Old/New Testament
17 “I am sick and near to death; the grave is ready to receive me. 2 I am surrounded by mockers. I see them everywhere. 3-4 Will no one anywhere confirm my innocence? But you, O God, have kept them back from understanding this. Oh, do not let them triumph. 5 If they accept bribes to denounce their friends, their children shall go blind.
6 “He has made me a mockery among the people; they spit in my face. 7 My eyes are dim with weeping and I am but a shadow of my former self. 8 Fair-minded men are astonished when they see me.
“Yet, finally, the innocent shall come out on top, above the godless; 9 the righteous shall move onward and forward; those with pure hearts shall become stronger and stronger.
10 “As for you—all of you please go away; for I do not find a wise man among you. 11 My good days are in the past. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken. 12 They say that night is day and day is night; how they pervert the truth!
13-14 “If I die, I go out into darkness, and call the grave my father, and the worm my mother and my sister. 15 Where then is my hope? Can anyone find any? 16 No, my hope will go down with me to the grave. We shall rest together in the dust!”
18 The further reply of Bildad the Shuhite:
2 “Who are you trying to fool? Speak some sense if you want us to answer! 3 Have we become like animals to you, stupid and dumb? 4 Just because you tear your clothes in anger, is this going to start an earthquake? Shall we all go and hide?
5 “The truth remains that if you do not prosper, it is because you are wicked. And your bright flame shall be put out. 6 There will be darkness in every home where there is wickedness.
7 “The confident stride of the wicked man will be shortened; he will realize his failing strength. 8-9 He walks into traps, and robbers will ambush him. 10 There is a booby trap in every path he takes. 11 He has good cause for fear—his enemy is close behind him!
12 “His vigor is depleted by hunger; calamity stands ready to pounce upon him. 13 His skin is eaten by disease. Death shall devour him. 14 The wealth he trusted in shall reject him, and he shall be brought down to the king of terrors. 15 His home shall disappear beneath a fiery barrage of brimstone. 16 He shall die from the roots up, and all his branches will be lopped off.
17 “All memory of his existence will perish from the earth; no one will remember him. 18 He will be driven out from the kingdom of light into darkness and chased out of the world. 19 He will have neither son nor grandson left, nor any other relatives. 20 Old and young alike will be horrified by his fate. 21 Yes, that is what happens to sinners, to those rejecting God.”
19 The reply of Job:
2 “How long are you going to trouble me, and try to break me with your words? 3 Ten times now you have declared I am a sinner. Why aren’t you ashamed to deal with me so harshly? 4 And if indeed I was wrong, you have yet to prove it. 5 You think yourselves so great? Then prove my guilt!
6 “The fact of the matter is that God has overthrown me and caught me in his net. 7 I scream for help and no one hears me. I shriek, but get no justice. 8 God has blocked my path and turned my light to darkness. 9 He has stripped me of my glory and removed the crown from my head. 10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am done for. He has destroyed all hope. 11 His fury burns against me; he counts me as an enemy. 12 He sends his troops to surround my tent.
13 “He has sent away my brothers and my friends. 14 My relatives have failed me; my friends have all forsaken me. 15 Those living in my home, even my servants, regard me as a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them. 16 I call my servant, but he doesn’t come; I even beg him! 17 My own wife and brothers refuse to recognize me. 18 Even young children despise me. When I stand to speak, they mock.
19 “My best friends abhor me. Those I loved have turned against me. 20 I am skin and bones and have escaped death by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Oh, my friends, pity me, for the angry hand of God has touched me. 22 Why must you persecute me as God does? Why aren’t you satisfied with my anguish? 23-24 Oh, that I could write my plea with an iron pen in the rock forever.
25 “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. 26 And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God![a] 27 Then he will be on my side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!
28 “How dare you go on persecuting me, as though I were proven guilty? 29 I warn you, you yourselves are in danger of punishment for your attitude.”
10 In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer, Cornelius, a captain of an Italian regiment. 2 He was a godly man, deeply reverent, as was his entire household. He gave generously to charity and was a man of prayer. 3 While wide awake one afternoon he had a vision—it was about three o’clock—and in this vision he saw an angel of God coming toward him.
“Cornelius!” the angel said.
4 Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What do you want, sir?” he asked the angel.
And the angel replied, “Your prayers and charities have not gone unnoticed by God! 5-6 Now send some men to Joppa to find a man named Simon Peter, who is staying with Simon, the tanner, down by the shore, and ask him to come and visit you.”
7 As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a godly soldier, one of his personal bodyguard, 8 and told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.
9-10 The next day as they were nearing the city, Peter went up on the flat roof of his house to pray. It was noon and he was hungry, but while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the sky open and a great canvas sheet,[a] suspended by its four corners, settle to the ground. 12 In the sheet were all sorts of animals, snakes, and birds forbidden to the Jews for food.[b]
13 Then a voice said to him, “Go kill and eat any of them you wish.”
14 “Never, Lord,” Peter declared, “I have never in all my life eaten such creatures, for they are forbidden by our Jewish laws.”
15 The voice spoke again, “Don’t contradict God! If he says something is kosher, then it is.”
16 The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was pulled up again to heaven.
17 Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? What was he supposed to do?
Just then the men sent by Cornelius had found the house and were standing outside at the gate, 18 inquiring whether this was the place where Simon Peter lived!
19 Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come to see you. 20 Go down and meet them and go with them. All is well, I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went down. “I’m the man you’re looking for,” he said. “Now what is it you want?”
22 Then they told him about Cornelius the Roman officer, a good and godly man, well thought of by the Jews, and how an angel had instructed him to send for Peter to come and tell him what God wanted him to do.
23 So Peter invited them in and lodged them overnight.
The next day he went with them, accompanied by some other believers from Joppa.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.