Job 15–17
15:1Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,and fill his belly with the east wind?3Should he argue in unprofitable talk,or in words with which he can do no good?4But you are doing away with the fear of Godand hindering meditation before God.5For your iniquity teaches your mouth,and you choose the tongue of the crafty.6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;your own lips testify against you. 7“Are you the first man who was born?Or were you brought forth before the hills?8Have you listened in the council of God?And do you limit wisdom to yourself?9What do you know that we do not know?What do you understand that is not clear to us?10Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,older than your father.11Are the comforts of God too small for you,or the word that deals gently with you?12Why does your heart carry you away,and why do your eyes flash,13that you turn your spirit against Godand bring such words out of your mouth?14What is man, that he can be pure?Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?15Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,and the heavens are not pure in his sight;16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,a man who drinks injustice like water! 17“I will show you; hear me,and what I have seen I will declare18(what wise men have told,without hiding it from their fathers,19to whom alone the land was given,and no stranger passed among them).20The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.21Dreadful sounds are in his ears;in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.22He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,and he is marked for the sword.23He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;24distress and anguish terrify him;they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.25Because he has stretched out his hand against Godand defies the Almighty,26running stubbornly against himwith a thickly bossed shield;27because he has covered his face with his fatand gathered fat upon his waist28and has lived in desolate cities,in houses that none should inhabit,which were ready to become heaps of ruins;29he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,nor will his possessions spread over the earth;30he will not depart from darkness;the flame will dry up his shoots,and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,for emptiness will be his payment.32It will be paid in full before his time,and his branch will not be green.33He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.34For the company of the godless is barren,and fire consumes the tents of bribery.35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,and their womb prepares deceit.”
16:1Then Job answered and said:
2“I have heard many such things;miserable comforters are you all.3Shall windy words have an end?Or what provokes you that you answer?4I also could speak as you do,if you were in my place;I could join words together against youand shake my head at you.5I could strengthen you with my mouth,and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain. 6“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?7Surely now God has worn me out;he has made desolate all my company.8And he has shriveled me up,which is a witness against me,and my leanness has risen up against me;it testifies to my face.9He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;he has gnashed his teeth at me;my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.10Men have gaped at me with their mouth;they have struck me insolently on the cheek;they mass themselves together against me.11God gives me up to the ungodlyand casts me into the hands of the wicked.12I was at ease, and he broke me apart;he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;he set me up as his target;13his archers surround me.He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;he pours out my gall on the ground.14He breaks me with breach upon breach;he runs upon me like a warrior.15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skinand have laid my strength in the dust.16My face is red with weeping,and on my eyelids is deep darkness,17although there is no violence in my hands,and my prayer is pure. 18“O earth, cover not my blood,and let my cry find no resting place.19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,and he who testifies for me is on high.20My friends scorn me;my eye pours out tears to God,21that he would argue the case of a man with God,as a son of man does with his neighbor.22For when a few years have comeI shall go the way from which I shall not return.
17:1“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;the graveyard is ready for me.2Surely there are mockers about me,and my eye dwells on their provocation. 3“Lay down a pledge for me with you;who is there who will put up security for me?4Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,therefore you will not let them triumph.5He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—the eyes of his children will fail. 6“He has made me a byword of the peoples,and I am one before whom men spit.7My eye has grown dim from vexation,and all my members are like a shadow.8The upright are appalled at this,and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.9Yet the righteous holds to his way,and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.10But you, come on again, all of you,and I shall not find a wise man among you.11My days are past; my plans are broken off,the desires of my heart.12They make night into day:‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’13If I hope for Sheol as my house,if I make my bed in darkness,14if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’15where then is my hope?Who will see my hope?16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?Shall we descend together into the dust?”
Luke 17:20–37
20Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
22And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. 24For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. 25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—30so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32Remember Lot’s wife. 33Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. 34I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 35There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”
Psalm 19
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
19:1The heavens declare the glory of God,and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.2Day to day pours out speech,and night to night reveals knowledge.3There is no speech, nor are there words,whose voice is not heard.4Their voice goes out through all the earth,and their words to the end of the world.In them he has set a tent for the sun,5which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.6Its rising is from the end of the heavens,and its circuit to the end of them,and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7The law of the LORD is perfect,reviving the soul;the testimony of the LORD is sure,making wise the simple;8the precepts of the LORD are right,rejoicing the heart;the commandment of the LORD is pure,enlightening the eyes;9the fear of the LORD is clean,enduring forever;the rules of the LORD are true,and righteous altogether.10More to be desired are they than gold,even much fine gold;sweeter also than honeyand drippings of the honeycomb.11Moreover, by them is your servant warned;in keeping them there is great reward. 12Who can discern his errors?Declare me innocent from hidden faults.13Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;let them not have dominion over me!Then I shall be blameless,and innocent of great transgression. 14Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heartbe acceptable in your sight,O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
Proverbs 8:6–7
6Hear, for I will speak noble things,and from my lips will come what is right,7for my mouth will utter truth;wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
