The Lord Answers Job
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the swhirlwind and said:
2 t“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 uDress for action1 like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its vmeasurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or wwho shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and xprescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, y‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and zhere shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12 “Have you acommanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
and its features stand out like a garment.
15 From the wicked their blight is withheld,
and their uplifted arm is cbroken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 You know, for dyou were born then,
and the number of your days is great!
22 “Have you entered the estorehouses of the snow,
or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
for the day of battle and war?
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain
and a fway for the thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no man is,
on the desert in which there is no man,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
and to make the ground sprout with grass?
28 “Has the rain a father,
or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the gice come forth,
and who has given birth to the hfrost of heaven?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of ithe Pleiades
or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth2 in their season,
or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the jordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
that ka flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom lin the inward parts3
or given munderstanding to the mind?4
37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods stick fast together?
39 “Can you hunt the prey nfor the lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens
or lie in wait in their thicket?
41 oWho provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God for help,
and wander about for lack of food?
Book Two
Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil1 of the sSons of Korah.
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 tMy soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and uappear before God?2
3 vMy tears have been my food
day and night,
while they wsay to me all the day long,
x“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I ypour out my soul:
how I would go zwith the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 aWhy are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation3 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
ball your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at cnight his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I dgo mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Ezra Prays About Intermarriage
1 After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not aseparated themselves from the peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. 2 For they have btaken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race1 has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this cfaithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” 3 As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and dpulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. 4 Then all who etrembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the fevening sacrifice. 5 And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, 6 saying:
“O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for gour iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted hup to the heavens. 7 From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 8 But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to ileave us a jremnant and to give us a secure hold2 within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For kwe are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has lextended to us his steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection3 in Judea and Jerusalem.
10 “And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which you commanded by myour servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is a land impure with the nimpurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their ouncleanness. 12 Therefore pdo not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and qnever seek their peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13 And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14 shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape? 15 O Lord, the God of Israel, ryou are just, for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.”
1 The aoracle that bHabakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk’s Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3 Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4 So the law is paralyzed,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord’s Answer
5 c“Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For dI am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told.
6 For behold, I am raising up the eChaldeans,
that bitter and hasty nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth,
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
8 Their fhorses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an geagle swift to devour.
9 They all come for violence,
all their faces forward.
They gather captives like sand.
10 At kings they scoff,
and at rulers they laugh.
They laugh at every fortress,
for they pile up earth and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk’s Second Complaint
12 Are you not hfrom everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O iRock, have established them for reproof.
13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
jwhy do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15 kHe1 brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,2
and his food is rich.
17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
Wives and Husbands
1 Likewise, lwives, mbe subject to your own husbands, so that neven if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and opure conduct. 3 pDo not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the qhidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, rcalling him lord. And syou are ther children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
7 Likewise, uhusbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are vheirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake
8 Finally, all of you, have wunity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a xtender heart, and a yhumble mind. 9 zDo not repay evil for evil or areviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that byou may obtain a blessing. 10 For
c“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
11 let him turn away from evil and do good;
dlet him eseek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
13 Now fwho is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be gblessed. hHave no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, ialways being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, jso that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than kfor doing evil.
18 For lChrist also suffered2 once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, mthat he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 nin which3 he went and proclaimed4 to the spirits in prison, 20 because5 they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, owhile the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 pBaptism, which corresponds to this, qnow saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the rright hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
