Job 38; Job 39; Job 40; Acts 16:1-21

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Job 38

1 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

2 Who is this darkening counsel with words lacking knowledge?

3 Prepare yourself like a man; I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me if you know.

5 Who set its measurements? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring tape on it?

6 On what were its footings sunk; who laid its cornerstone,

7 while the morning stars sang in unison and all the divine beings shouted?

8 Who enclosed the Sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment, the dense clouds its wrap,

10 when I imposed my limit for it, put on a bar and doors

11 and said, "You may come this far, no farther; here your proud waves stop"?

12 In your lifetime have you commanded the morning, informed the dawn of its place

13 so it would take hold of earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?

14 Do you turn it over like clay for a seal, so it stands out like a colorful garment?

15 Light is withheld from the wicked, the uplifted arm broken.

16 Have you gone to the sea's sources, walked in the chamber of the deep?

17 Have death's gates been revealed to you; can you see the gates of deep darkness?

18 Have you surveyed earth's expanses? Tell me if you know everything about it.

19 Where's the road to the place where light dwells; darkness, where's it located?

20 Can you take it to its territory; do you know the paths to its house?

21 You know, for you were born then; you have lived such a long time!

22 Have you gone to snow's storehouses, seen the storehouses of hail

23 that I have reserved for a time of distress, for a day of battle and war?

24 What is the way to the place where light is divided up; the east wind scattered over earth?

25 Who cut a channel for the downpours and a way for blasts of thunder

26 to bring water to uninhabited land, a desert with no human

27 to saturate dry wasteland and make grass sprout?

28 Has the rain a father who brought forth drops of dew?

29 From whose belly does ice come; who gave birth to heaven's frost?

30 Water hardens like stone; the surface of the deep thickens.

31 Can you bind Pleiades' chains or loosen the reins of Orion?

32 Can you guide the stars at their proper times, lead the Bear with her cubs?

33 Do you know heaven's laws, or can you impose its rule on earth?

34 Can you issue an order to the clouds so their abundant waters cover you?

35 Can you send lightning so that it goes and then says to you, "I'm here"?

36 Who put wisdom in remote places, or who gave understanding to a rooster?

37 Who is wise enough to count the clouds, and who can tilt heaven's water containers

38 so that dust becomes mud and clods of dirt adhere?

39 Can you hunt prey for the lion or fill the cravings of lion cubs?

40 They lie in their den, lie in ambush in their lair.

41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry to God, move about without food?

Job 39

1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth; do you observe the birthing of does?

2 Can you count the months of pregnancy; do you know when they give birth?

3 They crouch, split open for their young, send forth their offspring.

4 Their young are healthy; they grow up in the open country, leave and never return.

5 Who freed the wild donkey, loosed the ropes of the onager

6 to whom I gave the desert as home, his dwelling place in the salt flats?

7 He laughs at the clamor of the town, doesn't hear the driver's shout,

8 searches the hills for food and seeks any green sprout.

9 Will the wild ox agree to be your slave, or will it spend the night in your crib?

10 Can you bind it with a rope to a plowed row; will it plow the valley behind you?

11 Will you trust it because its strength is great so that you can leave your work to it?

12 Can you rely on it to bring back your grain to gather into your threshing floor?

13 The ostrich's wings flap joyously, but her wings and plumage are like a stork.

14 She leaves her eggs on the earth, lets them warm in the dust,

15 then forgets that a foot may crush them or a wild animal trample them.

16 She treats her young harshly as if they were not hers, without worrying that her labor might be in vain;

17 God didn't endow her with sense, didn't give her some good sense.

18 When she flaps her wings high, she laughs at horse and rider.

19 Did you give strength to the horse, clothe his neck with a mane,

20 cause him to leap like a locust, his majestic snorting, a fright?

21 He paws in the valley, prances proudly, charges at battle weapons,

22 laughs at fear, unafraid. He doesn't turn away from the sword;

23 a quiver of arrows flies by him, flashing spear and dagger.

