Old/New Testament
The Lord asks Job some questions[a]
38 The Lord spoke to Job from the middle of the storm. This is what he said:
2 ‘Who do you think you are?
Why do you ask questions about my wisdom?
You speak many words,
but you do not understand anything.
3 Prepare yourself for a difficult job!
I will ask you some questions and you must answer them.
4 Were you with me when I made the world?
If you think you are so clever,
tell me all about it!
5 It was me who decided the size of the world.
You surely must know that!
I measured it as I made it.
6 Tell me how I fixed the foundations of the earth.
Who made it stay in its right place? I did!
7 At the dawn of that day, the stars sang together.
They sang for joy with all the angels.
8 When the sea poured out of the ground,
I decided where its borders should be.
I kept the water in its right place.
9 I caused the clouds to come over the sea.
I covered it with complete darkness.
10 I put a border around the sea.
I locked it in its place.
11 I said to the sea, “This is as far as you can come.
You may come no further.
Your powerful waves must stop there!”
12 But you, Job, did you ever command the morning to begin?
No! You have never in your whole life told the sun when it should rise.
13 You have not told the light of day to cover the earth.
You have not told it to chase away the wicked things that happen in the night.
14 When the light of day comes,
people see the land clearly.
Its shape and colours show like bright clothes.
15 The light of day is too bright for wicked people.
It destroys their power to do cruel things.
16 You have not gone to the springs
that fill the seas with water.
You have not walked on the bottom of the deep seas.
17 Nobody has showed you the gates of death.
People go through them to that very dark place.
18 You do not understand the great size of the earth.
If you know all about that, tell me!
19 You do not know where light comes from.
You do not know where darkness has its home.
20 Can you take them to the places where they belong?
Do you know the roads that go there?
21 Surely you must know all this,
because you have lived for so long!
It seems that you were already born
when I created these things![b]
22 Have you visited the place where I keep all the snow?
Or the place where I keep the hail?
23 I keep the snow and the hail ready to use.
I use them in times of trouble and wars.
24 You do not know where lightning comes from.
Or where the east wind starts
when it blows across the earth.
25 I make a path for the storms to travel along.
I tell the thunder and the strong rain which way to go.
26 I cause rain to fall in places where no person lives.
It makes even a desert become a wet place.
27 The rain falls on dry ground where nothing grows.
It causes grass to grow there again.
28 Do you know if the rain has a father?
Who is a father to the dew?
29 Who is a mother to the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost that makes the air so cold?
30 It causes the water to become as hard as stone.
The water of the sea also becomes ice.
31 You cannot make the stars of the Pleiades stay in their places.
You cannot change the shape of Orion.
32 You bring out the groups of stars
for people to see at different times of the year.
You cannot put the stars of the Great Bear and the Little Bear
in their right places in the sky.[c]
33 You do not know the rules that the stars above obey.
You cannot make the earth obey those rules.
34 You cannot shout commands to the clouds.
You cannot tell them to pour down their rain,
so that a flood of water covers you.
35 You cannot send the lightning
to hit the place that you want it to go.
The lightning does not say to you,
“We are ready to go wherever you want.”
36 Who has given people wisdom,
so that they understand things with their minds?
37 Is anyone wise enough to count the clouds?
Can anyone cause the clouds to pour down rain from above?
38 The rain causes the dust of the dry ground to become hard.
The dry soil becomes pieces of mud.
39 When the lions become hungry,
can you find food for the young lions to eat?
40 You cannot do that for them
when they sit in their caves.
You cannot help them as they hide in the bushes,
ready to attack other animals.
41 You cannot find food for the ravens to eat.
You cannot help them when their babies cry to me
because they are weak and hungry.’
God continues to ask Job questions[d]
39 ‘Job, do you know that time when the goats on the mountains give birth?
Do you watch the wild deer when their babies are born?
2 Can you count the number of months that these animals are pregnant?
How long must they wait until they give birth?
3 They bend down low to the ground.
They give birth to the babies that they have carried inside them.
4 The young animals grow
and they become strong in the fields.
