Job 3; John 15; John 16; Job 4; Job 5

Job 3

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

2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’

4 That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.

5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.

6 That night—may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months.

7 May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.

8 May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

9 May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,

10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?

12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?

13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,

15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?

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

18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.

19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,

21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?

23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.

25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

John 15

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunesso that it will be even more fruitful.

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command.

15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

17 This is my command: Love each other.

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.

25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.

27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16

1 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.

2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,

5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’

6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;

10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?

20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.

30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.

32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Job 4

1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?

3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands.

4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.

5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed.

6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?

7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.

9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.

10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.

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

12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.

13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,

14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.

15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end.

16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:

17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?

18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error,

19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!

20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.

21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

Job 5

1 “Call if you will, but who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

2 Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

3 I myself have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.

4 His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.

5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from among thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

6 For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground.

7 Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.

9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.

10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside.

11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.

13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night.

15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.

16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.

19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you.

20 In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword.

21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes.

22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals.

23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.

25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.

27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”