24 Excitedly, trembling, he swallows the ground; can't stand still at a trumpet's blast.

25 At a trumpet's sound, he says, "Aha!" smells the battle from afar, hears officers' shouting and the battle cry.

26 Is it due to your understanding that the hawk flies, spreading its wings to the south?

27 Or at your command does the eagle soar, the vulture build a nest on high?

28 They dwell on an outcropping of rock, their fortress on rock's edge.

29 From there they search for food; their eyes notice it from afar,

30 and their young lap up blood; where carcasses lie, there they are.

Job 40

1 The LORD continued to respond to Job:

2 Will the one who disputes with the Almighty correct him? God's instructor must answer him.

3 Job responded to the LORD:

4 Look, I'm of little worth. What can I answer you? I'll put my hand over my mouth.

5 I have spoken once, I won't answer; twice, I won't do it again.

6 The LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:

7 Prepare yourself like a man; I will interrogate you, and you will respond to me.

8 Would you question my justice, deem me guilty so you can be innocent?

9 Or do you have an arm like God; can you thunder with a voice like him?

10 Adorn yourself with splendor and majesty; clothe yourself with honor and esteem.

11 Unleash your raging anger; look on all the proud and humble them.

12 Look on all the proud and debase them; trample the wicked in their place.

13 Hide them together in the dust; bind their faces in a hidden place.

14 Then I, even I, will praise you, for your strong hand has delivered you.

15 Look at Behemoth, whom I made along with you; he eats grass like cattle.

16 Look, his strength is in his thighs, his power in stomach muscles.

17 He stiffens his tail like a cedar; the tendons in his thighs are tightly woven.

18 His bones are like bronze tubes, his limbs like iron bars.

19 He is the first of God's acts; only his maker can come near him with a sword.

20 Indeed, the hills bring him tribute, places where all the wild animals play.

21 He lies under the lotuses, under the cover of reed and marsh.

22 The lotuses screen him with shade; poplars of the stream surround him.

23 If the river surges, he doesn't hurry; he is confident even though the Jordan gushes into his mouth.

24 Can he be seized by his eyes? Can anyone pierce his nose by hooks?

Acts 16:1-21

1 Paul reached Derbe, and then Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy. He was the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father.

2 The brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

3 Paul wanted to take Timothy with him, so he circumcised him. This was because of the Jews who lived in those areas, for they all knew Timothy's father was Greek.

4 As Paul and his companions traveled through the cities, they instructed Gentile believers to keep the regulations put in place by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and every day their numbers flourished.

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the regions of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit kept them from speaking the word in the province of Asia.

7 When they approached the province of Mysia, they tried to enter the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn't let them.

8 Passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas instead.

9 A vision of a man from Macedonia came to Paul during the night. He stood urging Paul, "Come over to Macedonia and help us!"

10 Immediately after he saw the vision, we prepared to leave for the province of Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

11 We sailed from Troas straight for Samothrace and came to Neapolis the following day.

12 From there we went to Philippi, a city of Macedonia's first district and a Roman colony. We stayed in that city several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the riverbank, where we thought there might be a place for prayer. We sat down and began to talk with the women who had gathered.

14 One of those women was Lydia, a Gentile God-worshipper from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple cloth. As she listened, the Lord enabled her to embrace Paul's message.

15 Once she and her household were baptized, she urged, "Now that you have decided that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house." And she persuaded us.

16 One day, when we were on the way to the place for prayer, we met a slave woman. She had a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She made a lot of money for her owners through fortune-telling.

17 She began following Paul and us, shouting, "These people are servants of the Most High God! They are proclaiming a way of salvation to you!"

18 She did this for many days. This annoyed Paul so much that he finally turned and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave her!" It left her at that very moment.

19 Her owners realized that their hope for making money was gone. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the officials in the city center.

20 When her owners approached the legal authorities, they said, "These people are causing an uproar in our city. They are Jews

21 who promote customs that we Romans can't accept or practice."