone from a place where there is light
to a place where it is dark.
19 He has no children or grandchildren.
He has no family to live in his home.
20 All people are very upset
when they see what has happened to him.
Wherever they live,
they are very upset.
21 I know that this is what happens to the homes of evil people.
It happens to people who turn away from God.’
Job replies to Bildad[c]
19 Then Job replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Please stop speaking to me like that!
Your words continue to make me suffer.
3 You have insulted me many, many times.
You should be ashamed to attack me like that.
4 I might have done things that are wrong.
But even if that might be true,
those wrong things have not hurt you.
5 You think that you are better people than I am.
Because I have all these troubles,
you say that I must be guilty.
6 But you should realize that God has caused all my troubles.
He is the one who has caught me in his trap.
7 If I shout, “Help me, I am in trouble!”
nobody answers me.
I shout to get help,
but nobody comes to give me justice.
8 God has stopped me
so that I cannot move forward.
He has made my path dark
so that I cannot see the way to go.
9 He has taken away my honour
so that nobody respects me.
10 Everywhere that I go, God is there to attack me.
He is ready to destroy me.
He has taken away my hope,
as if he has dug a tree out of the ground.
11 He is very angry against me.
He attacks me as if I am his enemy.
12 His whole army is coming to attack me!
They build a road so that they can reach me.
They are all around me.
13 God has caused my brothers to stay away from me.
My friends do not want to meet me.
14 My relatives have left me.
My best friends have forgotten me.
15 Visitors who stayed in my house
now think that I am a stranger.
Even my servants think that I am a foreigner.
16 I tell my servant to come to me
but he does not come.
I ask him to help me,
but he does nothing.
17 My wife moves away from the smell of my breath.
My brothers stay away from me.
18 Even young children insult me.
When I stand up, they laugh at me.
19 My best friends hate me.
People that I love have turned against me.
20 My body is now only skin and bones.
I still breathe but I am only just alive.
21 Please be kind to me, my friends.
God has caused me to suffer,
so please be kind to me.
22 Do not punish me as God is punishing me.
You have already caused me to suffer enough.
23 Someone should write down the words that I speak.
My words should be written on a scroll.
24 If someone uses an iron tool to write them on a rock,
that would be good.
Then they would never disappear.
25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.[d]
I know that, in the end, he will stand on the earth.
26 Illness may completely destroy my skin.
But after that happens,
I know that in this body I will see God.
27 I will see him for myself,
with my own eyes.
It makes me feel weak inside as I think about it!
28 My friends, you should not think of ways to make me suffer even more.
You say that I have caused my own trouble.
29 Instead, you yourselves should be afraid of punishment!
When God is angry with someone,
he punishes that person.
Then you will know that he is the one who judges people.’
Cornelius asks Peter to come to him
10 There was a man who lived in Caesarea and his name was Cornelius. He was an officer in the Roman army. His group of soldiers was called ‘The Group from Italy’. 2 Cornelius was a good man. He and all his family served God faithfully. Cornelius prayed to God every day. He also gave money to help poor Jewish people.[a]
3 One afternoon, at about three o'clock, Cornelius had a vision.[b] He clearly saw one of God's angels. The angel came in and said to him, ‘Cornelius!’
4 Cornelius looked at the angel and he was afraid. He asked, ‘Master, why have you come to me?’
The angel answered, ‘God has heard your prayers. He knows about all the money that you give to poor people. This has pleased him. Now God is answering your prayers. 5 You must send some men to Joppa. They will find a man who is staying there. He is called Simon Peter. Your men must tell him to come here to Caesarea. 6 He is staying at the house of Simon the tanner.[c] His house is near the sea.’
7 Then the angel who spoke to Cornelius went away. Cornelius told two of his servants and a soldier of his group to come to him. The soldier was one of those who served Cornelius. He was a good man who obeyed God. 8 Cornelius explained to these three men what the angel had said to him. Then he sent them to Joppa.[d]
9 The next day, at about noon, Cornelius's men were coming near to Joppa. At this time, Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray to God.[e] 10 He became hungry and he wanted to eat some food. While someone was preparing a meal for him, Peter had a special dream. 11 In a vision, he saw heaven open above him. Then he saw something like a large piece of cloth. Somebody held it at each of its four corners and let it come down to the ground. 12 Inside the cloth there were many different kinds of animals with four legs. There were also wild birds and snakes. 13 Then Peter heard a voice that said to him, ‘Peter, stand up and kill some of these animals. Then you can cook them and eat the meat.’
14 Peter answered, ‘No, Lord, I would certainly not do that. I have never eaten an animal that our Law says is unclean.’[f]
15 Then, for the second time, the voice said to Peter, ‘God has made these animals good for people to eat. So you must not say that it is not right to eat them.’
16 All this happened three times. After that, the cloth immediately went back up into heaven.
17 Just then, Cornelius's men arrived there in Joppa. They found Simon's house. When they stopped at the gate of the house, Peter was still thinking about his dream and what it meant. 18 The men shouted out, ‘Is a man called Simon Peter staying here?’
19 While Peter was still thinking about his dream, the Holy Spirit said to him, ‘Simon, three men have arrived and they are looking for you. 20 Get up and go downstairs to meet them. I have sent these men to come to you. So you should go with them. Do not be afraid.’
21 Peter went downstairs and he said to the men, ‘I am the person that you are looking for. Why have you come here?’
22 The men answered him, ‘The Roman officer who is called Cornelius has sent us to you. He is a good man and he obeys God's Law. All the Jewish people respect him. An angel from God told him to send us to you with a message. Then we should bring you to Cornelius's house so that he could hear what you have to say.’ 23 Then Peter said to the men, ‘Please come into the house and stay here with us tonight.’
Peter at Cornelius's house
The next day, Peter left Joppa to go to Caesarea with Cornelius's men. Some believers who lived in Joppa travelled with them.
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