1 Then Job, answering, said:
2 I have often heard such things; you are all aggravating comforters.
3 Will there be no end to windy words? Or is it at all a burden to you, if you speak?
4 I, too, can speak like you; and I also wish that your soul favored my soul.
5 I would also comfort you with speeches and would wag my head over you.
6 I would strengthen you with my mouth, and would move my lips, as if being lenient to you.
7 But what can I do? When I am speaking, my grief will not be quiet; and if I am quiet, it will not withdraw from me.
8 But now my grief has crushed me, and all my limbs have been reduced to nothing.
9 My wrinkles bear witness against me, and a liar rises up against my face, contradicting me.
10 He has gathered together his fury towards me, and, threatening me, he has roared against me with his teeth; my enemy has beheld me with terrible eyes.
11 They have opened their mouths against me, and, reproaching me, they have struck me on the cheek; they are nourished by my sufferings.
12 God has confined me with the immoral, and he has delivered me into the hands of the impious.
13 I, who once was wealthy, am now crushed. He has grabbed me by my neck; he has broken me and has place me before him as a sign.
14 He has surrounded me with his lances. He has severely wounded my lower back, he has not been lenient, and he has poured out my organs upon the earth.
15 He has cut me with wound after wound. He has rushed upon me like a giant.
16 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and I have covered my body with ashes.
17 My face is swollen from weeping, and my eyelids have dimmed my vision.
18 These things I have endured without iniquity in my hand, while I held pure prayers before God.
19 O earth, do not conceal my blood, nor let my outcry find a hiding place in you.
20 For behold, my witness is in heaven, and my confidante is on high.
21 My friends are full of words; my eye rains tears upon God.
22 And I wish that a man might be so judged before God, just as the son of man is judged with his assistant!
23 For behold, a few years pass by, and I am walking a path by which I will not return.
1 My spirit will be wasted, my days will be shortened, and only the grave will left for me.
2 I have not sinned, yet my eye remains in bitterness.
3 Free me, O Lord, and set me beside you, and let the hand of anyone you wish fight against me.
4 You have set their heart far from discipline; therefore, they will not be praised.
5 He promises prey to his companions, but the eyes of his sons will grow faint.
6 He has posted me like a proverb to the people, and I am an example in their presence.
7 My eyesight has been clouded by indignation, and my limbs have been reduced, as if to nothing.
8 The just will be astounded over this, and the innocent will be stirred up against the hypocrite.
9 And the just will cling to his way, and clean hands will increase strength.
10 Therefore, be converted, all of you, and approach, for I do not find in you any wisdom.
11 My days have passed away; my thoughts have been scattered, tormenting my heart.
12 They have turned night into day, and I hope for light again after the darkness.
13 If I should wait, the underworld is my house, and in darkness I have spread out my bed.
14 I have said to decay and to worms: “You are my father, my mother, and my sister.”
15 Therefore, where is my expectation now, and who is it that considers my patience?
16 Everything of mine will descend into the deepest underworld; do you think that, in that place at least, there will be rest for me?
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1 The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel. The Lord, stretching forth the heavens and founding the earth and forming the spirit of man within him, says:
2 Behold, I will set Jerusalem as a lintel of the effects of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, yet even Judah will be in the blockade against Jerusalem.
3 And this shall be: In that day, I will set Jerusalem as a burdensome stone to every people. All who will lift it up will be torn to pieces. And all the kingdoms of the earth will be gathered together against her.
4 In that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with stupor and his rider with madness. And I will open my eyes upon the house of Judah, and I will strike every horse of the people with blindness.
5 And the governors of Judah will say in their heart, “Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me, in the Lord of hosts, their God.”
6 In that day, I will set the governors of Judah like a flaming furnace among wood, and like a flaming torch among hay. And they will devour, to the right and to the left, all the surrounding peoples. And Jerusalem will be inhabited again, in her own place, in Jerusalem.
7 And the Lord will save the tabernacles of Judah, just as in the beginning, so that the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not glorify themselves boastfully against Judah.
8 In that day, the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and even he who will have offended from them, in that day, will be like David, and the house of David will be like that of God, just like an angel of the Lord in their sight.
9 And this shall be in that day: I will seek to crush all the Gentiles that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they will look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will feel sorrow over him, as one would be sorrowful at the death of a firstborn.
