Old/New Testament
3 At last Job spoke and cursed the day of his birth.
2-3 “Let the day of my birth be cursed,” he said, “and the night when I was conceived. 4 Let that day be forever forgotten.[a] Let it be lost even to God, shrouded in eternal darkness. 5 Yes, let the darkness claim it for its own, and may a black cloud overshadow it. 6 May it be blotted off the calendar, never again to be counted among the days of the month of that year. 7 Let that night be bleak and joyless. 8 Let those who are experts at cursing curse it.[b] 9 Let the stars of the night disappear. Let it long for light but never see it, never see the morning light. 10 Curse it for its failure to shut my mother’s womb, for letting me be born to come to all this trouble.
11 “Why didn’t I die at birth? 12 Why did the midwife let me live? Why did she nurse me at her breasts? 13 For if only I had died at birth, then I would be quiet now, asleep and at rest, 14-15 along with prime ministers and kings with all their pomp, and wealthy princes whose castles are full of rich treasures. 16 Oh, to have been stillborn!—to have never breathed or seen the light. 17 For there in death the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18 There even prisoners are at ease, with no brutal jailer to curse them. 19 Both rich and poor alike are there, and the slave is free at last from his master.
20-21 “Oh, why should light and life be given to those in misery and bitterness, who long for death, and it won’t come; who search for death as others search for food or money? 22 What blessed relief when at last they die! 23 Why is a man allowed to be born if God is only going to give him a hopeless life of uselessness and frustration? 24 I cannot eat for sighing; my groans pour out like water. 25 What I always feared has happened to me. 26 I was not fat and lazy, yet trouble struck me down.”
4 A reply to Job from Eliphaz the Temanite:
2 “Will you let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out? 3-4 In the past[c] you have told many a troubled soul to trust in God and have encouraged those who are weak or falling, or lie crushed upon the ground or are tempted to despair. 5 But now when trouble strikes, you faint and are broken.
6 “At such a time as this should not trust in God still be your confidence? Shouldn’t you believe that God will care for those who are good?[d] 7-8 Stop and think! Have you ever known a truly good and innocent person who was punished? Experience teaches that it is those who sow sin and trouble who harvest the same. 9 They die beneath the hand of God. 10 Though they are fierce as young lions, they shall all be broken and destroyed. 11 Like aged, helpless lions they shall starve, and all their children shall be scattered.
12 “This truth was given me in secret, as though whispered in my ear. 13 It came in a nighttime vision as others slept. 14 Suddenly, fear gripped me; I trembled and shook with terror, 15 as a spirit passed before my face—my hair stood up on end. 16 I felt the spirit’s presence, but couldn’t see it standing there. Then out of the dreadful silence came this voice:
17 “‘Is mere man more just than God? More pure than his Creator?’
18-19 “If God cannot trust his own messengers (for even angels make mistakes), how much less men made of dust, who are crushed to death as easily as moths! 20 They are alive in the morning, but by evening they are dead, gone forever with hardly a thought from anyone. 21 Their candle of life is snuffed out. They die and no one cares.
44 “Our ancestors carried along with them a portable Temple, or Tabernacle, through the wilderness. In it they kept the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them. This building was constructed in exact accordance with the plan shown to Moses by the Angel. 45 Years later, when Joshua led the battles against the Gentile nations, this Tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory, and used until the time of King David.
46 “God blessed David greatly, and David asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who actually built it. 48-49 However, God doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. ‘The heaven is my throne,’ says the Lord through his prophets, ‘and earth is my footstool. What kind of home could you build?’ asks the Lord. ‘Would I stay in it? 50 Didn’t I make both heaven and earth?’
51 “You stiff-necked heathen! Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? But your fathers did, and so do you! 52 Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53 Yes, and you deliberately destroyed God’s laws, though you received them from the hands of angels.”[a]
54 The Jewish leaders were stung to fury by Stephen’s accusation and ground their teeth in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily upward into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and Jesus the Messiah[b] standing beside God, at his right hand!”
57 Then they mobbed him, putting their hands over their ears, and drowning out his voice with their shouts, 58 and dragged him out of the city to stone him. The official witnesses—the executioners—took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Paul.[c]
59 And as the murderous stones came hurtling at him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And he fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” and with that, he died.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.