JOB 7

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Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope7:1

“Has not man a hard service on earth,

and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? 2

Like a slave who longs for the shadow,

and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, 3

so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me. 4

When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn. 5

My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh. 6

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.
7

“Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will never again see good. 8

The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. 9

As the cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; 10

he returns no more to his house,

nor does his place know him anymore.
11

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12

Am I the sea, or a sea monster,

that you set a guard over me? 13

When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’ 14

then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions, 15

so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my bones. 16

I loathe my life; I would not live forever.

Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. 17

What is man, that you make so much of him,

and that you set your heart on him, 18

visit him every morning

and test him every moment? 19

How long will you not look away from me,

nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit? 20

If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?

Why have you made me your mark?

Why have I become a burden to you? 21

Why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in the earth;

you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

JOB 8

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Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent  8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2

“How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a great wind? 3

Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4

If your children have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression. 5

If you will seek God

and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6

if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will rouse himself for you

and restore your rightful habitation. 7

And though your beginning was small,

your latter days will be very great.
8

“For inquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what the fathers have searched out. 9

For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are a shadow. 10

Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?
11

“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water? 12

While yet in flower and not cut down,

they wither before any other plant. 13

Such are the paths of all who forget God;

the hope of the godless shall perish. 14

His confidence is severed,

and his trust is a spider’s web. 15

He leans against his house, but it does not stand;

he lays hold of it, but it does not endure. 16

He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his shoots spread over his garden. 17

His roots entwine the stone heap;

he looks upon a house of stones. 18

If he is destroyed from his place,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’ 19

Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of the soil others will spring.
20

“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers. 21

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting. 22

Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

PROVERBS 8

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The Blessings of Wisdom8:1

Does not wisdom call?

Does not understanding raise her voice? 2

On the heights beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand; 3

beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: 4

“To you, O men, I call,

and my cry is to the children of man. 5

O simple ones, learn prudence;

O fools, learn sense. 6

Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what is right, 7

for my mouth will utter truth;

wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8

All the words of my mouth are righteous;

there is nothing twisted or crooked in them. 9

They are all straight to him who understands,

and right to those who find knowledge. 10

Take my instruction instead of silver,

and knowledge rather than choice gold, 11

for wisdom is better than jewels,

and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
12

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

and I find knowledge and discretion. 13

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

and perverted speech I hate. 14

I have counsel and sound wisdom;

I have insight; I have strength. 15

By me kings reign,

and rulers decree what is just; 16

by me princes rule,

and nobles, all who govern justly. 17

I love those who love me,

and those who seek me diligently find me. 18

Riches and honor are with me,

enduring wealth and righteousness. 19

My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,

and my yield than choice silver. 20

I walk in the way of righteousness,

in the paths of justice, 21

granting an inheritance to those who love me,

and filling their treasuries.
22

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of old. 23

Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth. 24

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water. 25

Before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth, 26

before he had made the earth with its fields,

or the first of the dust of the world. 27

When he established the heavens, I was there;

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28

when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep, 29

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30

then I was beside him, like a master workman,

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always, 31

rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the children of man.
32

“And now, O sons, listen to me:

blessed are those who keep my ways. 33

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it. 34

Blessed is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors. 35

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the Lord, 36

but he who fails to find me injures himself;

all who hate me love death.”

LUKE 14

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Healing of a Man on the Sabbath  14:1 One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2 And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3 And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5 And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6 And they could not reply to these things. The Parable of the Wedding Feast7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The Parable of the Great Banquet12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
    15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” The Cost of Discipleship25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Salt Without Taste Is Worthless34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”