11 In that day, there will be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
12 And the earth will mourn: families and families separately; the families of the house of David separately, and their women separately;
13 the families of the house of Nathan separately, and their women separately; the families of the house of Levi separately, and their women separately; the families of Shimei separately, and their women separately;
14 all the rest of the families, families and families separately, and their women separately.
1 In that day, there will be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing of the transgressor and of the defiled woman.
2 And this shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will disperse the names of the idols from the earth, and they will not be remembered any longer. And I will take away the false prophets and the unclean spirit from the earth.
3 And this shall be: when any devotee will continue to prophesy, his father and his mother, who conceived him, will say to him, “You shall not live, because you have been speaking a lie in the name of the Lord.” And his father and his mother, his own parents, will pierce him, when he will prophesy.
4 And this shall be: In that day, the prophets will be confounded, each one by his own vision, when he will prophesy. Neither will they be covered with a garment of sackcloth in order to deceive.
5 But he will say, “I am not a prophet; I am a man of agriculture. For Adam has been my example from my youth.”
6 And they will say to him, “What are these wounds in the middle of your hands?” And he will say, “I was wounded with these in the house of those who love me.”
7 Awake, O spear, against my shepherd and against the man that clings to me, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And I will turn my hand to the little ones.
8 And there will be in all the earth, says the Lord, two parts in it will be scattered and will pass away, and the third part will be left behind.
9 And I will lead the third part through fire, and I will burn them just as silver is burned, and I will test them just as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will heed them. I will say, “You are my people.” And they will say, “The Lord is my God.”
1 Give praise to Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Let Israel now say that he is good: that his mercy endureth for ever.
3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
4 Let them that fear the Lord now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
5 In my trouble I called upon the Lord: and the Lord heard me, and enlarged me.
6 The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me.
7 The Lord is my helper: and I will look over my enemies.
8 It is good to confide in the Lord, rather than to have confidence in man.
9 It is good to trust in the Lord, rather than to trust in princes.
10 All nations compassed me about; and in the name of the Lord I have been revenged on them.
1 Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any solace of charity, any fellowship of the Spirit, any feelings of commiseration:
2 complete my joy by having the same understanding, holding to the same charity, being of one mind, with the same sentiment.
3 Let nothing be done by contention, nor in vain glory. Instead, in humility, let each of you esteem others to be better than himself.
4 Let each of you not consider anything to be your own, but rather to belong to others.
5 For this understanding in you was also in Christ Jesus:
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be seized.
7 Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and accepting the state of a man.
8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, even the death of the Cross.
9 Because of this, God has also exalted him and has given him a name which is above every name,
10 so that, at the name of Jesus, every knee would bend, of those in heaven, of those on earth, and of those in hell,
11 and so that every tongue would confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.
12 And so, my most beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but even more so now in my absence: work toward your salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God who works in you, both so as to choose, and so as to act, in accord with his good will.
14 And do everything without murmuring or hesitation.
15 So may you be without blame, simple sons of God, without reproof, in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine like lights in the world,
16 holding to the Word of Life, until my glory in the day of Christ. For I have not run in vain, nor have I labored in vain.
17 Moreover, if I am to be immolated because of the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and give thanks with all of you.
18 And over this same thing, you also should rejoice and give thanks, together with me.
19 Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, in order that I may be encouraged, when I know the things concerning you.
20 For I have no one else with such an agreeable mind, who, with sincere affection, is solicitous for you.
21 For they all seek the things that are of themselves, not the things that are of Jesus Christ.
22 So know this evidence of him: that like a son with a father, so has he served with me in the Gospel.
23 Therefore, I hope to send him to you immediately, as soon as I see what will happen concerning me.
24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself will also return to you soon.
25 Now I have considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and co-worker, and fellow soldier, and an attendant to my needs, but your Apostle.
26 For certainly, he has desired all of you, and he was saddened because you had heard that he was sick.
27 For he was sick, even unto death, but God took pity on him, and not only on him, but truly on myself also, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
28 Therefore, I sent him more readily, in order that, by seeing him again, you may rejoice, and I may be without sorrow.
29 And so, receive him with every joy in the Lord, and treat all those like him with honor.
30 For he was brought close even to death, for the sake of the work of Christ, handing over his own life, so that he might fulfill what was lacking from you concerning my service.
