Old/New Testament
Eliphaz speaks to Job a third time[a]
22 Then Eliphaz, the man from Teman, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Nothing that a man can do will help God.
Even a wise man cannot help God.
3 If you are a righteous person,
it does nothing to help Almighty God.
If you live a completely good life,
it still does not help him.
4 It is not because you respect and obey God
that he punishes you.
It is not because you are a good person
that he accuses you.
5 No! It is because you are a very wicked person.
You have done too many evil things for anyone to count them.
That is why he is punishing you.
6 You took things from your friends when you lent money to them.
You had no reason to do that.
You even took away the only clothes that poor people were wearing.[b]
7 When you met people who were weak and tired,
you did not give them any water to drink.
You refused to feed hungry people.
8 You were a powerful man,
with land that belonged to you.
People respected you.
Your land gave you a good life.
9 But you refused to help widows.
You were cruel to children who have no family.
10 That is why you have so many troubles.
That is why you shake with fear.
11 It seems to you that you are in the dark
and you cannot see.
You feel as if a flood of deep water covers you.
12 God lives high above us in heaven.
Look up at the stars and see how high they are!
13 So you say, “God does not know about us.
He cannot judge us,
because darkness hides us from him.
14 Thick clouds cover him,
so that he does not see us.
He moves around high above the sky.”
15 Job, you must not continue to turn against God.
That is the way that evil people lived long ago.
16 Those people died before they should have done.
A great flood of water took them away.
They had no safe place to stand.[c]
17 They said to God, “Leave us alone!”
They thought that Almighty God could not hurt them.
18 But it was God who gave them many good things to enjoy.
So I cannot accept the ideas of wicked people.
19 God punishes wicked people.
When righteous people see that happen,
they are happy.
Good people then laugh at wicked people.
20 They say, “God has destroyed our enemies.
He has burned all their valuable things in a fire.”
21 So, Job, agree to accept God's ways.
Have peace in your mind about him.
Then you will again have good success.
22 Listen to his teaching.
Remember carefully what he tells you.
23 Turn back to the Almighty God,
so that you become strong again.
Stop all the evil things that happen in your house.
24 Throw away your gold things.
Throw your pure gold among the rocks in the streams.
25 Then the Almighty God will be like gold for you.
He will be like your valuable silver.[d]
26 You will be happy that Almighty God is your friend.
You will look up to him to help you.
27 You will pray to him, and he will answer you.
You will do the things that you have promised to him.
28 You will be able to do everything that you decide to do.
Light from God will show you the right way to go.
29 You will pray for God to help people who are in trouble.
God will save those people who are humble.
30 God will rescue even people who are guilty.
Because you do what is right,
God will save those people.’
Job replies to Eliphaz[e]
23 Then Job replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘I continue to complain against God
because I am still angry today.
God continues to punish me
even when I cry in pain.
3 I would like to know where to find him.
Then I could go to the place where he lives.
4 I would tell him why I am not guilty.
I would say many things to explain this to him.
5 Then I would know how he would answer me.
I would understand what he would say to me.
6 Would God use his great power to argue against me?
No! He would listen carefully to me.
7 Honest people can explain things to him.
So he would judge me in a fair way.
He would let me go free.
8 I look for God in the east, but he is not there.
I do not find him in the west either.
9 When he does his work in the north,
I do not see him.
When he moves to the south,
I still cannot find him anywhere.
10 But he knows the way that I live.
When he has finished testing me,
he will see that I am pure.
I will be as pure as gold.
11 I have always lived in the way that God showed me.
I have obeyed him faithfully.
I have not turned away from his teaching.
12 I have been careful to obey his commands.
His words are more important to me than my food.
13 But he is always true to himself.
Nobody can change him.
Whatever he wants to do, he does.
14 He will do to me everything that he has decided to do.
He has plans to do many things like this.
15 Because of that,
I am afraid of him.
When I think about all these things,
I am very afraid.
16 God has made me become weak with fear.
Almighty God has frightened me.
17 Because of all my troubles,
I seem to be in a very dark place.
The darkness seems to cover me.
But I will not be afraid to speak.
Job continues to speak[f]
24 Why has Almighty God not yet decided the time
when he will judge wicked people?
People who serve him faithfully continue to wait for justice.
2 Wicked men move the stones that show the edge of their neighbour's land.[g]
They take their neighbour's land and his sheep for themselves.
3 They take away a donkey
that belongs to a child who has no family.
They take an ox away from a widow,
when they lend money to her.
4 They stop poor people from receiving justice.
Poor people have to run away from them and hide.
5 Poor people have to look for food to eat,
like wild donkeys in the desert.
They have to find food for their children to eat.
6 They find grain in the fields of other people.
They pick grapes that remain in the vineyards of wicked people.
7 They have no clothes to wear during the cold nights.
They sleep without anything to cover themselves.
8 The rain that falls in the mountains makes them very wet.
So they hide among the rocks where they try to keep dry.
9 When wicked people lend money to poor people,
they even take a child whose father has died away from his mother.
10 Poor people have to go out with no clothes to wear.
They are hungry while they carry the crops of other people.
11 They squeeze oil from olives
that grow in the fields of other people.
They also make wine from other people's grapes.
But they themselves are thirsty.
