Job 3; Job 4; Acts 7:44-60

1 Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.

2 O God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the night when I was conceived!

4 Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it.

5 Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.

6 Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again;

7 make it a barren, joyless night.

8 Tell the sorcerers to curse that day, those who know how to control Leviathan.

9 Keep the morning star from shining; give that night no hope of dawn.

10 Curse that night for letting me be born, for exposing me to trouble and grief.

11 I wish I had died in my mother's womb or died the moment I was born.

12 Why did my mother hold me on her knees? Why did she feed me at her breast?

13 If I had died then, I would be at rest now,

14 sleeping like the kings and rulers who rebuilt ancient palaces.

15 Then I would be sleeping like princes who filled their houses with gold and silver,

16 or sleeping like a stillborn child.

17 In the grave wicked people stop their evil, and tired workers find rest at last.

18 Even prisoners enjoy peace, free from shouts and harsh commands.

19 Everyone is there, the famous and the unknown, and slaves at last are free.

20 Why let people go on living in misery? Why give light to those in grief?

21 They wait for death, but it never comes; they prefer a grave to any treasure.

22 They are not happy till they are dead and buried;

23 God keeps their future hidden and hems them in on every side.

24 Instead of eating, I mourn, and I can never stop groaning.

25 Everything I fear and dread comes true.

26 I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end.

1 Job, will you be annoyed if I speak?

2 I can't keep quiet any longer.

3 You have taught many people and given strength to feeble hands.

4 When someone stumbled, weak and tired, your words encouraged him to stand.

5 Now it's your turn to be in trouble, and you are too stunned to face it.

6 You worshiped God, and your life was blameless; and so you should have confidence and hope.

7 Think back now. Name a single case where someone righteous met with disaster.

8 I have seen people plow fields of evil and plant wickedness like seed; now they harvest wickedness and evil.

9 Like a storm, God destroys them in his anger.

10 The wicked roar and growl like lions, but God silences them and breaks their teeth.

11 Like lions with nothing to kill and eat, they die, and all their children are scattered.

12 Once a message came quietly, so quietly I could hardly hear it.

13 Like a nightmare it disturbed my sleep.

14 I trembled and shuddered; my whole body shook with fear.

15 A light breeze touched my face, and my skin crawled with fright.

16 I could see something standing there; I stared, but couldn't tell what it was. Then I heard a voice out of the silence:

17 "Can anyone be righteous in the sight of God or be pure before his Creator?

18 God does not trust his heavenly servants; he finds fault even with his angels.

19 Do you think he will trust a creature of clay, a thing of dust that can be crushed like a moth?

20 We may be alive in the morning, but die unnoticed before evening comes.

21 All that we have is taken away; we die, still lacking wisdom."

44 "Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown.

45 Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David.

46 He won God's favor and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47 But it was Solomon who built him a house.

48 "But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says,

49 "Heaven is my throne, says the Lord, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house would you build for me? Where is the place for me to live in?

50 Did not I myself make all these things?'

51 "How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

52 Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

53 You are the ones who received God's law, that was handed down by angels - yet you have not obeyed it!"

54 As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger.

55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God.

56 "Look!" he said. "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!"

57 With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once,

58 threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul.

59 They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

60 He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!" He said this and died.