Day 152: Job 2 - 6
Bible in a year reading for day 152.
Job 2
- 5 But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
- 6 “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”
- 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
- 8 And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.
- 9 Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
- 10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
- 11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.
- 12 When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head.
- 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
Job 3
- 1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
- 2 And this is what he said:
- 3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’
- 4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
- 5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
- 6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year; may it never be entered in any of the months.
- 7 Behold, may that night be barren; may no joyful voice come into it.
- 8 May it be cursed by those who curse the day— those prepared to rouse Leviathan.
- 9 May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.
- 10 For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- 11 Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?
- 12 Why were there knees to receive me, and breasts that I should be nursed?
- 13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest
- 14 with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,
- 15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.
- 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
- 17 There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.
- 18 The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
- 19 Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.
- 20 Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
- 21 who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,
- 22 who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?
- 23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- 24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- 25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
- 26 I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”
Job 4
- 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
- 2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking?
- 3 Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands.
- 4 Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
- 5 But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
- 6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
- 7 Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed?
- 8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who 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 lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.
- 11 The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
- 12 Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it.
- 13 In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
- 14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder.
- 15 Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled.
- 16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:
- 17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
- 18 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error,
- 19 how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
- 20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever.
- 21 Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’
Job 5
- 1 “Call out if you please, but who will answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
- 2 For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.
- 3 I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
- 4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- 5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- 6 For distress does not spring from the dust, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
- 7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
- 8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and lay my cause before Him—
- 9 the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
- 10 He gives rain to the earth and sends water upon the fields.
- 11 He sets the lowly on high, so that mourners are lifted to safety.
- 12 He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- 13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.
- 14 They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.
- 15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful.
- 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
- 17 Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
- 18 For He wounds, but He also binds; He strikes, but His hands also heal.
- 19 He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
- 20 In famine He will redeem you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.
- 21 You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and will not fear havoc when it comes.
- 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth.
- 23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
- 24 You will know that your tent is secure, and find nothing amiss when inspecting your home.
- 25 You will know that your offspring will be many, your descendants like the grass of the earth.
- 26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.
- 27 Indeed, we have investigated, and it is true! So hear it and know for yourself.”