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

1 After all this, Job [finally] opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.

2 Job said,

3 "Scratch out the day I was born and the night that said, 'A boy has been conceived!'

4 "That day-- let it be pitch-black. Let God above not [even] care about it. Let no light shine on it.

5 Let the darkness and long shadows claim it as their own. Let a dark cloud hang over it. Let the gloom terrify it.

6 "That night-- let the blackness take it away. Let it not be included in the days of the year or be numbered among the months.

7 Let that night be empty. Let no joyful singing be heard in it.

8 Let those who curse the day (those who know how to wake up Leviathan ) curse that night.

9 Let its stars turn dark before dawn. Let it hope for light and receive none. Let it not see the first light of dawn

10 because it did not shut the doors of the womb [from which I came] or hide my eyes from trouble.

11 "Why didn't I die as soon as I was born and breathe my last breath when I came out of the womb?

12 Why did knees welcome me? Why did breasts let me nurse?

13 Instead of being alive, I would now be quietly lying down. I would now be sleeping peacefully.

14 I would be with the kings and the counselors of the world who built for themselves [what are now] ruins.

15 I would be with princes who had gold, who filled their homes with silver.

16 I would be buried like a stillborn baby. I would not exist. I would be like infants who never saw the light.

17 There the wicked stop their raging. There the weary are able to rest.

18 There the captives have no troubles at all. There they do not hear the shouting of the slave driver.

19 There [you find] both the unimportant and important people. There the slave is free from his master.

20 "Why give light to one in misery and life to those who find it so bitter,

21 to those who long for death but it never comes-- though they dig for it more than for buried treasure?

22 They are ecstatic, delighted to find the grave.

23 Why give light to those whose paths have been hidden, to those whom God has fenced in?

24 "When my food is in front of me, I sigh. I pour out my groaning like water.

25 What I fear most overtakes me. What I dread happens to me.

26 I have no peace! I have no quiet! I have no rest! And trouble keeps coming!"

1 Then Eliphaz from Teman replied [to Job],

2 "If someone tries to talk to you, will you become impatient? But who can keep from talking?

3 Certainly, you have instructed many people: When hands were weak, you made them strong.

4 When someone stumbled, you lifted him up with your words. When knees were weak, you gave them strength.

5 But trouble comes to you, and you're impatient. It touches you, and you panic.

6 Doesn't your fear of God give you confidence and your lifetime of integrity give you hope?

7 "Now think about this: Which innocent person [ever] died [an untimely death]? Find me a decent person who has been destroyed.

8 Whenever I saw those who plowed wickedness and planted misery, they gathered its harvest.

9 God destroys them with his breath and kills them with a blast of his anger.

10 Though the roar of the lion and the growl of the ferocious lion [is loud], the young lions have had their teeth knocked out.

11 The old lions die without any prey [to eat], and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

12 "I was told something secretly and heard something whispered in my ear.

13 With disturbing thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on people,

14 fear and trembling came over me, and all my bones shook.

15 A spirit passed in front of me. It made my hair stand on end.

16 Something stood there. I couldn't tell what it was. A vague image was in front of my eyes. I heard a soft voice:

17 'Can [any] mortal be righteous to God? Can [any] human being be pure to his maker?'

18 "You see, God doesn't trust his own servants, and he accuses his angels of making mistakes.

19 How much more will he accuse those who live in clay houses that have their foundation in the dust. Those houses can be crushed quicker than a moth!

20 From morning to evening, they are shattered. They will disappear forever without anyone paying attention.

21 Haven't the ropes of their tent been loosened? Won't they die without wisdom?

44 "In the desert our ancestors had the tent of God's promise. Moses built this tent exactly as God had told him. He used the model he had seen.

45 After our ancestors received the tent, they brought it into this land. They did this with Joshua's help when they took possession of the land from the nations that God forced out of our ancestors' way. This tent remained here until the time of David,

46 who won God's favor. David asked that he might provide a permanent place for the family of Jacob.

47 But Solomon was the one who built a house for God.

48 "However, the Most High doesn't live in a house built by humans, as the prophet says:

49 'The Lord says, "Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. What kind of house are you going to build for me? Where will I rest?

50 Didn't I make all these things?"'

51 "How stubborn can you be? How can you be so heartless and disobedient? You're just like your ancestors. They always opposed the Holy Spirit, and so do you!

52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors didn't persecute? They killed those who predicted that a man with God's approval would come. You have now become the people who betrayed and murdered that man.

53 You are the people who received Moses' Teachings, which were put into effect by angels. But you haven't obeyed those teachings."

54 As council members listened to Stephen, they became noticeably furious.

55 But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked into heaven, saw God's glory, and Jesus in the position of authority that God gives.

56 So Stephen said, "Look, I see heaven opened and the Son of Man in the position of authority that God has given him!"

57 But the council members shouted and refused to listen. Then they rushed at Stephen with one purpose in mind,

58 and after they had thrown him out of the city, they began to stone him to death. The witnesses left their coats with a young man named Saul.

59 While council members were executing Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit."

60 Then he knelt down and shouted, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them." After he had said this, he died.