Job 41; Job 42; Acts 16:22-40

1 Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie his tongue down with a rope?

2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3 Will he beg you for mercy or speak softly to you?

4 Will he make a covenant with you so that you can take him as a slave forever?

5 Can you play with him like a bird or put him on a leash for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain for him or divide him among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay a hand on him. You will remember the battle and never repeat it!

9 Any hope of [capturing] him proves false. Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?

10 No one is ferocious [enough] to rouse Leviathan; who then can stand against Me?

11 Who confronted Me, that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to Me.

12 I cannot be silent about his limbs, his power, and his graceful proportions.

13 Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can penetrate his double layer of armor?

14 Who can open his jaws, surrounded by those terrifying teeth?

15 [His] pride is in [his] rows of scales, closely sealed together.

16 One scale is so close to another that no air can pass between them.

17 They are joined to one another, so closely connected they cannot be separated.

18 His snorting flashes with light, while his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

19 Flaming torches shoot from his mouth; fiery sparks fly out!

20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot or [burning] reeds.

21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour out of his mouth.

22 Strength resides in his neck, and dismay dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh are joined together, solid as metal and immovable.

24 His heart is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!

25 When Leviathan rises, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw because of [his] thrashing.

26 The sword that reaches him will have no effect, nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.

27 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.

28 No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him.

29 A club is regarded as stubble, and he laughs at the whirring of a javelin.

30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.

31 He makes the depths seethe like a caldron; he makes the sea like an ointment jar.

32 He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!

33 He has no equal on earth- a creature devoid of fear!

34 He surveys everything that is haughty; he is king over all the proud beasts.

1 Then Job replied to the Lord:

2 I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

3 [You asked,] "Who is this who conceals [My] counsel with ignorance?" Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

4 [You said,] "Listen now, and I will speak. When I question you, you will inform Me."

5 I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You.

6 Therefore I take back [my words] and repent in dust and ashes.

7 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.

8 Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his [prayer] and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has."

9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's [prayer].

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his [previous] possessions.

11 All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. They offered him sympathy and comfort concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. Each one gave him a qesitah, and a gold earring.

12 So the Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the earlier. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 He also had seven sons and three daughters.

14 He named his first [daughter] Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch.

15 No women as beautiful as Job's daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.

16 Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

17 Then Job died, old and full of days.

22 Then the mob joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

23 After they had inflicted many blows on them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to keep them securely guarded.

24 Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose.

27 When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

28 But Paul called out in a loud voice, "Don't harm yourself, because all of us are here!"

29 Then the jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 Then he escorted them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household."

32 Then they spoke the message of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house.

33 He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized.

34 He brought them up into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had believed God with his entire household.

35 When daylight came, the chief magistrates sent the police to say, "Release those men!"

36 The jailer reported these words to Paul: "The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace."

37 But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to smuggle us out secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out!"

38 Then the police reported these words to the magistrates. And they were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

39 So they came and apologized to them, and escorting them out, they urged them to leave town.

40 After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia's house where they saw and encouraged the brothers, and departed.