1 But the Lord, responding to Job from a whirlwind, said:
2 Who is this that wraps sentences in unskilled words?
3 Gird your waist like a man. I will question you, and you must answer me.
4 Where were you, when I set the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who set its measurements, if you know, or who stretched a line over it?
6 Upon what have its bases been grounded, and who set forth its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful noise?
8 Who enclosed the sea with doors, when it broke forth as if issuing from the womb,
9 when I stationed a cloud as its garment and wrapped it in a mist as if swaddling an infant?
10 I encircled it with my limits, and I positioned its bars and doors.
11 And I said: “This far you will approach, and you will proceeded no further, and here you will break your swelling waves.”
12 Did you, after your birth, command the birth of the sun and show the sunrise its place?
13 And did you hold the extremities of the earth, shaking them, and have you shaken the impious out of it?
14 The seal will be restored like clay, and it will remain in place like a garment.
15 From the impious, the light will be taken away, and the exalted arm will be broken.
16 Have you entered the depths of the sea, and have you taken a walk in the uttermost parts of the abyss?
17 Have the gates of death been opened to you, and have you seen the doors of darkness?
18 Have you considered the breadth of the earth? If you know all things, reveal them to me.
19 Which is the way that holds the light, and which is the place of darkness?
20 In this way, you might lead each thing to its final place, and understand the paths of its house.
21 So then, did you know when you were to be born? And did you know the number of your days?
22 Have you been admitted into the storehouses of the snows, and have you gazed upon the stockpile of the brimstone,
23 which I have prepared for the time of the enemy, for the day of the battle and the war?
24 In what way is the light scattered, and the heat distributed, over the earth?
25 Who gave a course to the rainstorms, and a path to the resounding thunder,
26 so that it would rain on the earth far from man, in the wilderness where no mortal lingers,
27 so that it would fill impassable and desolate places, and would bring forth green plants?
28 Who is the father of rain, or who conceived the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the ice proceed, and who created the frost from the air?
30 The waters are hardened to become like stone, and the surface of the abyss freezes over.
31 Will you have the strength to join together the sparkling stars of the Pleiades, or are you able to disperse the circling of Arcturus?
32 Can you bring forth the morning star, in its time, and make the evening star rise over the sons of the earth?
33 Do you know the order of heaven, and can you explain its rules here on the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that an onslaught of waters will cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightning bolts, and will they go, and on returning, say to you: “Here we are?”
36 Who placed discernment in the guts of man, or who gave the rooster intelligence?
37 Who can describe the rules of the heavens, or who can put to rest the harmony of heaven?
38 When was the dust cast to become the earth, and when were its clods fastened together?
39 Will you seize prey for the lioness, and will you sustain the lives of her young,
40 as they rest in their dens or lie in wait in pits?
41 Who provides the raven with its meal, when her chicks cry out to God, as they wander around because they have no food?
1 Do you know at what time the wild goats have given birth among the rocks, or do you observe the deer when they go into labor?
2 Have you numbered the months since their conception, and do you know at what time they gave birth?
3 They bend themselves for their offspring, and they give birth, and they emit roars.
4 Their young are weaned and go out to feed; they depart and do not return to them.
5 Who has set the wild ass free, and who has released his bonds?
6 I have given a house in solitude to him, and his tabernacle is in the salted land.
7 He despises the crowded city; he does not pay attention to the bellow of the tax collector.
8 He looks around the mountains of his pasture, and he searches everywhere for green plants.
9 Will the rhinoceros be willing to serve you, and will he remain in your stall?
10 Can you detain the rhinoceros with your harness to plough for you, and will he loosen the soil of the furrows behind you?
11 Will you put your faith in his great strength, and delegate your labors to him?
12 Will you trust him to return to you the seed, and to gather it on your drying floor?
13 The wing of the ostrich is like the wings of the heron, and of the hawk.
14 When she leaves eggs behind in the earth, will you perhaps warm them in the dust?
15 She forgets that feet may trample them, or that the beasts of the field may shatter them.
16 She is hardened against her young, as if they were not hers; she has labored in vain, with no fear compelling her.
17 For God has deprived her of wisdom; neither has he given her understanding.
18 Yet, when the time is right, she raises her wings on high; she ridicules the horse and his rider.
19 Will you supply strength to the horse, or envelope his throat with neighing?
20 Will you alarm him as the locusts do? His panic is revealed by the display of his nostrils.
21 He digs at the earth with his hoof; he jumps around boldly; he advances to meet armed men.
22 He despises fear; he does not turn away from the sword.
23 Above him, the quiver rattles, the spear and the shield shake.
24 Seething and raging, he drinks up the earth; neither does he pause when the blast of the trumpet sounds.
25 When he hears the bugle, he says, “Ha!” He smells the battle from a distance, the exhortation of the officers, and the battle cry of the soldiers.
