Job 10; Job 11; Job 12; Acts 8:1-25

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Job 10

1 “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty, but tell me what charges you have against me.

3 Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked?

4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a mortal sees?

5 Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a strong man,

6 that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin—

7 though you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand?

8 “Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?

9 Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?

10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese,

11 clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews?

12 You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.

13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart, and I know that this was in your mind:

14 If I sinned, you would be watching me and would not let my offense go unpunished.

15 If I am guilty—woe to me! Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction.

16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion and again display your awesome power against me.

17 You bring new witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me; your forces come against me wave upon wave.

18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.

19 If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

20 Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy

21 before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness,

22 to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”

Job 11

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

2 “Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated?

3 Will your idle talk reduce others to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock?

4 You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’

5 Oh, how I wish that God would speak, that he would open his lips against you

6 and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.

7 “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

8 They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?

9 Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.

10 “If he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him?

11 Surely he recognizes deceivers; and when he sees evil, does he not take note?

12 But the witless can no more become wise than a wild donkey’s colt can be born human.

13 “Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,

14 if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,

15 then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear.

16 You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by.

17 Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning.

18 You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.

19 You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.

20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; their hope will become a dying gasp.”

Job 12

1 Then Job replied:

2 “Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!

3 But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?

4 “I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered— a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!

5 Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.

6 The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure— those God has in his hand.

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;

8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.

9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

11 Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?

12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?

13 “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

14 What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released.

15 If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.

16 To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his.

17 He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.

18 He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist.

19 He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long established.

20 He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.

21 He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.

22 He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.

23 He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.

24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste.

25 They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.

Acts 8:1-25

1 And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.

3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there.

6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.

7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

8 So there was great joy in that city.

9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,

10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”

11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery.

12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria.

15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,

16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money

19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart.

23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.