Then they leave their parents
and they do not return to them.
5 Did you send out the wild donkeys
to go wherever they want?
6 No! It was me who gave them the desert as their home.
I let them live in places where the ground has salt.
7 They stay far away from the busy cities.
They do not allow anyone to make them work.
8 Instead, they live on the hills,
where they find fresh plants to eat.
9 Can you tell a wild ox to work for you?
No! At night, it will not stay to feed at your farm.
10 It will not let you tie it to a plough.
It will not agree to prepare your fields in the valleys.
11 A wild ox is very strong.
But you cannot trust it to help you with your difficult work.
12 It will not help you to bring in your harvest of grain.
It will not take the grain to your threshing floor.
13 When an ostrich is happy,
it waves its wings.
But it cannot use its wings to fly,
as a stork can do.
14 A mother ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground.
She lets the sand cause them to be warm.
15 She does not realize that people or wild animals
might break the eggs with their feet.
16 She does not take care of her babies,
as if they did not belong to her.
She does not worry that all her work might be useless.
17 This is because I did not give wisdom to ostriches.
I did not give them minds that understand things.
18 But when an ostrich begins to run,
it can run very fast.
It can run faster than a horse
and someone who rides on it.
19 Did you, Job, give horses their strength?
Did you give them the long hair that they have on their necks?
20 You did not make horses able to jump like locusts.
They frighten people when they blow air out through their noses.
21 They stamp their feet on the ground,
as they prepare to go to a battle.
They are ready to go and attack the enemy.
22 A horse is brave and it is not afraid of anything.
It does not run away from the enemy's weapons.
23 The soldier who is riding it
has his arrows ready at the horse's side.
Swords and spears shine brightly in the sun.
24 The horse shakes with joy
as it runs to the battle.
When the battle trumpet makes its noise,
the horse wants to run even faster![e]
25 When it hears the sound of the trumpet,
it makes a happy noise.
From far away, it recognizes the smell of the battle.
It hears the army officers as they shout their commands.
26 Was it your wisdom, Job, that taught hawks how to fly?
No! You could not teach them to fly towards the south in winter.
27 Do eagles wait for your command
to fly high into the sky?
No! You could not teach them how to build their nests
high up in the mountains.
28 They live among the highest rocks.
That is where they stay at night.
They are safe on the sharp rocks.
29 From the high rocks,
eagles look for their food.
They see small animals far away,
that they can catch and eat.
30 They come together around the bodies of dead animals.
The young eagles drink the blood.’
God continues to speak to Job
40 The Lord said to Job,
2 ‘Do you still want to argue with me, the Almighty God?
You say that I have not been fair.
Now you must explain what you mean.’
Job replies to God
3 Then Job answered the Lord. This is what he said:
4 ‘I am only a foolish man.
I cannot answer your questions.
I cover my mouth with my hand
so that I say nothing.
5 I have already spoken too many times.
I will say no more.’
God speaks to Job again
6 Then the Lord spoke to Job from inside the storm. This is what he said:
7 ‘Prepare yourself for a difficult job!
I will ask you some more questions and you must answer them.
8 Do you say that I am not a fair judge?
Do you want to show that I am guilty, not you?
Then you could say that you are right.
9 Do you have the same power to do great things as I have?
Can you speak with a voice as loud as thunder?
I can!
10 If you think that you can do all this,
show how great you are!
Show everyone your power and your glory!
11 Show everyone your great anger!
Look at all the people who like to boast
and bring them down low!
12 Yes, cause all the proud people to be humble.
Knock down wicked people to the ground.
13 Bury them all together in the dust of the ground.
Cover their faces and put them in their graves.
14 If you can do these things, Job,
I will praise you.
I will agree that you have the power to save yourself.
15 Listen! I created the monsters called Behemoth.[f]
I made you and I made them too.
They eat grass, as cows do.
16 But look at the strength of their legs and their body!
17 Their tails are like the branches of a cedar tree.
Their legs are thick and very strong.
18 Their bones are like sticks made of bronze.
Their legs are as strong as iron.
