Job 36

³Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

⁷Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?

⁸Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense?

²⁰Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

⁷But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

²²I urge you, brothers, to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have only written to you briefly.

¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you return, I will restore you; you will stand in My presence. And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless, you will be My spokesman. It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.

¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

¹⁷The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.

⁷For my mouth will speak the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are righteous; none are crooked or perverse.

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

³My mouth will impart wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will bring understanding.

²⁰Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

¹⁷For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

²⁴For He has not despised or detested the torment of the afflicted. He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help.

⁶Though the Lord is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

¹²The Lord made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

⁵Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.

²³The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.

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.

¹²I know that the Lord upholds justice for the poor and defends the cause of the needy.

¹²For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.

¹³He will take pity on the poor and needy and save the lives of the oppressed.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁵He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful.

²²You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

²³If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to Me in distress, I will surely hear their cry.

⁴May he vindicate the afflicted among the people; may he save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.

¹⁵The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

¹⁸Surely the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

⁷He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dump

⁸to seat them with nobles, with the princes of His people.

³But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

²⁷You put my feet in the stocks and stand watch over all my paths; You set a limit for the soles of my feet.

³The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.

⁶then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

⁹He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.

³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

⁷¹It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

²⁸Because he considered and turned from all the transgressions he had committed, he will surely live; he will not die.

²⁹Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Are My ways unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

²⁰The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

¹⁵This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

⁶Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

⁷Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹⁵God rescues the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears in oppression.

⁸Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.

¹³Yet through all His prophets and seers, the Lord warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹⁶He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings

¹⁷to turn a man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride,

¹⁶Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

¹⁷Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

²³but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

¹³So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, so that He might relent of the disaster He has pronounced against you.

³⁰When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. If you remove injustice from your tents

²¹Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

⁸But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.

⁹There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

²⁰But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

¹⁶This is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!”

²¹Again He said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”

²²So the Jews began to ask, “Will He kill Himself, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

⁸And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,

¹³“You must not bring the captives here,” they said, “for you are proposing to bring guilt upon us from the Lord and to add to our sins and our guilt. For our guilt is great, and fierce anger is upon Israel.”

⁹Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

⁴But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.

³²It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.

¹⁷No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.

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.

²³One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease.

²⁴His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow.

²⁴Then the Lord rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens.

²⁵Thus He destroyed these cities and the entire plain, including all the inhabitants of the cities and everything that grew on the ground.

¹⁰He opens their ears to correction and commands that they turn from iniquity.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁵In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered and set me free.

⁸You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.

¹⁹He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

⁵My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.

⁶On this mountain the Lord of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all the peoples, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine.

³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

³⁶If only Job were tried to the utmost for answering like a wicked man.

⁵But I would encourage you with my mouth, and the consolation of my lips would bring relief.

¹¹it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

⁸He keeps company with evildoers and walks with wicked men.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

²⁴to be gracious to him and say, ‘Spare him from going down to the Pit; I have found his ransom,’

¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

⁵The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.

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

⁸For the redemption of his soul is costly, and never can payment suffice,

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁴Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.

²¹Be assured that the wicked will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape.

¹³God does not restrain His anger; the helpers of Rahab cower beneath Him.

³Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days.

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

¹⁶No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.

²⁰They die in an instant, in the middle of the night. The people convulse and pass away; the mighty are removed without human hand.

²⁹Now at midnight the Lord struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.

²⁵Therefore, He recognizes their deeds; He overthrows them in the night and they are crushed.

³⁵And that very night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

¹³If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹⁸If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

²⁵He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.

¹⁷For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

²⁴Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

¹⁷If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king.

¹⁰Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.

⁵By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

¹³Then all your sons will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their prosperity.

¹⁶“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or informed Him as His counselor?

¹⁴Whom did He consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the paths of justice? Who imparted knowledge to Him and showed Him the way of understanding?

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

¹⁰Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.

¹¹In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

³and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!

¹⁰All You have made will give You thanks, O Lord, and Your saints will bless You.

¹¹They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might,

¹⁸Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

²Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.

³Splendid and majestic is His work; His righteousness endures forever.

⁴⁶Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,

⁵Since they show no regard for the works of the Lord or what His hands have done, He will tear them down and never rebuild them.

²Before the mountains were born or You brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

³Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

⁷Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know?

²⁷But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

¹²Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

⁵God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.

⁸who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.

⁹the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,

⁹You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.

¹⁰You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth.

⁵Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted, for the Lord God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

⁶But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

²⁰By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

¹²And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹¹He loads the clouds with moisture; He scatters His lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about, whirling at His direction, accomplishing all that He commands over the face of all the earth.

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

³He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth.

³The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is heard over many waters.

⁴The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

¹⁴Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

³The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²²and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on their right and on their left.

²⁸The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

⁹And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear.” And it was so.

¹¹He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.

¹²From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced—hailstones and coals of fire.

⁵He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.

⁶You covered it with the deep like a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

²⁵He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.

¹³Whether for punishment or for His land, He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.

¹⁷Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness: He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”

¹³He waters the mountains from His chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of His works.

¹⁴He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:

⁹You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth.

¹⁰You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth.

²⁷All creatures look to You to give them their food in due season.

²⁸When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

¹¹He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him.

⁸who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.

⁹He provides food for the animals, and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁵Do you know how God dispatches the clouds or makes the lightning flash?

⁸lightning and hail, snow and clouds, powerful wind fulfilling His word,

⁷He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon, spreading over it His cloud.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

²⁹Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

¹⁴The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

⁴¹And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”

⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.

²²Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best.

⁴The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

⁵Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.