Old/New Testament
The Lord’s Challenge to Job
38 Then the Lord responded to Job out of a violent storm. He said:
2 Who is this who spreads darkness over my plans
with his ignorant words?
3 Get ready for action[a] like a man!
Then I will ask you questions,
and you will inform me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you understand anything about it.
5 Who determined its dimensions?
I am sure you know.
Who stretched out the surveying line over it?
6 What supports its foundation?
Who set its cornerstone in place,
7 when the morning stars sang loud songs together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?[b]
8 Who locked up the sea behind doors
when it burst out of the womb?
9 When I clothed the sea with clouds,
when I wrapped it with thick darkness as its swaddling cloths,
10 when I broke its power with my decree,
when I locked it up behind barred, double doors,
11 I said, “You may come this far, but no farther.
Here is the barrier for your proud waves.”
12 Have you ever in all your days given a command to the morning?
Have you ever set a time for the sun to rise,
13 so it may grab the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The earth’s shapes become visible like designs impressed on clay,
and its decorations can be seen like those on a garment.
15 Their light is withheld from the wicked,
and an uplifted arm is broken.
16 Have you ever traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked around in the dark depths of the ocean?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?[c]
18 Do you comprehend the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 How can someone get to the dwelling of light?
Where is the place for darkness?
20 Could you lead it to its property?
Do you know the way to its house?
21 You must know that, since you were born before it,
and you have lived for so many days!
22 Have you visited the warehouses where the snow is kept?
Have you seen the warehouses[d] where the hail is stored?
23 I have reserved them for troubled times,
for days of battle and war.
24 What is the way to the place where the lightning divides,[e]
where the east wind is scattered over the earth?
25 Who has excavated a channel for the floodwaters
and a road for the rolling thunder?
26 They bring rain to lands where no one lives,
to a wilderness without a person in it.
27 The rain satisfies the wilderness and wasteland
and causes the dry ground to produce green plants.
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb produces the ice?
Who gives birth to the heavy frost from the sky?
30 The water is disguised as stone,
and the surface of the deep is trapped under ice.
31 Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you lead out the constellations at the right season
and guide the Bear with her cubs?[f]
33 Do you know the laws that govern the skies?
Can you establish God’s rule on earth?
34 Can you raise your voice to the clouds,
so that a flood of water submerges you?
35 Can you unleash the lightning bolts,
so that they come and say to you, “Here we are”?
36 Who has placed wisdom in the human heart
and given understanding to the mind?[g]
37 Who has the wisdom to count the clouds
and to empty the water jars of the sky,
38 when the loose dust has been poured into molds to harden,
and the clods of dirt are cemented together?
39 Can you hunt prey for a lioness?
Can you satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
or they lie in wait in the thicket?
41 Who prepares its provisions for the raven,
when its young are screaming to God,
while they thrash around in the nest waiting for food?
39 Do you know the time when the antelope on the cliffs gives birth?
Do you keep watch over the doe as she is in labor?
2 Do you count how many months they carry their young?
Do you know when it is time for them to give birth?
3 They crouch down.
They give birth to their fawns.
Their labor pains are over.
4 Their young are lively and live in the open countryside.
They go out, and they do not return to them.
5 Who set the wild donkey free?
Who untied the restraints on the onager?[h]
6 I have given it the wasteland[i] as its home,
the salt flats as its dwelling place.
7 It brays at the commotion in a town.
It does not listen to the shouting of the driver.
8 It explores the mountains as its pasture,
while it searches for anything green.
9 Is a wild ox willing to serve you?
Will it spend the night at your manger?
10 Can you lead the wild ox down a furrow with a rope?
Will it work the fields in the valleys behind you?
11 Will you depend on it because it is so strong?
Will you rely on it to labor for you?
12 Will you trust it to return your seed grain
and to bring it to your threshing floor?
13 The wings of a screeching ostrich flap wildly,
but they do not have feathers and plumage like a stork’s.
14 She leaves her eggs on the ground.
She keeps them warm in the dust.
15 She forgets that a foot may crush them,
or a wild animal may trample them.
16 She is hard-hearted toward her children.
It is as if they were not hers.
It does not bother her if her labor is for nothing,
17 because God made her forget wisdom,
and he has not given her any understanding.
