Old/New Testament
Eliphaz’s Third Speech[a]
22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 “Is it to God that a strong man is of benefit?
Is it to him that even a wise man is profitable?[b]
3 Is it of any special benefit[c] to the Almighty
that you should be righteous,
or is it any gain to him
that you make your ways blameless?[d]
4 Is it because of your piety[e] that he rebukes you
and goes to judgment with you?[f]
5 Is not your wickedness great[g]
and is there no end to your iniquity?
6 “For you took pledges[h] from your brothers
for no reason,
and you stripped the clothing from the naked.[i]
7 You gave the weary[j] no water to drink
and from the hungry you withheld food.
8 Although you were a powerful man,[k] owning land,[l]
an honored man[m] living on it,[n]
9 you sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms[o] of the orphans you crushed.[p]
10 That is why snares surround you,
and why sudden fear terrifies you,
11 why it is so dark you cannot see,[q]
and why a flood[r] of water covers you.
12 “Is not God on high in heaven?[s]
And see[t] the lofty stars,[u] how high they are!
13 But you have said, ‘What does God know?
Does he judge through such deep darkness?[v]
14 Thick clouds are a veil for him, so he does not see us,[w]
as he goes back and forth
in the vault[x] of heaven.’[y]
15 Will you keep to the old path[z]
that evil men have walked—
16 men[aa] who were carried off[ab] before their time,[ac]
when the flood[ad] was poured out[ae]
on their foundations?[af]
17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’
and, ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’[ag]
18 But it was he[ah] who filled their houses
with good things—
yet the counsel of the wicked[ai]
was far from me.[aj]
19 The righteous see their destruction[ak] and rejoice;
the innocent mock them scornfully,[al] saying,
20 ‘Surely our enemies[am] are destroyed,
and fire consumes their wealth.’
21 “Reconcile yourself[an] with God,[ao]
and be at peace[ap] with him;
in this way your prosperity will be good.
22 Accept instruction[aq] from his mouth
and store up his words[ar] in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;[as]
if you remove wicked behavior far from your tent,
24 and throw[at] your gold[au] in the dust—
your gold[av] of Ophir
among the rocks in the ravines—
25 then the Almighty himself will be your gold,[aw]
and the choicest[ax] silver for you.
26 Surely then you will delight yourself[ay] in the Almighty,
and will lift up your face toward God.
27 You will pray to him and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows to him.[az]
28 Whatever you decide on[ba] a matter,
it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
29 When people are brought low[bb] and you say,
‘Lift them up!’[bc]
then he will save the downcast;[bd]
30 he will deliver even someone who is not innocent,[be]
who will escape[bf] through the cleanness of your hands.”
Job’s Reply to Eliphaz[bg]
23 Then Job answered:
2 “Even today my complaint is still bitter;[bh]
his[bi] hand is heavy despite[bj] my groaning.
3 O that I knew[bk] where I might find him,[bl]
that I could come[bm] to his place of residence![bn]
4 I would lay out my case[bo] before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know with what words[bp] he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend[bq] with me with great power?
No, he would only pay attention to me.[br]
7 There[bs] an upright person
could present his case[bt] before him,
and I would be delivered forever from my judge.
The Inaccessibility and Power of God
8 “If I go to the east, he is not there,
and to the west, yet I do not perceive him.
9 In the north[bu] when he is at work,[bv]
I do not see him;[bw]
when he turns[bx] to the south,
I see no trace of him.
10 But he knows the pathway that I take;[by]
if he tested me, I would come forth like gold.[bz]
11 My feet[ca] have followed[cb] his steps closely;
I have kept to his way and have not turned aside.[cc]
12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.[cd]
13 But he is unchangeable,[ce] and who can change[cf] him?
Whatever he[cg] has desired, he does.
14 For he fulfills his decree against me,[ch]
and many such things are his plans.[ci]
15 That is why I am terrified in his presence;
when I consider, I am afraid because of him.
16 Indeed, God has made my heart faint;[cj]
the Almighty has terrified me.
17 Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness,
because of the thick darkness
that covered my face.[ck]
The Apparent Indifference of God
24 “Why are times not appointed by[cl] the Almighty?[cm]
Why do those who know him not see his days?
2 Men[cn] move boundary stones;
they seize the flock and pasture them.[co]
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;
they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.
4 They turn the needy from the pathway,
and the poor of the land hide themselves together.[cp]
5 Like[cq] wild donkeys in the wilderness,
they[cr] go out to their labor[cs] seeking diligently for food;
the arid rift valley[ct] provides[cu] food for them and for their children.
