Job 17; Job 18; Job 19; Acts 10:1-23

Job 17

1 My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

2 Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.

3 "Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?

4 Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.

5 Those who denounce friends for reward— the eyes of their children will fail.

6 "He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit.

7 My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.

8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.

9 Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10 But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you.

11 My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

12 They make night into day; "The light,' they say, "is near to the darkness.'

13 If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,

14 if I say to the Pit, "You are my father,' and to the worm, "My mother,' or "My sister,'

15 where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"

Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

2 "How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we shall speak.

3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?

4 You who tear yourself in your anger— shall the earth be forsaken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

5 "Surely the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of their fire does not shine.

6 The light is dark in their tent, and the lamp above them is put out.

7 Their strong steps are shortened, and their own schemes throw them down.

8 For they are thrust into a net by their own feet, and they walk into a pitfall.

9 A trap seizes them by the heel; a snare lays hold of them.

10 A rope is hid for them in the ground, a trap for them in the path.

11 Terrors frighten them on every side, and chase them at their heels.

12 Their strength is consumed by hunger, and calamity is ready for their stumbling.

13 By disease their skin is consumed, the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.

14 They are torn from the tent in which they trusted, and are brought to the king of terrors.

15 In their tents nothing remains; sulfur is scattered upon their habitations.

16 Their roots dry up beneath, and their branches wither above.

17 Their memory perishes from the earth, and they have no name in the street.

18 They are thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.

19 They have no offspring or descendant among their people, and no survivor where they used to live.

20 They of the west are appalled at their fate, and horror seizes those of the east.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of those who do not know God."

Job 19

1 Then Job answered:

2 "How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times you have cast reproach upon me; are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4 And even if it is true that I have erred, my error remains with me.

5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me, and make my humiliation an argument against me,

6 know then that God has put me in the wrong, and closed his net around me.

7 Even when I cry out, "Violence!' I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9 He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone, he has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11 He has kindled his wrath against me, and counts me as his adversary.

12 His troops come on together; they have thrown up siegeworks against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 "He has put my family far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;

15 the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.

16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer; I must myself plead with him.

17 My breath is repulsive to my wife; I am loathsome to my own family.

18 Even young children despise me; when I rise, they talk against me.

19 All my intimate friends abhor me, and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!

22 Why do you, like God, pursue me, never satisfied with my flesh?

23 "O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!

24 O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God,

27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

28 If you say, "How we will persecute him!' and, "The root of the matter is found in him';

29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment."

Acts 10:1-23

1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called.

2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God.

3 One afternoon at about three o'clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, "Cornelius."

4 He stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" He answered, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.

5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter;

6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside."

7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him,

8 and after telling them everything, he sent them to Joppa.

9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat; and while it was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners.

12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air.

13 Then he heard a voice saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat."

14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean."

15 The voice said to him again, a second time, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane."

16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

17 Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon's house and were standing by the gate.

18 They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there.

19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look, three men are searching for you.

20 Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them."

21 So Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?"

22 They answered, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say."

23 So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him.