Job 31

¹⁴But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

²⁸But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

³⁷Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

¹⁶For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

³So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

²⁹This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the inheritance God has appointed him.”

¹³This is the wicked man’s portion from God—the heritage the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

³⁰Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

²²There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.

¹³Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

²⁷when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.

²¹For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord examines all his paths.

⁹For the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

¹⁶For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.

³The eyes of the Lord are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

¹⁹the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹¹The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks judgment.

²They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves.

⁸Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Because you have uttered vain words and seen false visions, I am against you, declares the Lord God.

¹¹If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!

⁸The Lord judges the peoples; vindicate me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and integrity.

⁹Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

²⁷TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.

³Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed.

²³Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

⁷The path of the righteous is level; You clear a straight path for the upright.

⁵I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die.

⁶I will cling to my righteousness and never let go. As long as I live, my conscience will not accuse me.

³⁹These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

⁹Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

¹¹My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

³I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

¹⁶then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

¹⁵You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.

³⁸You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,

⁴encamping against them as far as Gaza and destroying the produce of the land. They left Israel with no sustenance, neither sheep nor oxen nor donkeys.

¹⁹He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.

¹⁸He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.

⁴For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

⁵The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a net, and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is ensnared.

¹⁶It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words

¹⁷who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

²⁶Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations, and he was loved by his God, who made him king over all Israel—yet foreign women drew him into sin.

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

³⁰You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.

¹¹This is what the Lord says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.

²Take millstones and grind flour; remove your veil; strip off your skirt, bare your thigh, and wade through the streams.

⁵and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

²⁸this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

²²If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²³If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

³⁸And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.

²⁷Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

⁷“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

³³The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.

⁴³You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

¹⁴Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

¹⁵You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

²⁰If a man strikes his manservant or maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies by his hand, he shall surely be punished.

²¹However, if the servant gets up after a day or two, the owner shall not be punished, since the servant is his property.

¹⁴Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

¹⁵Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.

⁴⁶You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.

¹Masters, supply your slaves with what is right and fair, since you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹²For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

¹³Be silent before the Lord, all people, for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.”

¹²Arise, O Lord! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.

¹³Why has the wicked man renounced God? He says to himself, “You will never call me to account.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

³¹Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors Him.

²The rich and the poor have this in common: The Lord is Maker of them all.

¹⁰Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

¹⁹who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.

⁸Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

⁹Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?

⁵We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

⁷If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

⁸Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

¹⁴I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”

¹⁷All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us.

³²Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.

¹⁰They only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

⁹He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor.

¹⁶He does not oppress another, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery. He gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.

¹⁰Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

³²The multitude of believers was one in heart and soul. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they owned.

⁴¹But give as alms the things that are within you, and behold, everything will be clean for you.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

¹⁷If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?

⁶For you needlessly demanded security from your brothers and deprived the naked of their clothing.

¹⁸Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.

³⁹So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

¹⁵Then the men who were designated by name arose, took charge of the captives, and provided from the plunder clothing for the naked. They clothed them, gave them sandals and food and drink, anointed their wounds, and put all the feeble on donkeys. So they brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

¹³be sure to return it to him by sunset, so that he may sleep in his own cloak and bless you, and this will be credited to you as righteousness before the Lord your God.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,

⁹You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

⁷Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

³Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

²⁷You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

⁴⁰then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.

¹⁰then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

⁶May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.

²²“The Lord, the Mighty One, is God! The Lord, the Mighty One, is God! He knows, and may Israel also know. If this was in rebellion or breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today.

²³If we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from Him and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself hold us accountable.

⁴if I have rewarded my ally with evil, if I have plundered my foe without cause,

⁵then may my enemy pursue me and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

¹¹Would His majesty not terrify you? Would the dread of Him not fall upon you?

¹²⁰My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.

¹¹Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

⁷You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?

⁶Wail, for the Day of the Lord is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

⁹No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell,

¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied,

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.

⁶They trust in their wealth and boast in their great riches.

⁷No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

¹⁸But remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day.

²³This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

⁵By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has grown proud because of it.

¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.

¹⁶So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

¹⁹When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

³and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

¹¹And he removed from the entrance to the house of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.

²They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.

⁵Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁶If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,

¹⁶But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

¹²Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in your rebellion, when His wrath ignites in an instant. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

²⁰He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

¹⁸Nevertheless, I have reserved seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

²Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

²If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the Lord your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant

³and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

⁶And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah

¹⁵For even if I were right, I could not answer. I could only beg my Judge for mercy.

²⁷And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.”

²³“Now, therefore,” he said, “get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸or the Lord will see and disapprove, and turn His wrath away from him.

⁵He who mocks the poor insults their Maker; whoever gloats over calamity will not go unpunished.

¹³Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.

¹⁴I paced about as for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for his mother.

¹²But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.

²⁵Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, just what we wanted!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up!”

²⁶May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

¹²They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

⁹Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.

⁴³You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’

⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be subject to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to the fire of hell.

⁹With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

¹⁰Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!

⁴If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

⁵If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.

¹⁰Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the Lord delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed.’

⁸Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”

²¹But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord’s anointed?”

²²And David replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, what have I to do with you, that you should be my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel today? Am I not indeed aware that today I am king over Israel?”

²²Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

¹⁸But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.

⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him.

²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

²and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

³But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

²⁰“Peace to you,” said the old man. “Let me supply everything you need. Only do not spend the night in the square.”

²¹So he brought him to his house and fed his donkeys. And they washed their feet and ate and drank.

¹³Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality.

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

⁸“Tell me,” said Peter, “is this the price you and your husband got for the land?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is the price.”

¹²And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

⁷But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹¹Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them, and they have taken some of what was devoted to destruction. Indeed, they have stolen and lied, and they have put these things with their own possessions.

²You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

²⁵The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is set securely on high.

¹¹Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter.

¹²If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” does not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds?

²⁸Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.

²⁷He told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

¹⁹who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, but I have no answer—twice, but I have nothing to add.”

²¹Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.

²²Then call me, and I will answer, or let me speak, and You can reply.

³If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat.

⁴I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.

³Yet I desire to speak to the Almighty and argue my case before God.

¹⁴How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,

¹Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

²“Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?

²²I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

³You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the palm of your God.

¹²Fasten both stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear their names on his two shoulders as a memorial before the Lord.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you must stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

¹⁵Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.

¹²In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin.

¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

²⁵I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.

³You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’

³If one wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

¹¹For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork.

¹³The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are decked with grain. They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

²⁷The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

¹⁹Tell him that this is what the Lord says: ‘Have you not murdered a man and seized his land?’ Then tell him that this is also what the Lord says: ‘In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, there also the dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!’”

⁴Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹³And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

¹⁴Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

⁶See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood.

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

¹⁹Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.

¹⁷And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

²⁰Thus conclude the prayers of David son of Jesse.

²³And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.

⁹Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”