Job 22; Job 23; Job 24; Acts 11

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Job 22

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Can a man be of [any] use to God? Can even a wise man be of use to Him?
3 Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous? Does He profit if you perfect your behavior?
4 Does He correct you and take you to court because of your piety?
5 Isn't your wickedness abundant and aren't your iniquities endless?
6 For you took collateral from your brothers without cause, stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
7 You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished,
8 while the land belonged to a powerful man and an influential man lived on it.
9 You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
10 Therefore snares surround you, and sudden dread terrifies you,
11 or darkness, so you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
12 Isn't God as high as the heavens? And look at the highest stars-how lofty they are!
13 Yet you say: "What does God know? Can He judge through thick darkness?
14 Clouds veil Him so that He cannot see, as He walks on the circle of the sky."
15 Will you continue on the ancient path that wicked men have walked?
16 They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were washed away by a river.
17 They were the ones who said to God, "Leave us alone!" and "What can the Almighty do to us?"
18 But it was He who filled their houses with good things. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
19 The righteous see [this] and rejoice; the innocent mock them, [saying],
20 "Surely our opponents are destroyed, and fire has consumed what they left behind."
21 Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.
22 Receive instruction from His mouth, and place His sayings in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed. If you banish injustice from your tent
24 and consign your gold to the dust, [the gold of] Ophir to the stones in the wadis,
25 the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver.
26 Then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.
27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.
28 When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.
29 When others are humiliated and you say, "Lift [them] up," God will save the humble.
30 He will [even] rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Job 23

1 Then Job answered:
2 Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
3 If only I knew how to find Him, so that I could go to His throne.
4 I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn how He would answer me; and understand what He would say to me.
6 Would He prosecute me forcefully? No, He will certainly pay attention to me.
7 There an upright man could reason with Him, and I would escape from my Judge forever.
8 If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot perceive Him.
9 When He is at work to the north, I cannot see Him; when He turns south, I cannot find Him.
10 Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.
11 My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept to His way and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily food.
13 But He is unchangeable; who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.
14 He will certainly accomplish what He has decreed for me, and He has many more things like these in mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider [this], I am afraid of Him.
16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
17 Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Job 24

1 Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why do those who know Him never see His days?
2 The wicked displace boundary markers. They steal a flock and provide pasture for [it].
3 They drive away the donkeys [owned] by the fatherless and take the widow's ox as collateral.
4 They push the needy off the road; the poor of the land are forced into hiding.
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go out to their task of foraging for food; the wilderness provides nourishment for their children.
6 They gather their fodder in the field and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked, having no covering against the cold.
8 Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.
9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.
10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry.
11 They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
12 From the city, men groan; the mortally wounded cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.
13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.
14 The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief.
15 The adulterer's eye watches for twilight, thinking: No eye will see me, he covers [his] face.
16 In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light.
17 For the morning is like death's shadow to them. Surely they are familiar with the terrors of death's shadow!
18 They float on the surface of the water. Their section of the land is cursed, so that they never go to [their] vineyards.
19 As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow, so Sheol [steals] those who have sinned.
20 The womb forgets them; worms feed on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.
21 They prey on the barren, childless woman and do not deal kindly with the widow.
22 Yet God drags away the mighty by His power; when He rises up, they have no assurance of life.
23 He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely [on it], but His eyes [watch] over their ways.
24 They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. They wither like heads of grain.
25 If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar and show that my speech is worthless?
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Acts 11

1 The apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had welcomed God's message also.
2 When Peter went up to Jerusalem, those who stressed circumcision argued with him,
3 saying, "You visited uncircumcised men and ate with them!"
4 Peter began to explain to them in an orderly sequence, saying:
5 "I was in the town of Joppa praying, and I saw, in a visionary state, an object coming down that resembled a large sheet being lowered from heaven by its four corners, and it came to me.
6 When I looked closely and considered it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild beasts, the reptiles, and the birds of the sky.
7 Then I also heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat!'
8 " 'No, Lord!' I said. 'For nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth!'
9 But a voice answered from heaven a second time, 'What God has made clean, you must not call common.'
10 "Now this happened three times, and then everything was drawn up again into heaven.
11 At that very moment, three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were.
12 Then the Spirit told me to go with them with no doubts at all. These six brothers accompanied me, and we went into the man's house.
13 He reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa, and call for Simon, who is also named Peter.
14 He will speak words to you by which you and all your household will be saved.'
15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came down on them, just as on us at the beginning.
16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
17 Therefore, if God gave them the same gift that He also gave to us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, how could I possibly hinder God?"
18 When they heard this they became silent. Then they glorified God, saying, "So God has granted repentance resulting in life to even the Gentiles!"
19 Those who had been scattered as a result of the persecution that started because of Stephen made their way as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one except Jews.
20 But there were some of them, Cypriot and Cyrenian men, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Hellenists, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.
21 The Lord's hand was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.
22 Then the report about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to travel as far as Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he encouraged all of them to remain true to the Lord with a firm resolve of the heart-
24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith-and large numbers of people were added to the Lord.
25 Then he went to Tarsus to search for Saul,
26 and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
27 In those days some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine throughout the Roman world. This took place during the time of Claudius. 41-54; there was a famine a.d. 47-48.
29 So each of the disciples, according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea.
30 This they did, sending it to the elders by means of Barnabas and Saul.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.