12 In the cities, people who are dying cry with pain.
They call for help,
but God does not punish the people who have hurt them.
13 Some people refuse to live in the light.
They do not understand it.
They do not go along the good way that it shows to them.
14 Murderers rob people when it is still dark.
They kill poor, weak people during the night.
15 Adulterers wait until it is becoming dark.
They think that no one will see them.
They cover their faces
so that no one will recognize them.
16 Robbers go into people's homes in the dark
to take away their things.
But they stay inside during the day.
They never go out in the light.
17 They all like to do evil things at night,
rather than in the light of morning.
They are not afraid of things that happen in the dark,
as other people are.
18 You may say, “Floods of water carry away wicked people.[h]
God curses the land that belongs to them.
Nobody goes to work in their vineyards.
19 Snow soon disappears
when the weather is very hot or very dry.
In the same way, death quickly takes away people who do bad things.
20 Their mothers soon forget them.
Worms eat their bodies.
No one remembers those wicked people.
They are like dead trees that people have cut down.
21 Those wicked people are cruel to women who have no children.
They are not kind to widows.
22 But God uses his strength to remove powerful people.
When he attacks wicked people,
their lives are in his hands.
23 God allows them to feel safe.
But he is always watching everything that they do.
24 Wicked people may have success for a short time,
but suddenly they disappear!
Like everyone else, they fall to the ground.
They become like crops that people cut down at harvest time.”
25 What I have said is true.
Nobody can say that I am telling lies.
You cannot think that my words are useless.’
Peter returns to Jerusalem
11 The apostles and the other believers in Judea heard that Gentiles had also believed the message from God. 2 Peter then returned from Caesarea and he arrived in Jerusalem. Some of the Jews there who were believers spoke against him. These Jews thought that all believers should be circumcised. 3 So they said to Peter, ‘You stayed in the house of men who were not circumcised. You even ate meals with them!’[a]
4 Peter then began to explain everything that had happened. He said to them, 5 ‘I was staying in a house in the city of Joppa. One day, when I was praying, I had a special dream. In this vision, I saw something that came down from heaven. It was like a large piece of cloth. Somebody held it at each of its four corners and let it come down to the ground next to me. 6 I looked carefully at it. I saw that there were farm animals with four legs inside the cloth. There were also wild animals, snakes, and birds in it. 7 Then I heard a voice that said to me, “Peter, stand up and kill some of these animals. Then you can cook them and eat the meat.”
8 But I answered, “No, Lord, I would certainly not do that. I have never eaten an animal that our Law says is unclean.”
9 Then the voice spoke to me from heaven again. It said, “God has made these animals good for people to eat. So you must not say that it is not right to eat them.” 10 All this happened three times. After that, the cloth went back up into heaven again.
11 At that moment, three men from Caesarea arrived at the house where I was staying. Someone had sent these men to find me. 12 The Holy Spirit told me that I should go with them. He said that I should not be afraid. These six believers from Joppa also went with me to Caesarea. We all went into Cornelius's house. 13 Then Cornelius told us what had happened to him. He had seen an angel who appeared in his house and said to him, “Send some men to Joppa to fetch a man who is called Simon Peter. 14 He will come and speak to you. His message will tell you how God will save you and everyone else in your house.”
15 When I started to speak to Cornelius and his family, the Holy Spirit came down on them. It happened in the same way that he first came down on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord Jesus had said to us: “John baptized people with water, but God will baptize you with his Holy Spirit.” 17 So we see that God gave these Gentiles his gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the same gift that he gave to us Jews who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I could never try to stop God.’
18 The Jewish believers heard what Peter said. They could not say anything more against him. Instead, they praised God and they said, ‘We now see that God has also let Gentiles have life with him. He will accept them if they stop doing bad things and turn to him.’
The believers go to Antioch
19 After the Jewish leaders had killed Stephen, the believers had a lot of trouble. The believers left Jerusalem and they went to many different places. Some of them went away as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. They told God's message to people in these places. But they only told the message to Jews.
20 Some of the believers were people who came from Cyprus and Cyrene. These men went to Antioch. There they told God's message to Gentiles, as well as to Jews. They told everyone the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord God helped these men with his power. Very many people believed their message and they trusted in the Lord Jesus.
22 The believers in Jerusalem heard about what had happened in Antioch. So they decided to send Barnabas there. 23 Barnabas arrived in Antioch. He saw how God had been kind to the people there and helped them. Barnabas was happy about this. So he said to the new believers, ‘Continue to trust the Lord Jesus completely.’
24 Barnabas was a good man. The power of God's Holy Spirit was with him. He trusted God completely. Many people in Antioch believed in Jesus and joined the group of believers.
25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. 26 When Barnabas found him, he brought him back to Antioch. For one whole year, Barnabas and Saul met together with the group of believers there. They taught very many of them about Jesus. Antioch was the first place where the believers were called Christians.
27 During this time, some prophets travelled from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of these men was called Agabus. The Holy Spirit gave him a message from God. He stood up and he said to the people there, ‘Soon people will be very hungry all over the world because there will be no food.’ (That happened when Claudius ruled the Roman world.)[b]
29 The believers in Antioch wanted to help the other believers who lived in Judea. Each of them decided how much of their own money they could give. 30 Then they gave the money to Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul took this gift to the leaders of the believers in Jerusalem.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.