Old/New Testament

Bildad Talks

25 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ² “Power and fear belong to God. He keeps peace in His high places. ³ Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not shine? ⁴ How then can a man be right and good before God? How can he who is born of woman be clean? ⁵ See, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in His eyes. ⁶ How much less man, who is a bug, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job Talks

26 Then Job answered, ² “What a help you are to the weak! How you have saved the arm that has no strength! ³ How you have given wise words to him who has no wisdom! How much true learning you have given! ⁴ To whom have your words been said? And from whose spirit have you spoken?

⁵ “The spirits of the dead shake under the waters and those living in them. ⁶ The place of the dead has no covering before God and the place that destroys has no covering. ⁷ He spreads out the north over empty waste, and hangs the earth on nothing. ⁸ He holds the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not break under them. ⁹ He covers the face of the moon and spreads His cloud over it. ¹⁰ He has marked the sides around the waters where light and darkness are divided. ¹¹ The pillars of heaven shake with fear. They are surprised and afraid of His sharp words. ¹² He made the sea quiet by His power. And by His understanding He destroyed Rahab. ¹³ By His breath the heavens are made beautiful. His hand cut through the snake as it tried to get away. ¹⁴ See, these are only a few of the things He does. And how quiet are the words spoken about Him! But who can understand His powerful thunder?”

Job Keeps On Talking

27 Job kept on speaking, and said, ² “As God lives, Who has taken away my right, and the All-powerful, Who has troubled my soul, ³ as long as life is in me, and the breath of God is in my nose, ⁴ my lips will not speak what is not true, and my tongue will not lie. ⁵ Far be it from me to say that you are right. Until I die I will not put away my honor. ⁶ I hold on to what is right and good and will not let it go. My heart does not put me to shame for any of my days.

⁷ “May the one who hates me be as the sinful. And may the one who is against me be as those who are not right and good. ⁸ For what is the hope of the man without God when he dies, when God takes away his life? ⁹ Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? ¹⁰ Will he be glad in the All-powerful? Will he call on God at all times? ¹¹ I will teach you about the power of God. I will not hide the ways of the All-powerful. ¹² All of you have seen it yourselves. Why then do you speak in a foolish way?

¹³ “This is what God gives to a sinful man, the gift that a man who makes it hard for others receives from the All-powerful. ¹⁴ If he has many sons, they will be killed by the sword. And his children will not have enough bread to eat. ¹⁵ Those who are left to him will be buried because of disease. And the wives who have lost their husbands will not be able to cry. ¹⁶ He may gather up silver like dust, and gather so much clothing as if they were clay. ¹⁷ He may have it, but those who are right with God will wear it. And those who are without guilt will divide the silver. ¹⁸ He builds his house like the home of a spider, or like a tent which a watchman has made. ¹⁹ He goes to bed rich, but will never again. When he opens his eyes, his riches are gone. ²⁰ Fears come over him like a flood. A storm carries him away in the night. ²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he is gone. It carries him away from his place. ²² It comes at him without pity. He tries to run from its power as fast as he can. ²³ Men clap their hands at him, and drive him from his place with sounds of shame.

The King Makes It Hard for the Church

12 At that time King Herod used his power to make it hard for the Christians in the church. ² He killed James, the brother of John, with a sword. ³ When he saw that it made the Jews happy, he took hold of Peter also. This was during the special religious gathering to remember how the Jews left Egypt. ⁴ Herod took Peter and put him in prison and had sixteen soldiers watch him. After the special religious gathering was over, he planned to bring Peter out to the people.

Peter Goes Free

⁵ So Peter was held in prison. But the church kept praying to God for him. ⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him out for his trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. He was tied with two chains. Soldiers stood by the door and watched the prison.

⁷ All at once an angel of the Lord was seen standing beside him. A light shone in the building. The angel hit Peter on the side and said, “Get up!” Then the chains fell off his hands. ⁸ The angel said, “Put on your belt and shoes!” He did. The angel said to Peter, “Put on your coat and follow me.” ⁹ Peter followed him out. He was not sure what was happening as the angel helped him. He thought it was a dream.

¹⁰ They passed one soldier, then another one. They came to the big iron door that leads to the city and it opened by itself and they went through. As soon as they had gone up one street, the angel left him.

The Christians Find It Hard to Believe Peter Is Free

¹¹ As Peter began to see what was happening, he said to himself, “Now I am sure the Lord has sent His angel and has taken me out of the hands of Herod. He has taken me also from all the things the Jews wanted to do to me.” ¹² After thinking about all this, he went to Mary’s house. She was the mother of John Mark. Many Christians were gathered there praying.

¹³ When Peter knocked at the gate, a girl named Rhoda went to see who it was. ¹⁴ She knew Peter’s voice, but in her joy she forgot to open the gate. She ran in and told them that Peter was standing outside the gate.

¹⁵ They said to her, “You are crazy.” But she said again that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” ¹⁶ Peter kept knocking. When they opened the gate and saw him, they were surprised and wondered about it. ¹⁷ He raised his hand and told them not to talk but to listen to him. He told them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. He said, “Tell all these things to James and to the other Christian brothers.” Then he went to another place.

The Death of Herod

¹⁸ In the morning the soldiers were very troubled about what had happened to Peter. ¹⁹ Herod looked for him but could not find him. He asked the soldiers who watched the prison about Peter. Herod said that the soldiers must be killed because Peter got away. Then Herod went down from the country of Judea to the city of Caesarea to stay for awhile.

²⁰ Herod was very angry with the people of the cities of Tyre and Sidon. They went to him and asked for peace to be made between them and the king. They asked this because their country got food from the king’s country. The people made friends with Blastus, the king’s helper. ²¹ A day was set aside. On that day Herod put on purple clothes a king wears. He sat on his throne and spoke to the people. ²² They all started to speak with a loud voice, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” ²³ The angel of the Lord knocked him down because he did not give honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴ The Word of God was heard by many people and went into more places. ²⁵ Saul and Barnabas went back to Jerusalem after they had finished their work. They took John Mark with them.