Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, June 13 [Press play below]

21.1 Job said in reply:
21.2 “Listen carefully to what I say; Let this be the consolation you give me.
21.3 Bear with me while I speak; After I speak, you may then mock me.
21.4 Is my complaint directed toward a man? If it were, would I not lose patience?
21.5 Look at me and stare in amazement; Put your hand over your mouth.
21.6 When I think about it, I am disturbed, And my whole body shudders.
21.7 Why do the wicked live on, Grow old, and become wealthy?
21.8 Their children are always in their presence, And they get to see their descendants.
21.9 Their houses are secure, they are free from fear, And God does not punish them with his rod.
21.10 Their bulls breed without failure; Their cows give birth and do not miscarry.
21.11 Their boys run outside just like a flock, And their children skip about.
21.12 They sing accompanied by tambourine and harp And rejoice at the sound of the flute.
21.13 They spend their days in contentment And go down peacefully to the Grave.
21.14 But they say to the true God, ‘Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways.
21.15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by being acquainted with him?’
21.16 But I know that they do not control their own prosperity. The thinking of the wicked is far from me.
21.17 How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does disaster come upon them? How often does God deal out destruction to them in his anger?
21.18 Do they ever become like straw before the wind And like chaff that a storm wind carries away?
21.19 God will store up a man’s punishment for his own sons. But may God repay him so that he will know it.
21.20 May his own eyes see his ruin, And may he be the one to drink from the rage of the Almighty.
21.21 For what does he care about what happens to his house after him If the number of his months is cut short?
21.22 Can anyone teach knowledge to God, When He is the one who judges even the highest ones?
21.23 One man dies in his full vigor When he is completely carefree and at ease,
21.24 When his thighs are padded with fat And his bones are strong.
21.25 But another man dies deeply distressed, Never having tasted good things.
21.26 Together they will lie down in the dust, And maggots will cover both of them.
21.27 Look! I know exactly what you are thinking And the schemes you devise to wrong me.
21.28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prominent man, And where is the tent in which the wicked one lived?’
21.29 Have you not questioned travelers? Do you not carefully study their observations,
21.30 That an evil person is spared on the day of disaster And rescued on the day of fury?
21.31 Who will confront him about his way, And who will repay him for what he has done?
21.32 When he is carried to the graveyard, A vigil will be kept over his tomb.
21.33 The clods of earth of the valley will be sweet to him, And all mankind follows after him Like the countless number before him.
21.34 So why offer me meaningless comfort? There is nothing but deceit in your answers!”

22.1 Eliphaz the Temanite said in reply:
22.2 “Can a man be of use to God? Can anyone with insight be of benefit to him?
22.3 Does the Almighty care that you are righteous, Or does he gain anything because you follow the course of integrity?
22.4 Will he punish you And enter into judgment with you for your reverence?
22.5 Is it not because your own wickedness is so great And there is no end to your errors?
22.6 For you seize a pledge from your brothers for no reason, And you strip people of their garments, leaving them naked.
22.7 You do not give the tired one a drink of water, And you hold back food from the hungry.
22.8 The land belongs to the powerful man, And the favored one dwells in it.
22.9 But you sent away widows empty-handed, And you crushed the arms of fatherless children.
22.10 That is why you are surrounded by traps, And sudden terrors frighten you;
22.11 That is why it is so dark that you cannot see, And a flood of water covers you.
22.12 Is not God in the heights of heaven? And see how high all the stars are.
22.13 But you have said: ‘What does God really know? Can he judge through thick gloom?
22.14 Clouds screen him off so that he does not see As he walks about on the vault of heaven.’
22.15 Will you follow the ancient path That wicked men have walked,
22.16 Men who have been snatched away before their time, Whose foundation was washed away by a flood?
22.17 They were saying to the true God: ‘Leave us alone!’ And ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
22.18 Yet, he is the One who filled their houses with good things. (Such wicked thinking is far from my own.)
22.19 The righteous will see this and rejoice, And the innocent will mock them and say:
22.20 ‘Our opponents have been destroyed, And a fire will consume what is left of them.’
22.21 Get to know Him, and you will be at peace; Then good things will come your way.
22.22 Accept the law from his mouth, And keep his sayings in your heart.
22.23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove unrighteousness from your tent,
22.24 If you would throw your gold into the dust And the gold of Ophir into the rocky ravines,
22.25 Then the Almighty will become your gold, And he will be your choicest silver.
22.26 For then your delight will be in the Almighty, And you will lift up your face to God.
22.27 You will entreat him, and he will hear you; And your vows you will pay.
22.28 Whatever you decide to do will succeed, And light will shine upon your path.
22.29 For you will be humiliated when you speak arrogantly, But he will save the humble.
22.30 He will rescue those who are innocent; So if your hands are clean, you will certainly be rescued.”

