Old/New Testament
25 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2 Dominion and fear are with [God]; He makes peace in His high places.
3 Is there any number to His armies? And upon whom does not His light arise?
4 How then can man be justified and righteous before God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be pure and clean?(A)
5 Behold, even the moon has no brightness [compared to God’s glory] and the stars are not pure in His sight—
6 How much less man, who is a maggot! And a son of man, who is a worm!
26 But Job answered,
2 How you have helped him who is without power! How you have sustained the arm that is without strength!
3 How you have counseled him who has no wisdom! And how plentifully you have declared to him sound knowledge!
4 With whose assistance have you uttered these words? And whose spirit [inspired what] came forth from you?
5 The shades of the dead tremble underneath the waters and their inhabitants.
6 Sheol (the place of the dead) is naked before God, and Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes].
7 He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and [a]hangs the earth upon or over nothing.
8 He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them.
9 He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud.
10 He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke.
12 He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab.
13 By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.(B)
14 Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?
27 Job again took up his discourse and said,
2 As God lives, Who has taken away my right and denied me justice, and the Almighty, Who has vexed and embittered my life,
3 As long as my life is still whole within me, and the breath of God is [yet] in my nostrils,
4 My lips shall not speak untruth, nor shall my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you—saying you are right [in your accusations against me]; till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me.
6 My uprightness and my right standing with God I hold fast and will not let them go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days and it shall not reproach me as long as I live.
7 Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the godless and polluted, even though he has gained [in this world], when God cuts him off and takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him?
10 Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you regarding the hand and handiwork of God; that which is with the Almighty [God’s actual treatment of the wicked man] will I not conceal.
12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain [cherishing foolish notions]?
13 This [which I am about to tell] is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors shall receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring will not have sufficient bread.
15 Those who survive him, [the pestilence] will bury, and [their] widows will make no lamentation.
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up clothing like clay,
17 He may prepare it, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.
18 He builds his house like a moth or a spider, like a booth which a watchman makes [to last for a season].
19 [The wicked] will lie down rich, but does it not again; he opens his eyes, and [his wealth] is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a [suddenly loosened] flood; a windstorm steals him away in the night.
21 The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
22 For [God and the storm] hurl at him without pity and unsparingly [their thunderbolts of wrath]; he flees in haste before His power.
23 [God causes] men to clap their hands at him [in malignant joy] and hiss him out of his place.
12 About that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to afflict and oppress and torment some who belonged to the church (assembly).
2 And he killed James the brother of John with a sword;
3 And when he saw that it was pleasing to the Jews, he proceeded further and arrested Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread [the Passover week].
4 And when he had seized [Peter], he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers of four each to guard him, purposing after the Passover to bring him forth to the people.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but fervent prayer for him was persistently made to God by the church (assembly).
6 The very night before Herod was about to bring him forth, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison.
7 And suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared [standing beside him], and a light shone in the place where he was. And the angel gently smote Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, Get up quickly! And the chains fell off his hands.
8 And the angel said to him, Tighten your belt and bind on your sandals. And he did so. And he said to him, Wrap your outer garment around you and follow me.
9 And [Peter] went out [along] following him, and he was not conscious that what was apparently being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
10 When they had passed through the first guard and the second, they came to the iron gate which leads into the city. Of its own accord [the gate] swung open, and they went out and passed on through one street; and at once the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, Now I really know and am sure that the Lord has sent His angel and delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting [to do to me].
12 When he, at a glance, became aware of this [[a]comprehending all the elements of the case], he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where a large number were assembled together and were praying.
13 And when he knocked at the gate of the porch, a maid named Rhoda came to answer.
14 And recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she failed to open the gate, but ran in and told the people that Peter was standing before the porch gate.
15 They said to her, You are crazy! But she persistently and strongly and confidently affirmed that it was the truth. They said, It is his angel!
16 But meanwhile Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the gate and saw him, they were amazed.
17 But motioning to them with his hand to keep quiet and listen, he related to them how the Lord had delivered him out of the prison. And he said, Report all this to James [the Less] and to the brethren. Then he left and went to some other place.
18 Now as soon as it was day, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.
19 And when Herod had looked for him and could not find him, he placed the guards on trial and commanded that they should be led away [to execution]. Then [Herod] went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed on there.
20 Now [Herod] cherished bitter animosity and hostility for the people of Tyre and Sidon; and [their deputies] came to him in a united body, and having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was nourished by and depended on the king’s [country] for food.
21 On an appointed day Herod arrayed himself in his royal robes, took his seat upon [his] throne, and addressed an oration to them.
22 And the assembled people shouted, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man!
23 And at once an angel of the Lord smote him and cut him down, because he did not give God the glory (the preeminence and kingly majesty that belong to Him as the supreme Ruler); and he was eaten by worms and died.
24 But the Word of the Lord [concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God] continued to grow and spread.
25 And Barnabas and Saul came back from Jerusalem when they had completed their mission, bringing with them John whose surname was Mark.(A)
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