Job 25; Job 26; Job 27; Acts 12

Job 25

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 Dominion and dread belong to Him, the One who establishes harmony in the heavens.

3 Can His troops be numbered? Does His light not shine on everyone?

4 How can a person be justified before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

5 If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in His sight,

6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!

Job 26

1 Then Job answered:

2 How you have helped the powerless and delivered the arm that is weak!

3 How you have counseled the unwise and thoroughly explained [the path to] success!

4 Who did you speak these words to? Whose breath came out of your [mouth]?

5 The departed spirits tremble beneath the waters and [all] that inhabit them.

6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

7 He stretches the northern [skies] over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.

8 He enfolds the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst beneath their weight.

9 He obscures the view of [His] throne, spreading His cloud over it.

10 He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

11 The pillars [that hold up] the sky tremble, astounded at His rebuke.

12 By His power He stirred the sea, and by His understanding He crushed Rahab.

13 By His breath the heavens gained their beauty; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

14 These are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the word we hear of Him! Who can understand His mighty thunder?

Job 27

1 Job continued his discourse, saying:

2 As God lives, who has deprived me of justice, and the Almighty who has made me bitter,

3 as long as my breath is still in me and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,

4 my lips will not speak unjustly, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5 I will never affirm that you are right. I will maintain my integrity until I die.

6 I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go. My conscience will not accuse [me] as long as I live!

7 May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.

8 For what hope does the godless man have when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?

9 Will God hear his cry when distress comes on him?

10 Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?

11 I will teach you about God's power. I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned.

12 All of you have seen [this] for yourselves, why do you keep up this empty talk?

13 This is a wicked man's lot from God, the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.

14 Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword; his descendants will never have enough food.

15 Those who survive him will be buried by the plague, yet their widows will not weep [for them].

16 Though he piles up silver like dust and heaps up a wardrobe like clay-

17 he may heap [it] up, but the righteous will wear [it], and the innocent will divide up his silver.

18 The house he built is like a moth's [cocoon] or a booth set up by a watchman.

19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, it is gone.

20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a storm wind sweeps him away at night.

21 An east wind picks him up, and he is gone; it carries him away from his place.

22 It blasts at him without mercy, while he flees desperately from its grasp.

23 It claps its hands at him and scorns him from its place.

Acts 12

1 About that time King Herod cruelly attacked some who belonged to the church,

2 and he killed James, John's brother, with the sword.

3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the days of Unleavened Bread.

4 After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover.

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church.

6 On the night before Herod was to bring him out [for execution], Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.

7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, "Quick, get up!" Then the chains fell off his wrists.

8 "Get dressed," the angel told him, "and put on your sandals." And he did so. "Wrap your cloak around you," he told him, "and follow me."

9 So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what took place through the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

10 After they passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and immediately the angel left him.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod's grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected."

12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying.

13 He knocked at the door in the gateway, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.

14 She recognized Peter's voice, and because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gateway.

15 "You're crazy!" they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true. Then they said, "It's his angel!"

16 Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded.

17 Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. "Report these things to James and the brothers," he said. Then he departed and went to a different place.

18 At daylight, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what could have become of Peter.

19 After Herod had searched and did not find him, he interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

20 He had been very angry with the Tyrians and Sidonians. Together they presented themselves before him, and having won over Blastus, who was in charge of the king's bedroom, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food from the king's country.

21 So on an appointed day, dressed in royal robes and seated on the throne, Herod delivered a public address to them.

22 The populace began to shout, "It's the voice of a god and not of a man!"

23 At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he became infected with worms and died.

24 Then God's message flourished and multiplied.

25 And Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem after they had completed their relief mission, on which they took John Mark.