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

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Job 3

1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

3 "Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night that said, "A man-child is conceived.'

4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, or light shine on it.

5 Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds settle upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 That night—let thick darkness seize it! let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Yes, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it.

8 Let those curse it who curse the Sea, those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.

9 Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none; may it not see the eyelids of the morning—

10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, and hide trouble from my eyes.

11 "Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?

12 Why were there knees to receive me, or breasts for me to suck?

13 Now I would be lying down and quiet; I would be asleep; then I would be at rest

14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuild ruins for themselves,

15 or with princes who have gold, who fill their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like an infant that never sees the light?

17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

18 There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.

19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are free from their masters.

20 "Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

21 who long for death, but it does not come, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;

22 who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grave?

23 Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in?

24 For my sighing comes like my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.

25 Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.

26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest; but trouble comes."

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Job 4

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

2 "If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended? But who can keep from speaking?

3 See, you have instructed many; you have strengthened the weak hands.

4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.

5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.

6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

7 "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?

8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

9 By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken.

11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

12 "Now a word came stealing to me, my ear received the whisper of it.

13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals,

14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh bristled.

16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:

17 "Can mortals be righteous before God? Can human beings be pure before their Maker?

18 Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;

19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth.

20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed; they perish forever without any regarding it.

21 Their tent-cord is plucked up within them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'

Acts 7:44-60

44 "Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

45 Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,

46 who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,

49 "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

50 Did not my hand make all these things?'

51 "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

53 You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."

54 When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.

55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

56 "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.

58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.