23.1 Job said in reply:
23.2 “Even today I will complain stubbornly; My strength is exhausted because of my sighing.
23.3 If only I knew where to find God! I would go to his place of dwelling.
23.4 I would present my case before him And fill my mouth with arguments;
23.5 I would learn how he would answer me And take note of what he says to me.
23.6 Would he contend with me using his great power? No, surely he would give me a hearing.
23.7 There the upright one could set matters straight with him, And I would be acquitted once and for all by my Judge.
23.8 But if I go east, he is not there; And I return and I cannot find him.
23.9 When he is working on the left, I cannot look upon him; Then he turns to the right, but I still do not see him.
23.10 But he knows the path I have taken. After he has tested me, I will come out as pure gold.
23.11 My feet have closely followed his footsteps; I have kept to his way without deviating.
23.12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up his sayings even more than what was required of me.
23.13 When he is determined, who can resist him? When he wants to do something, he does it.
23.14 For he will carry out completely what has been determined for me, And he has many such things in store.
23.15 That is why I am anxious because of him; When I think about him, my fear grows.
23.16 God has made me fainthearted, And the Almighty has made me afraid.
23.17 But I have not yet been silenced by the darkness Nor by the gloom that has covered my face.

24.1 “Why does the Almighty not set a time? Why do those who know him not see his day?
24.2 People move boundary markers; They carry off flocks for their own pasture.
24.3 They drive away the donkey of fatherless children And seize the widow’s bull as security for a loan.
24.4 They force the poor off the road; The helpless of the earth must hide from them.
24.5 The poor forage for food like wild donkeys in the wilderness; They seek food in the desert for their children.
24.6 They must harvest in another’s field And glean from the vineyard of the wicked.
24.7 They spend the night naked, without clothing; They have no covering for the cold.
24.8 They are drenched by the mountain rains; They cling to the rocks for lack of shelter.
24.9 The fatherless child is snatched away from the breast; And the garments of the poor are taken as security for a loan,
24.10 Forcing them to go about naked, without clothing, And hungry, as they carry the sheaves of grain.
24.11 They toil among the terrace walls in the heat of the day; They tread the winepresses, yet they go thirsty.
24.12 The dying keep groaning in the city; The fatally wounded cry for help, But God does not regard this as improper.
24.13 There are those who rebel against light; They do not recognize its ways, And they do not follow its paths.
24.14 The murderer rises at daybreak; He slays the helpless and the poor, While at night he engages in theft.
24.15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, ‘No one will see me!’ And he covers his face.
24.16 In the darkness they break into houses; By day they shut themselves in. They are strangers to the light.
24.17 For morning is the same as deep darkness for them; They are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness.
24.18 But they are swiftly carried away by the waters. Their portion of the land will be cursed. They will not return to their vineyards.
24.19 Just as drought and heat take away the melted snow, The Grave takes away those who have sinned!
24.20 His mother will forget him; the maggot will feast on him. He will be remembered no more. And unrighteousness will be broken just like a tree.
24.21 He preys on the barren woman, And mistreats the widow.
24.22 God will use his strength to do away with the powerful; Though they may rise up, they have no assurance of life.
24.23 God lets them become confident and secure, But his eyes are on everything they do.
24.24 They are exalted for a little while, then they are no more. They are brought low and gathered like everyone else; They are cut off like heads of grain.
24.25 Now who can prove me a liar Or refute my word?”