Job 19; Job 20; Acts 9:23-43

Job 19

1 Then Job replied:

2 “How long will you torment me and crush me with words?

3 Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me.

4 If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone.

5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me,

6 then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.

7 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.

8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.

9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.

10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.

11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.

12 His troops advance in force; they build a siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has alienated my family from me; my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14 My relatives have gone away; my closest friends have forgotten me.

15 My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.

16 I summon my servant, but he does not answer, though I beg him with my own mouth.

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

18 Even the little boys scorn me; when I appear, they ridicule me.

19 All my intimate friends detest me; those I love have turned against me.

20 I am nothing but skin and bones; I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

23 “Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!

25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

28 “If you say, ‘How we will hound him, since the root of the trouble lies in him, ’

29 you should fear the sword yourselves; for wrath will bring punishment by the sword, and then you will know that there is judgment. ”

Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

2 “My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.

3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me, and my understanding inspires me to reply.

4 “Surely you know how it has been from of old, ever since mankind was placed on the earth,

5 that the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

6 Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds,

7 he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8 Like a dream he flies away, no more to be found, banished like a vision of the night.

9 The eye that saw him will not see him again; his place will look on him no more.

10 His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth.

11 The youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust.

12 “Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue,

13 though he cannot bear to let it go and lets it linger in his mouth,

14 yet his food will turn sour in his stomach; it will become the venom of serpents within him.

15 He will spit out the riches he swallowed; God will make his stomach vomit them up.

16 He will suck the poison of serpents; the fangs of an adder will kill him.

17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

18 What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.

19 For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.

20 “Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure.

21 Nothing is left for him to devour; his prosperity will not endure.

22 In the midst of his plenty, distress will overtake him; the full force of misery will come upon him.

23 When he has filled his belly, God will vent his burning anger against him and rain down his blows on him.

24 Though he flees from an iron weapon, a bronze-tipped arrow pierces him.

25 He pulls it out of his back, the gleaming point out of his liver. Terrors will come over him;

26 total darkness lies in wait for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

27 The heavens will expose his guilt; the earth will rise up against him.

28 A flood will carry off his house, rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.

29 Such is the fate God allots the wicked, the heritage appointed for them by God.”

Acts 9:23-43

23 After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him,

24 but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.

25 But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.

27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.

30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda.

33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years.

34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up.

35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor.

37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.

38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.

41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive.

42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.