26 Does the hawk grow feathers by means of your wisdom, spreading her wings towards the south?
27 Will the eagle lift herself up at your command and make her nest in steep places?
28 She dwells among the rocks, and she lingers among broken boulders and inaccessible cliffs.
29 From there, she looks for food, and her eyes catch sight of it from far away.
30 Her young will drink blood, and wherever the carcass will be, she is there immediately.
31 And the Lord continued, and he said to Job:
32 Will he who contends with God be so easily silenced? Certainly, he who argues with God must also respond to him.
33 Then Job answered the Lord, saying:
34 What could I possibly answer, since I have been speaking thoughtlessly? I will place my hand over my mouth.
35 One thing I have spoken, which I wish I had not said; and another, to which I will add no more.
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16 And they approached even as far as Bethhoron. And Judas went forth to meet him, with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming to meet them, they said to Judas, “How will we few be able to fight against so great and so strong a multitude, even though we are weakened by fasting today?”
18 And Judas said: “It is easy for many to be enclosed in the hands of a few, for there is no difference in the sight of the God of heaven to liberate by means of many, or by means of few.
19 For victory in warfare is not in the multitude of the army, but in the strength from heaven.
20 They come to us with a contemptuous multitude and with arrogance, in order to destroy us, with our wives and our sons, and to despoil us.
21 In truth, we will fight on behalf of our souls and our laws.
22 And the Lord himself will crush them before our face. But as for you, do not fear them.”
23 And as soon as he had ceased speaking, he attacked them suddenly. And Seron and his army were crushed in his sight.
24 And he pursued him from the descent of Bethhoron, even to the plains. And eight hundred of their men were cut down, but the rest fled into the land of the Philistines.
25 And the fear and dread of Judas, as well as his brothers, fell upon all the nations around them.
26 And his name reached even to the king, and all the nations told stories of the battles of Judas.
27 But when king Antiochus heard these accounts, he was angry to his very soul. And he sent and gathered together forces from his entire kingdom, a very strong army.
28 And he opened his treasury, and he gave out stipends to the army for a year. And he commanded them to make ready for all things.
29 And he saw that the money from his treasures had failed, and that the tributes of the country were small, because of the dissension and the scourging that he had caused on earth in order to take away the legitimate laws, which had been since the first days.
30 And he feared, lest he not have enough the second time as the first, for expenses and gifts, which he had given before with a liberal hand. For his excesses were more than the kings who had been before him.
31 And he was alarmed to his very soul, and he intended to go into Persia, and to take tributes from the regions, and to gather together much money.
32 And he left behind Lysias, a nobleman of royal family, to preside over the kingdom from the river Euphrates, even to the river of Egypt,
33 and to raise his son, Antiochus, until he would return.
34 And he handed over to him half of the army, and the elephants. And he commanded him concerning all that he wanted, and concerning the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem:
35 so that he would send an army against them to crush and to root out the virtue of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, and to take away the memory of them from that place,
60 I am ready, and am not troubled: that I may keep thy commandments.
61 The cords of the wicked have encompassed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 I rose at midnight to give praise to thee; for the judgments of thy justification.
63 I am a partaker with all them that fear thee, and that keep thy commandments.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy justifications.
65 TETH. Thou hast done well with thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word.
66 Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments.
1 But we ask you, brothers, concerning the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and of our gathering to him,
2 that you not be readily disturbed or terrified in your minds, by any spirit, or word, or epistle, supposedly sent from us, claiming that the day of the Lord is close by.
3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For this cannot be, unless the apostasy will have arrived first, and the man of sin will have been revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who is an adversary to, and who is lifted up above, all that is called God or that is worshipped, so much so that he sits in the temple of God, presenting himself as if he were God.
5 Do you not recall that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
6 And now you know what it is that holds him back, so that he may be revealed in his own time.
7 For the mystery of iniquity is already at work. And only one now holds back, and will continue to hold back, until he is taken from our midst.
8 And then that iniquitous one shall be revealed, the one whom the Lord Jesus shall bring to ruin with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy at the brightness of his return:
9 him whose advent is accompanied by the works of Satan, with every kind of power and signs and false miracles,
10 and with every seduction of iniquity, toward those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth, so that they may be saved. For this reason, God will send to them works of deception, so that they may believe in lies,
11 in order that all those who have not believed in the truth, but who have consented to iniquity, may be judged.
12 Yet we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved of God, because God has chosen you as first-fruits for salvation, by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
13 He has also called you into truth through our Gospel, unto the acquisition of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
14 And so, brothers, stand firm, and hold to the traditions that you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.
15 So may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and who has given us an everlasting consolation and good hope in grace,
16 exhort your hearts and confirm you in every good word and deed.
