Job 41; Job 42; Acts 16:22-40

1 "Can you pull Leviathan out [of the water] with a fishhook or tie its tongue down with a rope?

2 Can you put a ring through its nose or pierce its jaw with a hook?

3 Will it plead with you for mercy or speak tenderly to you?

4 Will it make an agreement with you so that you can take it as your permanent slave?

5 Can you play with it like a bird or keep it on a leash for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain over it and divide it among the merchants?

7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons or its head with fishing spears?

8 Lay your hand on it. Think of the struggle! Don't do it again!

9 Certainly, any hope [of defeating it] is a false hope. Doesn't the sight of it overwhelm you?

10 No one is brave enough to provoke Leviathan. Then who can stand in front of me?

11 Who can confront me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven belongs to me!

12 "I will not be silent about Leviathan's limbs, its strength, or its graceful form.

13 Who can skin its hide? Who can approach it with a harness?

14 Who can open its closed mouth? Its teeth are surrounded by terror.

15 Its back has rows of scales that are tightly sealed.

16 One is so close to the other that there is no space between them.

17 Each is joined to the other. They are locked together and inseparable.

18 When Leviathan sneezes, it gives out a flash of light. Its eyes are like the first rays of the dawn.

19 Flames shoot from its mouth. Sparks of fire fly from it.

20 Smoke comes from its nostrils like a boiling pot heated over brushwood.

21 Its breath sets coals on fire, and a flame pours from its mouth.

22 Strength resides in its neck, and power dances in front of it.

23 The folds of its flesh stick to each other. They are solid and cannot be moved.

24 Its chest is solid like a rock, solid like a millstone.

25 "The mighty are afraid when Leviathan rises. Broken down, they draw back.

26 A sword may strike it but not pierce it. Neither will a spear, lance, or dart.

27 It considers iron to be like straw and bronze to be like rotten wood.

28 An arrow won't make it run away. Stones from a sling turn to dust against it.

29 It considers clubs to be like stubble, and it laughs at a rattling javelin.

30 Its underside is like sharp pieces of broken pottery. It stretches out like a threshing sledge on the mud.

31 It makes the deep sea boil like a pot. It stirs up the ocean like a boiling kettle.

32 It leaves a shining path behind it so that the sea appears to have silvery hair.

33 Nothing on land can compare to it. It was made fearless.

34 It looks down on all high things. It is king of everyone who is arrogant."

1 Then Job answered the LORD,

2 "I know that you can do everything and that your plans are unstoppable.

3 "[You said,] 'Who is this that belittles my advice without having any knowledge [about it]?' Yes, I have stated things I didn't understand, things too mysterious for me to know.

4 "[You said,] 'Listen now, and I will speak. I will ask you, and you will teach me.'

5 I had heard about you with my own ears, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

6 That is why I take back what I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry."

7 After the LORD had said those things to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz from Teman, "I'm very angry with you and your two friends because you didn't speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done.

8 So take seven young bulls and seven rams. Go to my servant Job, and make a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you. Then I will accept his prayer not to treat you as godless fools. After all, you didn't speak what is right about me as my servant Job has done."

9 Then Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, and Zophar of Naama went and did what the LORD had told them to do. And the LORD accepted Job's prayer.

10 After Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored Job's prosperity and gave him twice as much [as he had before].

11 Then all his brothers and sisters and everyone who had previously known him came to him. They ate with him at his house, sympathized with him, and comforted him for all the evil the LORD had brought to him. Each one gave him some money and a gold ring.

12 The LORD blessed the latter years of Job's life more than the earlier years. He had 14,000 sheep and goats, 6,000 camels, 2,000 oxen, and 1,000 donkeys.

13 He also had seven sons and three daughters.

14 He named the first [daughter] Jemimah, the second Cassia, and the third Keren Happuch.

15 Nowhere in the whole country could be found women who were as beautiful as Job's daughters. Their father gave them and their brothers an inheritance.

16 Job lived 140 years after this. He saw his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

17 Then at a very old age, Job died.

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered [the guards] to beat them with sticks.

23 After they had hit Paul and Silas many times, they threw them in jail and ordered the jailer to keep them under tight security.

24 So the jailer followed these orders and put Paul and Silas into solitary confinement with their feet in leg irons.

25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God. The other prisoners were listening to them.

26 Suddenly, a violent earthquake shook the foundations of the jail. All the doors immediately flew open, and all the prisoners' chains came loose.

27 The jailer woke up and saw the prison doors open. Thinking the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself.

28 But Paul shouted as loudly as he could, "Don't hurt yourself! We're all here!"

29 The jailer asked for torches and rushed into the jail. He was trembling as he knelt in front of Paul and Silas.

30 Then he took Paul and Silas outside and asked, "Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved?"

31 They answered, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will be saved."

32 They spoke the Lord's word to the jailer and everyone in his home.

33 At that hour of the night, the jailer washed Paul and Silas' wounds. The jailer and his entire family were baptized immediately.

34 He took Paul and Silas upstairs into his home and gave them something to eat. He and his family were thrilled to be believers in God.

35 In the morning the Roman officials sent guards who told the jailer, "You can release those men now."

36 The jailer reported this order to Paul by saying, "The officials have sent word to release you. So you can leave peacefully now."

37 But Paul told the guards, "Roman officials have had us beaten publicly without a trial and have thrown us in jail, even though we're Roman citizens. Now are they going to throw us out secretly? There's no way they're going to get away with that! Have them escort us out!"

38 The guards reported to the officials what Paul had said. When the Roman officials heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid.

39 So the officials went to the jail and apologized to Paul and Silas. As the officials escorted Paul and Silas out of the jail, they asked them to leave the city.

40 After Paul and Silas left the jail, they went to Lydia's house. They met with the believers, encouraged them, and then left.