1 Therefore, hear my speeches, Job, and listen to all my words.
2 Behold, I have opened my mouth; let my tongue speak along with my throat.
3 My words are from my simple heart, and my lips will speak a pure judgment.
4 The Spirit of God made me, and the breath of the Almighty gave me life.
5 If you can, answer me, and oppose me to my face.
6 Behold, God has made me, just as he also has made you, and I, likewise, have been formed of the same clay.
7 So, truly, do not let my wonders terrify you, and do not let my eloquence be burdensome to you.
8 For you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the voice of your words, saying:
9 I am clean and without sin; I am immaculate, and there is no iniquity in me.
10 Yet he has discovered blame in me, and so he has treated me like his enemy.
11 He has put my feet in fetters; he has kept watch over all my ways.”
12 Therefore, it is for this reason that you have not been justified. For I tell you that God is greater than man.
13 Do you contend against him because he has not responded to all of your words?
14 God speaks once, and he does not repeat the same thing a second time.
15 Through a dream in a vision of the night, when a deep sleep falls over men, and they are sleeping in their beds,
16 then, he opens the ears of men, and, educating them, he teaches discipline,
17 so that he may divert a man from the things that he is doing, and may free him from pride,
18 rescuing his soul from corruption and his life from passing away by the sword.
19 Likewise, he rebukes by sorrow in bed, and he causes all of his bones to become weak.
20 Bread becomes abominable to him in his life, and, to his soul, the meat which before he desired.
21 His body will waste away, and his bones, which had been covered, will be revealed.
22 His soul has approached corruption, and his life has drawn near to what is deadly.
23 If there were an angel speaking for him, one among thousands, to declare the fairness of the man,
24 he will have mercy on him, and he will say, “Free him, so that he will not descend to destruction. I have found a reason to be favorable to him.
25 His body is consumed by suffering. Let him return to the days of his youth.”
26 He will beg pardon from God, and he will be soothing to him; and he will look upon his face in jubilation, and he will restore his justice to man.
27 He will consider mankind, and he will say: “I have sinned and truly I have offended, yet I was not treated as I deserved.”
28 He has freed his soul from continuing into destruction, so that, in living, it may see the light.
29 Behold, all these things God works three times within each one,
30 so that he may revive their souls from corruption and enlighten them with the light of life.
31 Pay attention Job, and listen to me; and remain silent, while I speak.
32 Yet, if you have anything to say, answer me and speak, for I want you to be treated justly.
33 But if you do not have anything to say, then listen to me. Be quiet and I will teach you wisdom.
1 After proclaiming these things, Eliu now had this to say:
2 May the wise hear my words, and may the educated listen to me.
3 For the ear examines words, and the mouth discerns foods by the taste.
4 Let us choose judgment for ourselves, and let us consider among ourselves what is best.
5 For Job has said: “I am just, yet God has subverted my judgment.
6 For, within my judgment, there is a lie: my vehement barbs are without any sin.”
7 What man is there that is like Job, who drinks up derision as if it were water,
8 who accompanies those who work iniquity, and who walks with impious men?
9 For he has said, “Man will not please God, even if he should travel with him.”
10 Therefore, prudent men, hear me: impiety is far from God, and iniquity is far from the Almighty.
11 For he will restore to man his works, and according to the ways of each, he will repay them.
12 For truly, God will not condemn in vain, nor will the Almighty repudiate judgment.
13 What other is established over the earth? Or whom has he placed over the world, which he made?
14 But, if he directs his heart towards him, he will draw his spirit and breath to himself.
15 All flesh will fail together, and man will return to ashes.
16 Therefore, if you have understanding, hear what is said, and heed the sound of my eloquence.
17 Is he that does not love judgment able to be corrected? And how can you so greatly condemn him who is just?
18 He says to the king, “You are an apostate.” He calls commanders impious.
19 He does not accept the reputation of leaders; nor does he recognize the tyrant as he contends against the poor. For all are the work of his hands.
20 They will die suddenly, and the people will be troubled in the middle of the night, but they will pass through it, and the violent will be taken away without a hand.
21 For his eyes are upon the ways of men, and he examines all of their steps.
22 There is no darkness and no shadow of death, where those who work iniquity may be hidden.
23 For it is no longer within the power of man to enter into judgment with God.
24 He will break into many innumerable pieces, and he will cause others to stand up in their place.
25 For he knows their works, and, as a result, he will bring the night, and they will be crushed.
26 Just as the impious do, he has struck them in a place where they can be seen.
27 They, as if with great diligence, have withdrawn from him, and they refused to understand all his ways,
28 so that they caused the outcry of the needy to reach him, and he heard the voice of the poor.
29 For, when he grants peace, who is there that can condemn? When he hides his face, who is there that can contemplate him, either among the nations, or among all men?
