Job 3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Job Curses the Day He Was Born
3 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job said:
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A male is conceived.’(A)
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it
or light shine on it.
5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds settle upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.(B)
6 That night—let thick darkness seize it!
let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.(C)
7 Yes, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry be heard[a] in it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the Sea,[b]
those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.(D)
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light but have none;
may it not see the eyelids of the morning—(E)
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb
and hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?(F)
12 Why were there knees to receive me
or breasts for me to suck?(G)
13 Now I would be lying down and quiet;
I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,(H)
15 or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the light?(I)
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.(J)
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slaves are free from their masters.
20 “Why is light given to one in misery
and life to the bitter in soul,(K)
21 who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;(L)
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?(M)
24 For my sighing comes like[c] my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.(N)
25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Psalm 139:1-14
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 139
The Inescapable God
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.(A)
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.(B)
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.(C)
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.(D)
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.(E)
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.(F)
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?(G)
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.(H)
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.(I)
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”[a](J)
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.(K)
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.(L)
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.(M)
Footnotes
- 139.11 Q ms: MT and the light around me become night
Romans 8:26-39
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[a] with groanings too deep for words.(A) 27 And God,[b] who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit[c] intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.(B)
28 We know that all things work together[d] for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.(C) 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.[e](D) 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.(E)
God’s Love in Christ Jesus
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?(F) 32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.(G) 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ[f] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.(H) 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”(I)
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.(J) 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,(K) 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Mark 5:1-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jesus Heals a Man Possessed by Demons
5 They came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him.(A) 3 He lived among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain, 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces, and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him,(B) 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”(C) 8 For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 Then Jesus[b] asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the region. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding, 12 and the unclean spirits[c] begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, stampeded down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea.
14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the man possessed by demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion, and they became frightened.(D) 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the man possessed by demons and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus[d] to leave their neighborhood.(E) 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But Jesus[e] refused and said to him, “Go home to your own people, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and what mercy he has shown you.” 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.(F)
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