Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the director, Jeduthun.[a] One of Asaph’s songs.
77 I cry out to God for help.
I cry out to you, God; listen to me!
2 My Lord, in my time of trouble I came to you.
I reached out for you all night long.
My soul refused to be comforted.
3 I thought about you, God,
and tried to tell you how I felt, but I could not.
4 You would not let me sleep.
I tried to say something, but I was too upset.
5 I kept thinking about the past,
about things that happened long ago.
6 During the night, I thought about my songs.
I talked to myself, trying to understand what is happening.
7 I wondered, “Has our Lord rejected us forever?
Will he ever accept us again?
8 Is his love gone forever?
Will he never again speak to us?
9 Has God forgotten what mercy is?
Has his compassion changed to anger?” Selah
10 Then I said to myself, “What bothers me most is the thought
that God Most High has lost his power.”
11 Lord, I remember what you have done.
I remember the amazing things you did long ago.
12 I think about those things.
I think about them all the time.
13 God, all that you do is holy.
No god is as great as you are.
14 You are the God who does amazing things.
You showed the nations your great power.
15 By your power you saved your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 God, the water saw you and became afraid.
The deep water shook with fear.
17 The thick clouds dropped their water.
Thunder roared in the sky above.
Your arrows of lightning flashed through the clouds.
18 There were loud claps of thunder.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth shook and trembled.
19 You walked through the water and crossed the deep sea,
but you left no footprints.
20 You led your people like sheep,
using Moses and Aaron to guide them.
Eliphaz Speaks
4 Eliphaz from Teman answered:
2 “I must say something.
Would it upset you if I speak?
3 Job, you have taught many people.
You encouraged those who were ready to quit.
4 Your words helped those who were ready to fall.
You gave strength to those who could not stand by themselves.
5 But now trouble comes to you,
and you are discouraged.
Trouble hits you,
and you are upset.
6 You worship God.
You trust him.
You are a good man,
so let that be your hope.
7 Can you think of any innocent person who was ever destroyed?
Do you know of any place where good people are punished?
8 Yes, I have seen people whose lives were cut short,
but they were evil troublemakers.
9 They lost the breath God gave them.
They were cut off from his breath of life.
10 They were like roaring lions,
like growling lions with broken teeth—
11 like a lioness that cannot find prey.
They died, and their cubs starved to death.
12 “I happened to hear a message.
My ears caught a whisper of it.
13 Like a bad dream[a] in the night,
it ruined my sleep.
14 It frightened me,
and I trembled down to my bones.
15 A spirit passed by my face.
The hair on my body stood up!
16 The spirit stood still,
but I could not see what it was.
A shape stood before my eyes,
and there was silence.
Then I heard a quiet voice:
17 ‘A person cannot be more right than God.
People cannot be more pure than their Maker.
18 Look, God cannot even trust his heavenly servants.
He sees faults even in his angels.
19 So surely people are worse!
They live in houses of clay[b] built on dust.
They can be crushed as easily as a moth!
20 From dawn to sunset people are destroyed.
They die—gone forever—and no one even notices.
21 The ropes of their tent are pulled up,
and they die before gaining wisdom.’
From Death to Life
2 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. 2 Yes, in the past your lives were full of those sins. You lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers[a] that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. 3 In the past all of us lived like that, trying to please our sinful selves. We did all the things our bodies and minds wanted. Like everyone else in the world, we deserved to suffer God’s anger just because of the way we were.
4 But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much. 5 We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God’s grace.) 6 Yes, it is because we are a part of Christ Jesus that God raised us from death and seated us together with him in the heavenly places. 7 God did this so that his kindness to us who belong to Christ Jesus would clearly show for all time to come the amazing richness of his grace.
8 I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. 9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. 10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International