Old/New Testament

38 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind:

² “Why are you using your ignorance to deny my providence? ³ Now get ready to fight, for I am going to demand some answers from you, and you must reply.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. ⁵ Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? ^6-7 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

^8-9 “Who decreed the boundaries of the seas when they gushed from the depths? Who clothed them with clouds and thick darkness ¹⁰ and barred them by limiting their shores, ¹¹ and said, ‘Thus far and no farther shall you come, and here shall your proud waves stop’?

¹² “Have you ever once commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east? ¹³ Have you ever told the daylight to spread to the ends of the earth, to end the night’s wickedness? ¹⁴ Have you ever robed the dawn in red, ¹⁵ and disturbed the haunts of wicked men, and stopped the arm raised to strike?

¹⁶ “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come, or walked in the sources of their depths? ^17-18 Has the location of the gates of death been revealed to you? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know! ¹⁹ Where does the light come from, and how do you get there? Or tell me about the darkness. Where does it come from? ²⁰ Can you find its boundaries, or go to its source? ²¹ But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!

^22-23 “Have you visited the treasuries of the snow, or seen where hail is made and stored? For I have reserved it for the time when I will need it in war. ²⁴ Where is the path to the distribution point of light? Where is the home of the east wind? ^25-27 Who dug the valleys for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning, causing the rain to fall upon the barren deserts, so that the parched and barren ground is satisfied with water and tender grass springs up?

²⁸ “Has the rain a father? Where does dew come from? ²⁹ Who is the mother of the ice and frost? ³⁰ For the water changes and turns to ice as hard as rock.

³¹ “Can you hold back the stars? Can you restrain Orion or Pleiades? ³² Can you ensure the proper sequence of the seasons, or guide the constellation of the Bear with her satellites across the heavens? ³³ Do you know the laws of the universe and how the heavens influence the earth? ³⁴ Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? ³⁵ Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it?

³⁶ “Who gives intuition and instinct?^{[a] 37-38} Who is wise enough to number all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven, when everything is dust and clods? ^39-40 Can you stalk prey like a lioness, to satisfy the young lions’ appetites as they lie in their dens or lie in wait in the jungle? ⁴¹ Who provides for the ravens when their young cry out to God as they try to struggle up from their nest in hunger?

39 “Do you know how mountain goats give birth? Have you ever seen them giving birth to their young? ^2-3 Do you know how many months of pregnancy they have before they bow themselves to give birth to their young and carry their burden no longer? ⁴ Their young grow up in the open field, then leave their parents and return to them no more.

⁵ “Who makes the wild donkeys wild? ⁶ I have placed them in the wilderness and given them salt plains to live in. ⁷ For they hate the noise of the city and want no drivers shouting at them! ⁸ The mountain ranges are their pastureland; there they search for every blade of grass.

⁹ “Will the wild ox be your happy servant? Will he stay beside your feeding crib? ¹⁰ Can you use a wild ox to plow with? Will he pull the harrow for you? ¹¹ Because he is so strong, will you trust him? Will you let him decide where to work? ¹² Can you send him out to bring in the grain from the threshing floor?

¹³ “The ostrich flaps her wings grandly but has no true motherly love. ¹⁴ She lays her eggs on top of the earth, to warm them in the dust. ¹⁵ She forgets that someone may step on them and crush them, or the wild animals destroy them. ¹⁶ She ignores her young as though they weren’t her own and is unconcerned though they die, ¹⁷ for God has deprived her of wisdom. ¹⁸ But whenever she jumps up to run, she passes the swiftest horse with its rider.

¹⁹ “Have you given the horse strength or clothed his neck with a quivering mane? ²⁰ Have you made him able to leap forward like a locust? His majestic snorting is something to hear! ^21-23 He paws the earth and rejoices in his strength, and when he goes to war, he is unafraid and does not run away though the arrows rattle against him, or the flashing spear and javelin. ²⁴ Fiercely he paws the ground and rushes forward into battle when the trumpet blows. ²⁵ At the sound of the bugle he shouts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle when far away. He rejoices at the shouts of battle and the roar of the captain’s commands.

