1 My soul is weary of my life. I will release my words against myself. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God: Do not be willing to condemn me. Reveal to me why you judge me this way.
3 Does it seem good to you, if you find fault with me and oppress me, the work of your own hands, and assist the counsel of the impious?
4 Do you have bodily eyes? Or, just as man sees, will you see?
5 Are your days just like the days of man, and are your years as the times of humans,
6 so that you would inquire about my iniquity and examine my sin?
7 And you know that I have done nothing impious, yet there is no one who can deliver from your hand.
8 Your hands have made me and formed me all around, and, in this way, do you suddenly throw me away?
9 Remember, I ask you, that you have fashioned me like clay, and you will reduce me to dust.
10 Have you not extracted me like milk and curdled me like cheese?
11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh. You have put me together with bones and nerves.
12 You have assigned to me life and mercy, and your visitation has preserved my spirit.
13 Though you may conceal this in your heart, yet I know that you remember everything.
14 If I have sinned, and you have spared me for an hour, why do you not endure me to be clean from my iniquity?
15 And if I should be impious, woe to me, and if I should be just, I will not lift up my head, being drenched with affliction and misery.
16 And because of pride, you will seize me like a lioness, and having returned, you torment me to an extraordinary degree.
17 You renew your testimony against me, and you multiply your wrath against me, and these punishments make war within me.
18 Why did you lead me out of the womb? If only I had been consumed, so that no eye would ever see me!
19 I should have been as if I had not been: transferred from the womb to the tomb.
20 Will not my few days be completed soon? Release me, therefore, so that I may lament my sorrows a little,
21 before I depart and return no more to a land that is dark and covered with the fog of death,
22 a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and nothing else but everlasting horror, dwells.
1 But Zophar the Naamathite, responding, said:
2 Will he who speaks much, not also listen? Or will a talkative man be justified?
3 Will men be silent only for you? And when you have mocked others, will no one refute you?
4 For you said: “My word is pure, and I am clean in your sight.”
5 Yet I wish that God would speak with you, and would open his lips to you,
6 so that he might reveal to you the secrets of wisdom, and how intricate his law is, and that you would understand how much less he requires of you than your iniquity deserves.
7 By chance, will you comprehend the footsteps of God and reach all the way to the perfection of the Almighty?
8 He is higher than heaven, and what will you do? He is deeper than hell, but how will you know?
9 His measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
10 If he overturns all things, or packs them together, who will contradict him?
11 For he knows the vanity of men, and when he sees iniquity, does he not evaluate it?
12 A vain man is lifted up in arrogance, and he thinks that he is born free like a wild ass’s colt.
13 But you have fortified your heart and extended your hands to him.
14 If you would send away from you the iniquity that is in your hand, and not let injustice remain in your tabernacle,
15 then you would be able to lift up your face without blemish, and you would be steadfast and unafraid.
16 Misery, likewise, you would forget, or would remember only like waters that have passed by.
17 And brightness, like that of midday, will rise upon you until evening, and when you would think yourself consumed, you will rise up like the morning star.
18 And, when hope has been set before you, you will have faith, and, when buried, you will sleep secure.
19 You will rest, and there will be nothing to make you afraid, and many will make requests before your face.
20 But the eyes of the impious will fade away, and the path to escape will perish before them, for the abomination of the soul is their hope.
&
1 The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and its respite in Damascus. For the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is of the Lord.
2 Hamath also is at its limits, and Tyre and Sidon. For, of course, they have assumed themselves to be exceedingly wise.
3 And Tyre has built herself a fortress, and she has piled together silver, as if it were soil, and gold, as if it were the mud of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will possess her, and he will strike her strength in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire.
5 Ashkelon will see and be afraid. Both Gaza and he will be very sorrowful, as well as Ekron, because her hope has been confounded. And the king will pass away from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.
6 And the divider will sit in Ashdod, and I will scatter the arrogance of the Philistines.
7 And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth, and yet he will be left for our God, and he will be like a governor in Judah, and Ekron will be like a Jebusite.
8 And I will encircle my house with those who serve me in war, going and returning, and the exactor will no longer pass over them. For now I have seen with my eyes.
9 Rejoice well, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King will come to you: the Just One, the Savior. He is poor and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt, the son of a donkey.
10 And I will scatter the four-horse chariot out of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be destroyed. And he will speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power will be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth.
11 You, likewise, by the blood of your testimony, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit, in which there is no water.
12 Turn back to the fortress, prisoners of hope. Today, I also announce that I will repay you double,
13 because I have stretched out Judah for myself, like a bow; I have filled Ephraim. And I will raise up your sons, Zion, above your sons, Greece. And I will set you as the sword of the strength.
14 And the Lord God will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. And the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and he will go forth into the whirlwind of the South.
15 The Lord of hosts will protect them. And they will devour and subdue with the stones of the sling. And, when drinking, they will become inebriated, as if with wine, and they will be filled like bowls and like the horns of the altar.
16 And in that day, the Lord their God will save them as the flock of his people. For holy stones will be lifted up over his land.
17 For what is his goodness and what is his beauty, other than grain among the elect and wine springing forth virgins?
1 I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer.
2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me: and in my days I will call upon him.
3 The sorrows of death have encompassed me: and the perils of hell have found me. I met with trouble and sorrow:
4 And I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, deliver my soul.
5 The Lord is merciful and just, and our God sheweth mercy.
6 The Lord is the keeper of little ones: I was little and he delivered me.
7 Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee.
8 For he hath delivered my soul from death: my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.
9 I will please the Lord in the land of the living.
10 I have believed, therefore have I spoken; but I have been humbled exceedingly.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is just.
2 Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise:
3 so that it may be well with you, and so that you may have a long life upon the earth.
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but educate them with the discipline and correction of the Lord.
5 Servants, be obedient to your lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ.
6 Do not serve only when seen, as if to please men, but act as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
7 Serve with good will, as to the Lord, and not to men.
8 For you know that whatever good each one will do, the same will he receive from the Lord, whether he is servant or free.
9 And you, lords, act similarly toward them, setting aside threats, knowing that the Lord of both you and them is in heaven. For with him there is no favoritism toward anyone.
10 Concerning the rest, brothers, be strengthened in the Lord, by the power of his virtue.
11 Be clothed in the armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the treachery of the devil.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the directors of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places.
13 Because of this, take up the armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand the evil day and remain perfect in all things.
14 Therefore, stand firm, having been girded about your waist with truth, and having been clothed with the breastplate of justice,
15 and having feet which have been shod by the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
16 In all things, take up the shield of faith, with which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.
17 And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God).
18 Through every kind of prayer and supplication, pray at all times in spirit, and so be vigilant with every kind of earnest supplication, for all the saints,
19 and also for me, so that words may be given to me, as I open my mouth with faith to make known the mystery of the Gospel,
20 in such a manner that I may dare to speak exactly as I ought to speak. For I act as an ambassador in chains for the Gospel.
21 Now, so that you also may know the things that concern me and what I am doing, Tychicus, a most beloved brother and a faithful minister in the Lord, will make known everything to you.
22 I have sent him to you for this very reason, so that you may know the things that concern us, and so that he may console your hearts.
23 Peace to the brothers, and charity with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 May grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ, unto incorruption. Amen.
