1 Then Job responded by saying:
2 I beseech you to hear my words and to do penance.
3 Permit me, and I will speak, and afterwards, if you see fit, you can laugh at my words.
4 Is my dispute against man, so that I would have no reason to be discouraged?
5 Listen to me and be astonished, and place a finger over your mouth.
6 As for me, when I think it over, I am afraid, and trembling convulses my body.
7 Why then do the impious live, having been lifted up and strengthened with riches?
8 They see their offspring continue before them: a commotion of close relatives and of children’s children in their sight.
9 Their houses have been secure and peaceable, and there is no staff of God over them.
10 Their cattle have conceived and have not miscarried; their cow has given birth and is not deprived of her newborn.
11 Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children jump around playfully.
12 They take up the timbrel and the lyre, and they rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13 Their days are prolonged in wealth, yet, in an instant, they descend into hell.
14 Who has said to God, “Depart from us, for we do not want the knowledge of your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? And how is it helpful to us if we pray to him?”
16 It is true that their good things are not in their power. May the counsel of the impious be far from me!
17 How often will the lamp of the wicked be extinguished, and a deluge overtake them, and how often will he distribute the afflictions of his wrath?
18 They will be like chaff before the face of the wind, and like ashes that the whirlwind scatters.
19 God will preserve the grief of the father for his sons, and, when he repays, then he will understand.
20 His eyes will see his own destruction, and he will drink from the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care what happens to his house after him, or if the number of its months are reduced by half?
22 Can anyone teach holy knowledge to God, who judges the exalted?
23 This one dies strong and healthy, rich and happy.
24 His gut is full of fat and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25 In truth, another dies in bitterness of soul, without any resources.
26 And yet they will sleep together in the dust, and worms will cover them.
27 Surely, I know your thoughts and your sinful judgments against me.
28 For you say, “Where is the house of the ruler, and where are the tabernacles of the impious?”
29 Ask any passerby whom you wish, and you will realize that he understands these same things:
30 that the evil-doer is reserved for the day of destruction, and he will be led to the day of wrath.
31 Who will reprove his way to his face, and who will repay him for what he has done?
32 He will be led to the tomb, and he will remain awake in the chaos of the dead.
33 He has been found acceptable to the banks of the River of Lamentation, and he will draw any man towards him, and there are countless before him.
34 Therefore, how long will you console me in vain, when your answer is shown to be repugnant to truth?
1 Then Eliphaz the Themanite responded by saying:
2 Can man be compared with God, even if he were perfect in knowledge?
3 What advantage is it to God, if you were just? Or what do you provide for him, if your way should be immaculate?
4 Will he reprove you and take you to judgment for being afraid,
5 and not because of your many evil deeds and your infinite unfairness?
6 For you have taken away the collateral of your brothers without cause, and stripped them naked of their clothing.
7 You have not given water to the weary; you have taken bread away from the hungry.
8 By the strength of your arm, you took possession of the land, and you retain it by being the strongest.
9 You have sent widows away empty, and you have crushed the shoulders of orphans.
10 Because of this, you are surrounded by traps, and unexpected fears will disturb you.
11 And did you think that you would not see darkness and that you were not to be overwhelmed by the on-rush of overflowing waters?
12 Have you not considered that God is higher than the heavens and is lifted above the height of the stars?
13 And you say: “Well, what does God know?” and, “He judges, as if through a fog,”
14 and, “The clouds are his hiding-place,” and, “He does not examine us closely,” and, “He makes his rounds at the limits of the heavens.”
15 Do you not want to tend the path of the ages, which wicked men have spurned?
16 These were taken away before their time, and a flood overthrew their foundation.
17 They said to God, “Withdraw from us,” and they treated the Almighty as if he could do nothing,
18 though he had filled their houses with good things. May their way of thinking be far from me.
19 The just will see and will rejoice, and the innocent will mock them.
20 Has not their haughtiness been cut down, and has not fire devoured the remnants of them?
21 So, repose yourself with him and be at peace, and, in this way, you will have the best fruits.
22 Accept the law from his mouth, and place his words in your heart.
23 If you will return to the Almighty, you will be rebuilt, and you will put sinfulness far from your tabernacle.
24 He will give you stone in place of dirt, and torrents of gold in place of stone.
25 And the Almighty will be against your enemies, and silver will be gathered together for you.
26 Then will you flock together in delight over the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God.
27 You will plead with him, and he will listen to you, and you will pay your vows.
28 You will decide on something, and it will come to you, and the light will shine in your ways.
29 For he who had been humbled, will be in glory; and he who will lower his eyes, will be the one saved.
30 The innocent will be saved, and he will be saved with purity in his hands.
&
1 Behold, I send my angel, and he will prepare the way before my face. And presently the Sovereign, whom you seek, and the angel of testimony, whom you desire, will arrive at his temple. Behold, he approaches, says the Lord of hosts.