²⁶ “Do you know how a hawk soars and spreads her wings to the south? ²⁷ Is it at your command that the eagle rises high upon the cliffs to make her nest? ²⁸ She lives upon the cliffs, making her home in her mountain fortress. ²⁹ From there she spies her prey, from a very great distance. ³⁰ Her nestlings gulp down blood, for she goes wherever the slain are.”

40 The Lord went on:

² “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? Or will you yield? Do you—God’s critic—have the answers?”

³ Then Job replied to God:

⁴ “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I lay my hand upon my mouth in silence. ⁵ I have said too much already.”

⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Job again from the whirlwind:

⁷ “Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle. Let me ask you a question, and give me the answer. ⁸ Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so that you can say you are right? ⁹ Are you as strong as God, and can you shout as loudly as he? ¹⁰ All right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor. ¹¹ Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud. ¹² Humiliate the haughty with a glance; tread down the wicked where they stand. ¹³ Knock them into the dust, stone-faced in death. ¹⁴ If you can do that, then I’ll agree with you that your own strength can save you.

¹⁵ “Take a look at the hippopotamus!^[b] I made him, too, just as I made you! He eats grass like an ox. ¹⁶ See his powerful loins and the muscles of his belly. ¹⁷ His tail is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit together. ¹⁸ His vertebrae lie straight as a tube of brass. His ribs are like iron bars. ¹⁹ How ferocious he is among all of God’s creation, so let whoever hopes to master him bring a sharp sword! ²⁰ The mountains offer their best food to him—the other wild animals on which he preys. ²¹ He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds, ²² covered by their shade among the willows there beside the stream. ²³ He is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon him. ²⁴ No one can catch him off guard or put a ring in his nose and lead him away.

16 Paul and Silas went first to Derbe and then on to Lystra where they met Timothy, a believer whose mother was a Christian Jewess, but his father a Greek. ² Timothy was well thought of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium, ³ so Paul asked him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he circumcised Timothy before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek and hadn’t permitted this before.^{[a] 4} Then they went from city to city, making known the decision concerning the Gentiles, as decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. ⁵ So the church grew daily in faith and numbers.

⁶ Next they traveled through Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit had told them not to go into the Turkish province of Asia Minor at that time. ⁷ Then going along the borders of Mysia they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus said no. ⁸ So instead they went on through Mysia province to the city of Troas.

⁹ That night^[b] Paul had a vision. In his dream he saw a man over in Macedonia, Greece, pleading with him, “Come over here and help us.” ¹⁰ Well, that settled it. We^[c] would go to Macedonia, for we could only conclude that God was sending us to preach the Good News there.

¹¹ We went aboard a boat at Troas, and sailed straight across to Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis, ¹² and finally reached Philippi, a Roman^[d] colony just inside the Macedonian border, and stayed there several days.

¹³ On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank where we understood some people met for prayer; and we taught the Scriptures to some women who came. ¹⁴ One of them was Lydia, a saleswoman from Thyatira, a merchant of purple cloth. She was already a worshiper of God and as she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart and she accepted all that Paul was saying. ¹⁵ She was baptized along with all her household and asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am faithful to the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we did.

¹⁶ One day as we were going down to the place of prayer beside the river, we met a demon-possessed slave girl, who was a fortune-teller and earned much money for her masters. ¹⁷ She followed along behind us shouting, “These men are servants of God, and they have come to tell you how to have your sins forgiven.”

¹⁸ This went on day after day until Paul, in great distress, turned and spoke to the demon within her. “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” he said. And instantly it left her.

¹⁹ Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered; they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the judges at the marketplace.

^20-21 “These Jews are corrupting our city,” they shouted. “They are teaching the people to do things that are against the Roman laws.”