Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer of a Good Man

26 O Lord, stand by me for I have lived my life without blame. I have trusted in the Lord without changing. ² Test me and try me, O Lord. Test my mind and my heart. ³ For Your loving-kindness is always in front of my eyes. And I have walked in Your truth. ⁴ I do not sit with men who lie about the truth. I would not be seen with those who pretend to be someone they are not. ⁵ I hate the meeting of sinners, and will not sit with the sinful. ⁶ I will wash my hands of any guilt. And I will go around Your altar, O Lord. ⁷ I will speak with the voice of thanks, and tell of all Your great works.

⁸ O Lord, I love the house where You live, the place where Your shining-greatness lives. ⁹ Do not take my soul away with sinners, or my life with men who kill other people. ¹⁰ Sinful plans are in their hands. And their right hand is full of pay for hurting others. ¹¹ But as for me, I will live a life without blame. Make me free, and show me loving-kindness. ¹² My foot stands on a good place. I will give honor to the Lord, in the meeting of worship.

Job’s Friends Come to Him

¹¹ Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this trouble that had come upon him, they came each from his own place. They were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They agreed to meet together to come to share Job’s sorrow and comfort him. ¹² And when they looked up from far away and saw how different he looked, they cried in loud voices. They tore their clothing and threw dust over their heads toward the sky. ¹³ Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very bad.

Job Speaks Angry Words to God

3 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born. ² He said, ³ “Let the day be lost on which I was born, and the night which said, ‘A boy is born.’ ⁴ May that day be darkness. May God above not care for it. May light not shine on it. ⁵ Let darkness and a heavy shadow take it for their own. Let a cloud come upon it. Let the darkness of the day bring fear upon it. ⁶ As for that night, let darkness take hold of it. Let it not have joy among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of months. ⁷ Yes, let that night be alone and empty. Let no sound of joy come into it. ⁸ Let those curse it who curse the day, who are able to wake up the Leviathan. ⁹ Let the early morning stars be made dark. Let it wait for light but have none. Do not let it see the light of day. ¹⁰ Because it did not keep my mother from giving birth to me, or hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not come from my mother and die? ¹² Why did the knees receive me, or why the breasts, that I should have milk? ¹³ For now I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept then. I would have been at rest, ¹⁴ with kings and wise men of the earth who built cities for themselves that are now destroyed. ¹⁵ I would have been at rest with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. ¹⁶ Why did I not die before I was born, hidden and put away, as babies that never see the light? ¹⁷ There the troubles of the sinful stop. There the tired are at rest. ¹⁸ Those in prison are at rest together. They do not hear the voice of the one who rules over their work. ¹⁹ The small and the great are there. And the servant is free from his owner.

²⁰ “Why is light given to him who suffers? Why is life given to those who feel sad in their soul? ²¹ They wait for death, but there is none. They dig for it more than for hidden riches. ²² They are filled with much joy and are glad, when they find the grave. ²³ Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and around whom God has built a wall? ²⁴ For I cry inside myself in front of my food. My cries pour out like water. ²⁵ What I was afraid of has come upon me. What filled me with fear has happened. ²⁶ I am not at rest, and I am not quiet. I have no rest, but only trouble.”

²³ Before it was possible to be saved from the punishment of sin by putting our trust in Christ, we were held under the Law. It was as if we were being kept in prison. We were kept this way until Christ came. ²⁴ The Law was used to lead us to Christ. It was our teacher, and so we were made right with God by putting our trust in Christ. ²⁵ Now that our faith is in Christ, we do not need the Law to lead us. ²⁶ You are now children of God because you have put your trust in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ All of you who have been baptized to show you belong to Christ have become like Christ. ²⁸ God does not see you as a Jew or as a Greek. He does not see you as a servant or as a person free to work. He does not see you as a man or as a woman. You are all one in Christ. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you have become the true children of Abraham. What God promised to him is now yours.