2 And who will be able to consider the day of his advent, and who will stand firm in order to see him? For he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s herb.
3 And he will sit refining and cleansing the silver, and he will purge the sons of Levi, and he will gather them like gold and like silver, and they will offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice.
4 And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will please the Lord, just as in the days of past generations, and as in the ancient years.
5 And I will approach you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evil-doers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who cheat the hired hand in his wages, the widows and the orphans, and who oppress the traveler, and who have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord, and I do not change. And you, the sons of Jacob, have not been consumed.
7 For, from the days of your fathers, you have withdrawn from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And you have said, “In what way, shall we return?”
8 If a man will afflict God, then you greatly afflict me. And you have said, “In what way, do we afflict you?” In tithes and in first-fruits.
9 And you have been cursed with privation, and you greatly afflict me, even your entire people.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.
11 And I will rebuke for your sakes the devourer, and he will not corrupt the fruit of your land. Neither will the vine in the field be barren, says the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations will call you blessed. For you will be a desirable land, says the Lord of hosts.
13 Your words have gathered strength over me, says the Lord.
14 And you have said, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said, “He labors in vain who serves God,” and, “What advantage is it that we have kept his precepts, and that we have walked sorrowfully in the sight of the Lord of hosts?
15 Therefore, we now call the arrogant blessed, as if those who work impiety have been built up, and as if they have tempted God and been saved.”
16 Then those who fear the Lord spoke, each one with his neighbor. And the Lord paid attention and heeded. And a book of remembrance was written in his sight, for those who fear the Lord and for those who consider his name.
17 And they will be my special possession, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I act. And I will spare them, just as a man spares his son who serves him.
18 And you shall be converted, and you will see the difference between the just and the impious, and between those who serve God and those who do not serve him.
25 O Lord, save me: O Lord, give good success.
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God, and he hath shone upon us. Appoint a solemn day, with shady boughs, even to the horn of the alter.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, and I will exalt thee. I will praise thee, because thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
29 O praise ye the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, a brother,
2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ Jesus who are at Colossae.
3 Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying for you always.
4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have toward all the saints,
5 because of the hope that has been stored up for you in heaven, which you have heard through the Word of Truth in the Gospel.
6 This has reached you, just as it is present in the whole world, where it grows and bears fruit, as it has also done in you, since the day when you first heard and knew the grace of God in truth,
7 just as you learned it from Epaphras, our most beloved fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Jesus.
8 And he has also manifested to us your love in the Spirit.
9 Then, too, from the day when we first heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and requesting that you be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God, being pleasing in all things, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11 being strengthened in every virtue, in accord with the power of his glory, with all patience and longsuffering, with joy,
12 giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to have a share in the portion of the saints, in the light.
13 For he has rescued us from the power of darkness, and he has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,
14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.
16 For in him was created everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and in him.
17 And he is before all, and in him all things continue.
18 And he is the head of his body, the Church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things he may hold primacy.
19 For the Father is well-pleased that all fullness reside in him,
20 and that, through him, all things be reconciled to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, for the things that are on earth, as well as the things that are in heaven.
21 And you, though you had been, in times past, understood to be foreigners and enemies, with works of evil,
22 yet now he has reconciled you, by his body of flesh, through death, so as to offer you, holy and immaculate and blameless, before him.
23 So then, continue in the faith: well-founded and steadfast and immovable, by the hope of the Gospel that you have heard, which has been preached throughout all creation under heaven, the Gospel of which I, Paul, have become a minister.
24 For now I rejoice in my passion on your behalf, and I complete in my flesh the things that are lacking in the Passion of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the Church.
25 For I have become a minister of the Church, according to the dispensation of God that has been given to me among you, so that I may fulfill the Word of God,
26 the mystery which had remained hidden to past ages and generations, but which now is manifested to his saints.
27 To them, God willed to made known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ and the hope of his glory within you.
28 We are announcing him, correcting every man and teaching every man, with all wisdom, so that we may offer every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
29 In him, too, I labor, striving according to his action within me, which he works in virtue.
