1 But Eliphaz the Themanite, answering, said:
2 If we start to speak to you, perhaps you will take it badly, but who can hold back the words he has conceived?
3 Behold, you have taught many, and you have strengthened weary hands.
4 Your words have reassured the wavering, and you have fortified the trembling knees.
5 But now the scourge has overcome you, and you falter. It has touched you, and you are disturbed.
6 Where is your reverence, your fortitude, your patience, and the perfection of your ways?
7 Consider this, I beg you: who ever perished being innocent? Or when have the righteous been destroyed?
8 In fact, I have instead seen those who work iniquity and who sow resentments, reap them,
9 perishing by the breath of God, and being consumed by the wrath of his spirit.
10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of young lions have been worn away.
11 The tiger has perished because it does not have prey, and the young lions have been scattered.
12 Furthermore, a word was spoken to me in secret, and, as if by theft, my ears received the pulse of its whisper.
13 In the horror of a vision by night, when men are accustomed to be overtaken by a deep sleep,
14 fear and trembling seized me and all my bones were terrified.
15 And when a spirit passed before me, the hair on my body stood up.
16 There appeared an image before my eyes, someone whose face I did not recognize, and I heard a voice like a gentle breeze.
17 Should man be justified in relation to God, or will a man be more pure than his Maker?
18 Behold, those who serve him are not steadfast, and in his angels he finds imperfection.
19 How much more will those who live in houses of clay, which have an earthly foundation, be consumed like the moth?
20 From morning all the way to evening, they will be cut down, and because no one understands, they will be destroyed without ceasing.
21 But those who are left behind will be taken away from them; they will die, and not in wisdom.
1 Therefore call, if there are any who will respond to you, and turn to one or another of the saints.
2 Truly, anger condemns the foolish to death, and envy kills the petty.
3 I have seen a fool with a strong root, and I have cursed his excellence without hesitation.
4 His sons will be far from prosperity and will be crushed at the gate, and there will be none who can rescue them.
5 Their harvest, the starving will eat. The armed man will rob him, and the thirsty will drink his resources.
6 Nothing on earth occurs without a reason, and sorrow does not rise from the earth.
7 Man is born to labor, and the bird to fly.
8 Therefore, because of this, I will beg the Lord, and place my eloquence before God.
9 He does great and unfathomable and miraculous things without number.
10 He gives rain over the face of the earth and irrigates all things with the waters.
11 He places the humble on high and encourages the grieving towards health.
12 He dispels the thoughts of the spiteful, lest their hands be able to complete what they had begun.
13 He catches the wise in their cleverness and dissipates the counsel of the perverse.
14 They will encounter darkness in the daytime, and they will grope at midday just as in the night.
15 Thereafter, he will act to save the needy from the sword of their mouth, and the poor from the hand of the violent.
16 And there will be hope for those in need, for iniquity will diminish its speech.
17 Blessed is the man whom God corrects; therefore, do not reject the chastisement of the Lord.
18 For he wounds and he cures; he strikes and his hands will heal.
19 He will deliver you into six tribulations, and in the seventh, evil will not touch you.
20 During famine, he will rescue you from death, and during war, from the hand of the sword.
21 You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you will not fear calamity when it arrives.
22 In desolation and in famine, you will laugh, and you will not dread the beasts of the earth.
23 For you are in harmony with the stones of the land, and the beasts of the earth will make peace with you.
24 And you will know that your home has peace, and, concerning your appearance, you will not sin.
25 Likewise, you will know that your offspring will be manifold and your progeny will be like the grass of the earth.
26 You will enter the grave with abundance, just as a crop of wheat is gathered in its time.
27 Behold, this is just as we have found it, which you have heard; walk it through your mind.
&
1 And I turned and lifted up my eyes. And I saw, and behold, a book flying.
2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a book flying. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width is ten cubits.”
3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth. For every thief will be judged, just as it has been written there, and everyone who swears by this, will be judged in like manner.”
4 I will bring it forth, says the Lord of hosts, and it will approach to the house of the thief, and to the house of him who swears falsely by my name, and it will remain in the midst of his house and will consume it, with its wood and its stones.
5 And the angel had departed, who was speaking with me. And he said to me, “Lift up your eyes, and see what this is, that goes forth.”
6 And I said, “What, then, is it?” And he said, “This is a container going forth.” And he said, “This is their eye in all the earth.”
7 And behold, a talent of lead was being carried; and behold, one woman sitting in the middle of the container.
8 And he said, “This is impiety.” And he cast her into the middle of the container, and he sent the weight of lead into its mouth.
9 And I lifted up my eyes and I saw. And behold, two women were departing, and a spirit was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite, and they lifted up the container between earth and heaven.
10 And I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the container?”
11 And he said to me, “To a house that may be built for it in the land of Shinar, and so that it may be established and set there upon its own base.”
1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory.
2 For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake: lest the gentiles should say: Where is their God?
3 But our God is in heaven: he hath done all things whatsoever he would.
4 The idols of the gentiles are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men.
5 They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not.
6 They have ears and hear not: they have noses and smell not.
7 They have hands and feel not: they have feet and walk not: neither shall they cry out through their throat.
1 And so, as a prisoner in the Lord, I beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the vocation to which you have been called:
2 with all humility and meekness, with patience, supporting one another in charity.
3 Be anxious to preserve the unity of the Spirit within the bonds of peace.
4 One body and one Spirit: to this you have been called by the one hope of your calling:
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
7 Yet to each one of us there has been given grace according to the measure allotted by Christ.
8 Because of this, he says: “Ascending on high, he took captivity itself captive; he gave gifts to men.”
9 Now that he has ascended, what is left except for him also to descended, first to the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is the same one who also ascended above all the heavens, so that he might fulfill everything.
11 And the same one granted that some would be Apostles, and some Prophets, yet truly others evangelists, and others pastors and teachers,
12 for the sake of the perfection of the saints, by the work of the ministry, in the edification of the body of Christ,
13 until we all meet in the unity of faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as a perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.
14 So may we then no longer be little children, disturbed and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, and by the craftiness which deceives unto error.
15 Instead, acting according to truth in charity, we should increase in everything, in him who is the head, Christ himself.
16 For in him, the whole body is joined closely together, by every underlying joint, through the function allotted to each part, bringing improvement to the body, toward its edification in charity.
17 And so, I say this, and I testify in the Lord: that from now on you should walk, not as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 having their intellect obscured, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is within them, because of the blindness of their hearts.
19 Such as these, despairing, have given themselves over to sexual immorality, carrying out every impurity with rapacity.
20 But this is not what you have learned in Christ.
