JOB 7

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Job’s Life Seems Futile7:1 “Is not man forced to labor on earth,

And are not his days like the days of a hired man?

2 “As a slave who pants for the shade,

And as a hired man who eagerly waits for his wages,

3 So am I allotted months of vanity,

And nights of trouble are appointed me.

4 “When I lie down I say,

‘When shall I arise?’

But the night continues,

And I am continually tossing until dawn.

5 “My flesh is clothed with worms and a crust of dirt,

My skin hardens and runs.

6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And come to an end without hope.

7 “Remember that my life is but breath;

My eye will not again see good.

8 “The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer;

Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

9 “When a cloud vanishes, it is gone,

So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

10 “He will not return again to his house,

Nor will 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 the sea monster,

That You set a guard over me?

13 “If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

My couch will ease my complaint,’

14 Then You frighten me with dreams

And terrify me by visions;

15 So that my soul would choose suffocation,

Death rather than my pains.

16 “I waste away; I will not live forever.

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

17 “What is man that You magnify him,

And that You are concerned about him,

18 That You examine him every morning

And try him every moment?

19 “Will You never turn Your gaze away from me,

Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

20 “Have I sinned? What have I done to You,

O watcher of men?

Why have You set me as Your target,

So that I am a burden to myself?

21 “Why then do You not pardon my transgression

And take away my iniquity?

For now I will lie down in the dust;

And You will seek me, but I will not be.”

JOB 8

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Bildad Says God Rewards the Good  8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2 “How long will you say these things,

And the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

3 “Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?

4 “If your sons sinned against Him,

Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression.

5 “If you would seek God

And implore the compassion of the Almighty,

6 If you are pure and upright,

Surely now He would rouse Himself for you

And restore your righteous estate.

7 “Though your beginning was insignificant,

Yet your end will increase greatly.

8 “Please inquire of past generations,

And consider the things searched out by their fathers.

9 “For we are only of yesterday and know nothing,

Because our days on earth are as a shadow.

10 “Will they not teach you and tell you,

And bring forth words from their minds?

11 “Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?

Can the rushes grow without water?

12 “While it is still green and not cut down,

Yet it withers before any other plant.

13 “So are the paths of all who forget God;

And the hope of the godless will perish,

14 Whose confidence is fragile,

And whose trust a spider’s web.

15 “He trusts in his house, but it does not stand;

He holds fast to it, but it does not endure.

16 “He thrives before the sun,

And his shoots spread out over his garden.

17 “His roots wrap around a rock pile,

He grasps a house of stones.

18 “If he is removed from his place,

Then it will deny him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’

19 “Behold, this is the joy of His way;

And out of the dust others will spring.

20 “Lo, God will not reject a man of integrity,

Nor will He support the 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 longer.”

PROVERBS 8

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The Commendation of Wisdom8:1 Does not wisdom call,

And understanding lift up her voice?

2 On top of the heights beside the way,

Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

3 Beside the gates, at the opening to the city,

At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:

4 “To you, O men, I call,

And my voice is to the sons of men.

5 “O naive ones, understand prudence;

And, O fools, understand wisdom.

6 “Listen, for I will speak noble things;

And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.

7 “For my mouth will utter truth;

And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

8 “All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness;

There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

9 “They are all straightforward to him who understands,

And right to those who find knowledge.

10 “Take my instruction and not silver,

And knowledge rather than choicest gold.

11 “For wisdom is better than jewels;

And all desirable things cannot compare with her.

12 “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,

And I find knowledge and discretion.

13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;

Pride and arrogance and the evil way

And the perverted mouth, I hate.

14 “Counsel is mine and sound wisdom;

I am understanding, power is mine.

15 “By me kings reign,

And rulers decree justice.

16 “By me princes rule, and nobles,

All who judge rightly.

17 “I love those who love me;

And those who diligently seek me will find me.

18 “Riches and honor are with me,

Enduring wealth and righteousness.

19 “My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold,

And my yield better than choicest silver.

20 “I walk in the way of righteousness,

In the midst of the paths of justice,

21 To endow those who love me with wealth,

That I may fill their treasuries.

22 “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,

Before His works of old.

23 “From everlasting I was established,

From the beginning, from the earliest times 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 were settled,

Before the hills I was brought forth;

26 While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,

Nor the first dust of the world.

27 “When He established the heavens, I was there,

When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

28 When He made firm the skies above,

When the springs of the deep became fixed,

29 When He set for the sea its boundary

So that the water would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth;

30 Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

31 Rejoicing in the world, His earth,

And having my delight in the sons of men.

32 “Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,

For blessed are they who keep my ways.

33 “Heed instruction and be wise,

And do not neglect it.

34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at my doorposts.

35 “For he who finds me finds life

And obtains favor from the LORD.

36 “But he who sins against me injures himself;

All those who hate me love death.”

LUKE 14

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Jesus Heals on the Sabbath  14:1 It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. 2 And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away. 5 And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” 6 And they could make no reply to this.
Parable of the Guests    7 And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. 10 But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    12 And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
    15 When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
Parable of the Dinner16 But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17 and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ 19 Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ 20 Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”
Discipleship Tested    25 Now large crowds were going along with 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 carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
    34 “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? 35 It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”