30 He causes a hypocritical man to reign because of the sins of the people.
31 Therefore, since I have been speaking about God, I will not prevent you from doing the same.
32 If I have erred, you may teach me; if I have spoken unfairly, I will add no more.
33 Does God require this of you because it is displeasing to you? For you were the first to speak, and not I. But if you know something better, speak.
34 Let men of understanding speak to me, and let a wise man listen to me.
35 But Job has been speaking foolishly, and his words contain unsound teaching.
36 My father, let Job be tested even to the end; may you not retreat from a man of iniquity.
37 For he adds blasphemy on top of his sins; nevertheless, let him be constrained to be among us, and then let him provoke God to judgment with his speeches.
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26 and he was zealous for the law, just as Phinehas did to Zimri, the son of Salomi.
27 And Mattathias exclaimed with a loud voice in the city, saying, “All who hold zeal for the law, maintaining the covenant, let them follow me.”
28 And he and his sons fled to the mountains, and they left behind whatever they had in the city.
29 Then many who sought judgment and justice went down into the desert.
30 And they camped there, with their sons, and their wives, and their herds, because evils had overwhelmed them.
31 And it was reported to the king’s men, and to the army that was in Jerusalem, in the city of David, that certain men, who had cast aside the commandment of the king, had departed into the hidden places in the desert, and that many had followed after them.
32 And immediately, they went out to them, and they arranged a battle against them, on the day of the Sabbath.
33 And they said to them: “And now, do you still resist? Go out and act according to the word of king Antiochus, and you will live.”
34 And they said, “We will not go out, and we will not do the king’s word, so as to profane the day of the Sabbath.”
35 And they rushed against them in battle.
36 But they did not respond, nor did they cast a stone at them, nor did they barricade the hidden places,
37 for they said, “Let us all die in our simplicity. And heaven and earth will testify for us, that you destroyed us unjustly.”
38 So they carried out a battle on the Sabbath. And they were put to death, with their wives, and their sons, and their cattle, even to the number of a thousand souls of men.
39 And Mattathias and his friends heard of it, and they held a very great lamentation for them.
40 And every man said to his neighbor, “If we all do just as our brothers have done, and if we do not fight against the Gentiles for the sake of our lives and our justifications, then they will quickly eradicate us from the earth.”
41 And they decided, on that day, saying: “Every man, who will come against us in warfare on the day of the Sabbath, we will fight against him. And we will not all die, like our brothers who were put to death in the hidden places.”
42 Then there was assembled before them the synagogue of the Hasideans, strong men from Israel, each one with a will for the law.
43 And all those who fled from the evils added themselves to them, and they became a firmament to them.
44 And they gathered together an army, and they struck down the sinners in their wrath and the wicked men in their indignation. And the others fled to the nations, so as to escape.
45 And Mattathias and his friends traveled around, and they destroyed the altars.
39 Turn away my reproach, which I have apprehended: for thy judgments are delightful.
40 Behold I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy justice.
41 VAU. Let thy mercy also come upon me, O Lord: thy salvation according to thy word.
42 So shall I answer them that reproach me in any thing; that I have trusted in thy words.
43 And take not thou the word of truth utterly out of my mouth: for in thy words have I hoped exceedingly.
44 So shall I always keep thy law, for ever and ever.
45 And I walked at large: because I have sought after thy commandments.
1 Therefore, concerning other things, brothers, we ask and beg you, in the Lord Jesus, that, just as you have received from us the way in which you ought to walk and to please God, so also may you walk, in order that you may abound all the more.
2 For you know what precepts I have given to you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from fornication,
4 that each one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passions of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God,
6 and that no one should overwhelm or circumvent his brother in business. For the Lord is the vindicator of all these things, just as we have preached and testified to you.
7 For God has not called us to impurity, but to sanctification.
8 And so, whoever despises these teachings, does not despise man, but God, who has even provided his Holy Spirit within us.
9 But concerning the charity of brotherhood, we have no need to write to you. For you yourselves have learned from God that you should love one another.
10 For indeed, you act in this way with all the brothers in all of Macedonia. But we petition you, brothers, so that you may abound all the more,
11 to choose work that allows you to be tranquil, and to carry out your business and to do your work with your own hands, just as we have instructed you,
12 and to walk honestly with those who are outside, and to desire nothing belonging to another.
13 And we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are sleeping, so as not to be sorrowful, like these others who do not have hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus has died and risen again, so also will God bring back with Jesus those who sleep in him.
15 For we say this to you, in the Word of the Lord: that we who are alive, who remain until the return of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself, with a command and with the voice of an Archangel and with a trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven. And the dead, who are in Christ, shall rise up first.
17 Next, we who are alive, who are remaining, shall be taken up quickly together with them into the clouds to meet Christ in the air. And in this way, we shall be with the Lord always.
18 Therefore, console one another with these words.
