Readings for Lent and Easter
Job Pleads with His Friends
21 “Be gracious to me, be gracious to me, my friends,
because God’s hand has struck me.
22 Why are you chasing me, as God has been doing?
Aren’t you satisfied that I’m sick?[a]
23 If only my words were written down;
if only they were inscribed in a book
24 using an iron stylus with lead for ink!
Then they’d be engraved in rock forever.
25 “As for me, I know that my Vindicator[b] is alive;
And he, the Last One,[c] will take his stand on the soil.[d]
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,
clothed in my flesh I will see God,
27 whom I will see for myself.
My own eyes will look at him—
there won’t be anyone else for me!—
He is the culmination of my innermost desire.”
Job Reminds His Friends of Judgment
28 “When you’re thinking about asking yourselves,
‘How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem is with him?’[e]
29 Make sure that you remain wary of God’s sword,
for God’s wrath brings with it the sword of punishment,
by which you’ll know there’s a judgment.”
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