Job’s Summary Defense
1 dAnd Job again took up his discourse, and said:
2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when ehis lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime,1
when the ffriendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my gchildren were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with hbutter,
and the rock poured out for me istreams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;
9 the princes refrained from talking
and jlaid their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their ktongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 lbecause I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the mfatherless who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 nI oput on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17 I pbroke the qfangs of the unrighteous
and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days ras the sand,
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches,
20 my glory fresh with me,
and my bow ever new in my hand.’
21 “Men listened to me and waited
and kept silence for my counsel.
22 After I spoke they did not speak again,
and my word dropped upon them.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
and the slight of my face they did not cast down.
25 I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived tlike a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
1 fShout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
gPraise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
hmake melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with iloud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
jthe earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 kBy the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 lHe gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
mhe puts the deeps in storehouses.
8 nLet all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 oThe Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
phe frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 qBlessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
16 The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 uThe war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18 Behold, the veye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who whope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive xin famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our yshield.
21 For our heart is zglad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your asteadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Judah’s Decline
1 iThe people of the land took jJehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent1 of gold. 4 kAnd the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco ltook Jehoahaz his brother and carried him mto Egypt.
5 nJehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He odid what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. 6 pAgainst him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and qbound him in chains to take him to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried part of the rvessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. 8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations that he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
9 sJehoiachin was eighteen2 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He tdid what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and umade his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 vZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He wdid what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. xHe did not yhumble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 13 zHe also arebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, bwho had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, cfollowing all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent dpersistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept emocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
Jerusalem Captured and Burned
17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the fvessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they gburned the house of God and hbroke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons iuntil the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 jto fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed kits Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill lseventy years.
The Proclamation of Cyrus
22 mNow in the first year of nCyrus king of Persia, othat the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, phas given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and qhe has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’”
Woe to the Oppressors
1 Woe to those who qdevise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
and rhouses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,1
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
sfor it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day they shall ttake up a taunt song against you
and moan bitterly,
and say, u“We are utterly ruined;
he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the Lord.
6 v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Has the Lord grown impatient?2
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.3
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go,
for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
whe would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will xgather the yremnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the Lord at their head.
Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also ylay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us zrun with aendurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the bfounder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him cendured the cross, despising the shame, and is dseated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Do Not Grow Weary
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or efainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the fexhortation that addresses you as sons?
g“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For hthe Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. iGod is treating you as sons. For jwhat son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father kof spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that lwe may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the mpeaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been ntrained by it.
12 Therefore olift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 pStrive for peace with everyone, and for the qholiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no r“root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is ssexually immoral or unholy like Esau, twho sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that uafterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
18 For you have not come to what may be touched, va blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the wsound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers xbeg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, y“If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, z“I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount aZion and to the bcity of the cliving God, the dheavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly1 of the firstborn who are eenrolled in heaven, and to God, the fjudge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous gmade perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the hmediator of a inew covenant, and to the jsprinkled blood that speaks a better word than kthe blood of lAbel.
25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not mescape when they refused him who warned them on earth, nmuch less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 oAt that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, p“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a qkingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for rour God is a consuming fire.
