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Job 30:1 “But now those younger than I hold me in derision, men whose fathers I wouldn’t even have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep. 2 What use to me was the strength in their hands? All their vigor had left them. 3 Worn out by want and hunger, they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation. 4 They pluck saltwort and bitter leaves; these, with broom tree roots, are their food. 5 They are driven away from society, with men shouting after them as after a thief, 6 to live in gullies and vadis, in holes in the ground and caves in the rocks. 7 Among the bushes they howl like beasts and huddle among the nettles, 8 irresponsible nobodies driven from the land. 9 “Now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword with them. 10 They loathe me, they stand aloof from me; they don’t hesitate to spit in my face! 11 For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me; they throw off restraint in my presence. 12 At my right the street urchins attack, pushing me from place to place, besieging me with their ways of destruction, 13 breaking up my path, furthering my calamity — even those who have no one to help them. 14 They move in as through a wide gap; amid the ruin they roll on in waves. 15 Terrors tumble over me, chasing my honor away like the wind; my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud. 16 “So now my life is ebbing away, days of grief have seized me. 17 At night pain pierces me to the bone, so that I never rest. 18 My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease]; they choke me like the collar of my coat. 19 [God] has thrown me into the mud; I have become like dust and ashes. 20 “I call out to you [God], but you don’t answer me; I stand up to plead, but you just look at me. 21 You have turned cruelly against me; with your powerful hand you keep persecuting me. 22 You snatch me up on the wind and make me ride it; you toss me about in the tempest. 23 For I know that you will bring me to death, the house assigned to everyone living. 24 “Surely [God] wouldn’t strike at a ruin, if in one’s calamity one cried out to him for help. 25 Didn’t I weep for those who were in trouble? Didn’t I grieve for the needy? 26 Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad; when I expected light, what came was darkness. 27 My insides are in turmoil; they can’t find rest; days of misery confront me. 28 I go about in sunless gloom, I rise in the assembly and cry for help. 29 I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin is black and falling off me, and my bones are burning with heat. 31 So my lyre is tuned for mourning, my pipe to the voice of those who weep. 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to let them lust after any girl. 2 “What share does God give from above? What is the heritage from Shaddai on high? 3 Isn’t it calamity to the unrighteous? disaster to those who do evil? 4 Doesn’t he see my ways and count all my steps? 5 “If I have gone along with falsehood, if my feet have hurried to deceit; 6 then let me be weighed on an honest scale, so that God will know my integrity. 7 “If my steps have wandered from the way, if my heart has followed my eyes, if the least dirt has stuck to my hands; 8 then let me sow and someone else eat, let what grows from my fields be uprooted. 9 “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door; 10 then let my wife grind for another man, and let others kneel on her. 11 For that would be a heinous act, a criminal offense, 12 a fire that would burn to the depths of Abaddon, uprooting all I produce. 13 “If I ever rejected my slave or slave-girl’s cause, when they brought legal action against me; 14 then what would I do if God stood up? Were he to intervene, what answer could I give? 15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make them too? Didn’t the same one shape us both before our birth? 16 “If I held back anything needed by the poor or made a widow’s eye grow dim [with tears], 17 or ate my portion of food by myself, without letting the orphan eat any of it — 18 No! From my youth he grew up with me as if with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother’s womb! — 19 or if I saw a traveler needing clothing, someone in need who had no covering, 20 who didn’t bless me from his heart for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep, 21 or if I lifted my hand against an orphan, knowing that no one would dare charge me in court; 22 then let my arm fall from its socket, and let my forearm be broken at the elbow! 23 For calamity from God has always terrified me; before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that]. 24 “If I made gold my hope, if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’ 25 if I took joy in my great wealth, in my having acquired so much; 26 or if, on seeing the shining sun or the full moon as it moved through the sky, 27 my heart was secretly seduced, so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand; 28 then this too would be a criminal offense, for I would have been lying to God on high. 29 “Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me? Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him? 30 No, I did not allow my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse. 31 “Was there anyone in my tent who didn’t say, ‘No one can find a single person whom he has not filled with his meat’? 32 No stranger had to sleep in the street; I kept my house open to the traveler. 33 “If I concealed my sins, as most people do, by hiding my wrongdoing in my heart, 34 from fear of general gossip or dread of some family’s contempt. keeping silent and not going outdoors — 35 I wish I had someone who would listen to me! Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me! I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written! 36 I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown. 37 I would declare to him every one of my steps; I would approach him like a prince. 38 “If my land cried out against me, if its furrows wept together, 39 if I ate its produce without paying or made its owners despair; 40 then let thistles grow instead of wheat and noxious weeds instead of barley! “The words of Iyov are finished.” Acts 13:26 “Brothers! — sons of Avraham and those among you who are ‘God-fearers’! It is to us that the message of this deliverance has been sent! 27 For the people living in Yerushalayim and their leaders did not recognize who Yeshua was or understand the message of the Prophets read every Shabbat, so they fulfilled that message by condemning him. 28 They could not find any legitimate ground for a death sentence; nevertheless they asked Pilate to have him executed; 29 and when they had carried out all the things written about him, he was taken down from the stake[Acts 13:29 Deuteronomy 21:23] and placed in a tomb. 30 “But God raised him from the dead! 31 He appeared for many days to those who had come up with him from the Galil to Yerushalayim; and they are now his witnesses to the people. 32 “As for us, we are bringing you the Good News that what God promised to the fathers, 33 he has fulfilled for us the children in raising up Yeshua, as indeed it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’[Acts 13:33 Psalm 2:7] 34 And as for his raising him up from the dead, to return to decay no more, he said, ‘I will give the holy and trustworthy things of David to you.’[Acts 13:34 Isaiah 55:3] 35 This is explained elsewhere: ‘You will not let your Holy One see decay.’[Acts 13:35 Psalm 16:10] 36 For David did indeed serve God’s purposes in his own generation; but after that, he died, was buried with his fathers and did see decay. 37 However, the one God raised up did not see decay. 38 “Therefore, brothers, let it be known to you that through this man is proclaimed forgiveness of sins! 39 That is, God clears everyone who puts his trust in this man, even in regard to all the things concerning which you could not be cleared by the Torah of Moshe. 40 “Watch out, then, so that this word found in the Prophets may not happen to you: 41 ‘You mockers! Look, and marvel, and die! For in your own time, I am doing a work that you simply will not believe, even if someone explains it to you!’ ”[Acts 13:41 Habakkuk 1:5] 42 As they left, the people invited Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba to tell them more about these matters the following Shabbat. 43 When the synagogue meeting broke up, many of the born Jews and devout proselytes followed Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba, who spoke with them and urged them to keep holding fast to the love and kindness of God. 44 The next Shabbat, nearly the whole city gathered together to hear the message about the Lord; 45 but when the Jews who had not believed saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and spoke up against what Sha’ul was saying and insulted him. 46 However, Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba answered boldly: “It was necessary that God’s word be spoken first to you. But since you are rejecting it and are judging yourselves unworthy of eternal life — why, we’re turning to the Goyim! 47 For that is what Adonai has ordered us to do: ‘I have set you as a light for the Goyim, to be for deliverance to the ends of the earth.’ ”[Acts 13:47 Isaiah 49:6] 48 The Gentiles were very happy to hear this. They honored the message about the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life came to trust. 49 And the message about the Lord was carried throughout the whole region. 50 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the women ‘God-fearers’ of high social standing and the leading men of the city, and they organized persecution against Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba and expelled them from their district. 51 However, Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba shook off the dust of their feet against them and went on to Iconium; 52 and the talmidim were filled with joy and with the Ruach HaKodesh. |
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