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 1:39–56
39In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
46And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,48for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;49for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name.50And his mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation.51He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;52he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;53he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.54He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,55as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Psalm 12
To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
12:1Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.2Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,the tongue that makes great boasts,4those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,our lips are with us; who is master over us?” 5“Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,I will now arise,” says the LORD;“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”6The words of the LORD are pure words,like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,purified seven times. 7You, O LORD, will keep them;you will guard us from this generation forever.8On every side the wicked prowl,as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
Ecclesiastes 9:10–12
10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
11Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