6 They reap fodder[cv] in the field,
and glean[cw] in the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;
they have no covering against the cold.
8 They are soaked by mountain rains
and huddle[cx] in the rocks because they lack shelter.
9 The fatherless child is snatched[cy] from the breast,[cz]
the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.[da]
10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.[db]
11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;[dc]
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.[dd]
12 From the city the dying[de] groan,
and the wounded[df] cry out for help,
but God charges no one with wrongdoing.[dg]
13 There are those[dh] who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
14 Before daybreak[di] the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is[dj] like a thief.[dk]
15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking,[dl] ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
16 In the dark the robber[dm] breaks into houses,[dn]
but by day they shut themselves in;[do]
they do not know the light.[dp]
17 For all of them,[dq] the morning is to them like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
18 [dr] “You say,[ds] ‘He is foam[dt] on the face of the waters;[du]
their portion of the land is cursed
so that no one goes to their vineyard.[dv]
19 The drought[dw] as well as the heat
snatch up the melted snow;[dx]
so the grave[dy] snatches up the sinner.[dz]
20 The womb[ea] forgets him,
the worm feasts on him,
no longer will he be remembered.
Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.
21 He preys on[eb] the barren and childless woman,[ec]
and does not treat the widow well.
22 But God[ed] drags off the mighty by his power;
when God[ee] rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.[ef]
23 God[eg] may let them rest in a feeling of security,[eh]
but he is constantly watching[ei] all their ways.[ej]
24 They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone,[ek]
they are brought low[el] like all others, and gathered in,[em]
and like a head of grain they are cut off.’[en]
25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar
and reduce my words to nothing?”[eo]
Peter Defends His Actions to the Jerusalem Church
11 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles too had accepted[a] the word of God.[b] 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers[c] took issue with[d] him, 3 saying, “You went to[e] uncircumcised men and shared a meal with[f] them.” 4 But Peter began and explained it to them point by point,[g] saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision,[h] an object something like a large sheet descending,[i] being let down from heaven[j] by its four corners, and it came to me. 6 As I stared[k] I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles,[l] and wild birds.[m] 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; slaughter[n] and eat!’ 8 But I said, ‘Certainly not, Lord, for nothing defiled or ritually unclean[o] has ever entered my mouth!’ 9 But the voice replied a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not consider[p] ritually unclean!’ 10 This happened three times, and then everything was pulled up to heaven again. 11 At that very moment,[q] three men sent to me from Caesarea[r] approached[s] the house where we were staying.[t] 12 The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers[u] also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He informed us how he had seen an angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter, 14 who will speak a message[v] to you by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15 Then as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on[w] them just as he did[x] on us at the beginning.[y] 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord,[z] as he used to say,[aa] ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’[ab] 17 Therefore if God[ac] gave them the same gift[ad] as he also gave us after believing[ae] in the Lord Jesus Christ,[af] who was I to hinder[ag] God?” 18 When they heard this,[ah] they ceased their objections[ai] and praised[aj] God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance[ak] that leads to life even to the Gentiles.”[al]
Activity in the Church at Antioch
19 Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen[am] went as far as[an] Phoenicia,[ao] Cyprus,[ap] and Antioch,[aq] speaking the message[ar] to no one but Jews. 20 But there were some men from Cyprus[as] and Cyrene[at] among them who came[au] to Antioch[av] and began to speak to the Greeks[aw] too, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus. 21 The[ax] hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed[ay] turned[az] to the Lord. 22 A report[ba] about them came to the attention[bb] of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas[bc] to Antioch.[bd] 23 When[be] he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true[bf] to the Lord with devoted hearts,[bg] 24 because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people[bh] were brought to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.[bi] So[bj] for a whole year Barnabas and Saul[bk] met with the church and taught a significant number of people.[bl] Now it was in Antioch[bm] that the disciples were first called Christians.[bn]
Famine Relief for Judea
27 At that time[bo] some[bp] prophets[bq] came down[br] from Jerusalem to Antioch.[bs] 28 One of them, named Agabus, got up[bt] and predicted[bu] by the Spirit that a severe[bv] famine[bw] was about to come over the whole inhabited world.[bx] (This[by] took place during the reign of Claudius.)[bz] 29 So the disciples, each in accordance with his financial ability,[ca] decided[cb] to send relief[cc] to the brothers living in Judea. 30 They did so,[cd] sending their financial aid[ce] to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
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