Job Laments His Birth
1 After this Job opened his mouth and rcursed sthe day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 t“Let the day perish on which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived.’
4 Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
nor light shine upon it.
5 Let ugloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
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.
7 Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
8 Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to vrouse up Leviathan.
9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it whope for light, but have none,
nor see the xeyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 yFor then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden zstillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the abitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has bhedged in?
24 For my sighing comes cinstead of1 my bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water.
25 For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
dI have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3 Behold, you have einstructed many,
and fyou have strengthened the weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.
6 gIs not your fear of God2 your confidence,
and the integrity of your ways your hope?
7 “Remember: hwho that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?
8 As I have seen, ithose who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.
9 By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
jthe teeth of the young lions are broken.
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily;
my ear received the whisper of it.
13 kAmid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
14 dread came upon me, and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.
15 A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh stood up.
16 It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence, then I heard a voice:
17 l‘Can mortal man be in the right before3 God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
18 Even in his servants he mputs no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;
19 nhow much more those who dwell in ohouses of clay,
whose foundation is in the pdust,
who are crushed like4 the moth.
20 Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces;
they qperish forever without anyone regarding it.
21 Is not their rtent-cord plucked up within them,
do they not die, and that without wisdom?’
44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, aaccording to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn bbrought it in with Joshua when they cdispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of dDavid, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and easked to find fa dwelling place for the God of Jacob.1 47 But it was gSolomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 h“‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, iuncircumcised in heart and jears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not kpersecute? And they lkilled those who mannounced beforehand the coming of the nRighteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by oangels and did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were penraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and qsaw the rglory of God, and Jesus sstanding at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see tthe heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the uright hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and vstopped their ears and rushed together2 at him. 58 Then they cast him wout of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, xreceive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, y“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell zasleep.