18 But as soon as she jumps up to run,
she laughs at the horse and the rider.
19 Did you give strength to the horse?
Did you clothe its neck with a flowing mane?
20 Did you give it the ability to jump like a locust?
Its snorting and neighing are frightening.
21 It paws at the ground in the valley.[j]
It rejoices in its strength.
It goes out to meet the weapons of war.
22 It laughs at danger and is not afraid.
It does not turn away from the sword.
23 A quiver rattles against it.
A spear and a javelin[k] flash.
24 Shaking with excitement, it swallows up ground.
It doesn’t just stand there when the ram’s horn sounds.
25 As often as the horn sounds, it neighs and snorts!
From a distance it smells the battle,
the thunder of the commanders and the war cries.
26 Did you teach the hawk how to soar,
as it spreads out its wings to the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle flies high
and makes its nest in a lofty place?
28 On a rocky cliff it settles down to spend the night,
on a pinnacle of rock in a mountain stronghold.
29 From there it spies its food.
Its eyes spot it far away.
30 Its young ones drink up the blood.
Wherever the carcasses are—there it is.
The Lord Confronts Job
40 The Lord responded to Job and said:
2 Will the one who makes charges against the Almighty
dare to correct him?
The one who accuses God should make his case!
3 Job answered the Lord and said:
4 No, I am insignificant.[l]
How could I reply to you?
I will put my hand over my mouth.
5 I spoke once, but I cannot defend it.
Twice, but I will not go any further.
6 Then the Lord answered Job from the violent storm. He said:
7 Get ready for action like a man!
Then I will ask you questions,
and you will inform me.
8 Will you really deny that I am just?
Will you convict me, so that you can be acquitted?
9 Do you have an arm like God’s arm?
Does your voice thunder like his?
10 Go ahead, please. Adorn yourself with dignity and honor.
Clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.
11 Pour out your overflowing anger.
Look at every proud man and bring him low.
12 Look at every proud man and humble him.
Trample the wicked where they stand.
13 Bury them all together in the dust.
Cover their faces in the hidden place.
14 Then I will praise you
and admit that your right hand can save you.
Behemoth
15 Take a look at Behemoth,[m]
which I made just as I made you.
He eats grass like cattle.
16 Would you look at the power of his hips
and the strength of the muscles of his belly!
17 He stiffens his tail[n] like a cedar.
The tendons of his thighs[o] are tight.
18 His bones are tubes of bronze.
His skeleton is like bars of iron.
19 He stands at the head of God’s creatures,
but his Maker draws near with his sword.[p]
20 Yes, the mountains carry their floodwaters[q] to him.
All the wild animals play there.
21 He lies under the lotus plants,
hidden among the reeds in the marsh.
22 The lotus plants cover him with their shadows.
Poplars by the stream surround him.
23 The river rages, but he is not frightened.
He remains calm even if the Jordan bursts into his mouth.
24 Can people capture him by his eyes?
Can they pierce his nose with a hook?
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
16 Paul arrived in Derbe and in Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, who was the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. 2 The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, so he took him and circumcised him on account of the Jews who lived in those places, because they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the resolutions decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to keep. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number day by day.
The Call to Go to Macedonia (Europe)
6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, because they were prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they went as far as Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 A vision appeared to Paul during the night. A Macedonian man was standing there, urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 As soon as he had seen the vision, we[a] immediately made plans to proceed to Macedonia, because we concluded that God[b] had called us to preach the good news to them.
At Philippi
11 After we put out to sea from Troas, we sailed straight to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. 12 From there we went to Philippi, which is a leading city in that part of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We stayed in this city for a number of days.
13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate alongside the river, where we thought there was a place of prayer.[c] We sat down and began to talk to the women who had gathered there. 14 A woman named Lydia, who worshipped God, was listening. She was a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. The Lord opened her heart to pay close attention to what Paul was saying. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas Put in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us. She had a spirit that foretold the future, and she made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 As she followed Paul and us, she kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you[d] the way to be saved.” 18 When she kept doing this for many days, Paul became so annoyed that he turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment.
19 When her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. 20 They had brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are throwing our city into a state of confusion. They are Jews, 21 and they are teaching customs that are not lawful for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.