19 These monsters are some of the greatest animals that I have made.
But I who made them can take my sword
and go near to them.
20 They eat the grass that grows on the hills.
That is where the wild animals play.
21 They lie down under the thorn trees.
They hide among the reeds at the edge of the water.
22 They rest in the shadow of the thorn trees,
and among the willow trees beside the water.
23 Even when the river is deep and dangerous,
these monsters are not afraid.
The water of the Jordan River may cover their mouths,
but they still feel safe.
24 There is no way that anyone can catch one of them.
No one can make its eyes blind.
No one can put a ring in its nose and lead it away.’
Timothy travels with Paul and Silas
16 Paul travelled to Derbe and then he arrived in Lystra. A man called Timothy lived in Lystra. He was a believer. His mother was a Jew who had become a believer in Jesus. But Timothy's father was a Gentile who came from Greece. 2 All the believers in Lystra and Iconium said good things about Timothy. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him to different places. All the Jews in that region knew that Timothy's father was a Gentile. So Paul circumcised Timothy, so that the Jews would accept him.[a]
4 Paul, Silas and Timothy travelled through many towns. In each place, they told the believers the things that the apostles and the other leaders in Jerusalem had decided. They told the believers to obey those rules. 5 In this way, the groups of believers in those towns became stronger. They trusted Jesus more. More and more people joined the groups of believers every day.
Paul has a vision
6 Paul and his friends wanted to go to the region of Asia to speak God's message. But the Holy Spirit stopped them from doing this. So they travelled through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia. 7 Then they arrived at the edge of the region of Mysia. They wanted to go from there into the region of Bithynia. But the Holy Spirit of Jesus stopped them from going there too. 8 So they went quickly through Mysia and they arrived at the city of Troas, on the coast.
9 During that night, Paul had a vision. In the vision, he saw a man from the region called Macedonia. The man stood there and he said to Paul, ‘Please, please come across the sea to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 After Paul's vision, we immediately prepared ourselves for the journey to Macedonia.[b] We decided that God was telling us to go there. He wanted us to tell the people there the good news about Jesus.
Lydia becomes a believer
11 We got in a ship at Troas and we sailed across the sea. We went across to an island called Samothrace. The next day, we continued our journey to a port called Neapolis. 12 We then travelled across the land to Philippi, the most important city in the region of Macedonia. The Romans ruled Philippi and many Roman people lived there. We stayed there for a few days.
13 On the Jewish day of rest, we went out of the city gate. We went down to the edge of the river. We thought that the Jews might have a special meeting place there. We thought that they would meet there to pray. We found a group of women who were meeting there. So we sat down and we talked to them.[c]
14 One of the women who listened to us was called Lydia. She was from the city of Thyatira. She bought and sold expensive dark red cloth. She was a Gentile woman who now worshipped God. The Lord helped her to understand Paul's message. So she believed the things that he said.
15 Then Paul and Silas baptized Lydia and the other people who lived in her house. After this, Lydia asked us to go to her house. She said to us, ‘If you think that I really believe in the Lord Jesus, then please stay in my house.’ We agreed to go and to stay there.
The Roman rulers put Paul and Silas in prison
16 One day, we were going to the place where people prayed to God. On the way there, we met a slave girl. A bad spirit was living inside her. This spirit told her what would happen soon. People gave her masters a lot of money when she told them about these future things. 17 She followed Paul and all of us. She was shouting, ‘These men are servants of the powerful God who is over all! They are telling you how God can save you!’
18 The slave girl continued to do this for many days. After some time, Paul became angry. So he turned round and he said to the bad spirit, ‘I am using the authority of Jesus Christ! I command you to leave this woman!’ When Paul said that, the spirit left her immediately.
19 Her masters now knew that the girl could not get money for them any more. So they took hold of Paul and Silas and they pulled them to the market place of the city. They took them to stand in front of the leaders of the city. 20 They asked the important officers to judge them. They said, ‘These men are Jews. They are causing much trouble in our city. 21 They are teaching people to obey strange ideas. We are Roman people. We cannot agree with these laws. They are not right for us to do.’
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