Job 7 Cross References - ISV

¹ Job Acknowledges the Brevity of Life“Men have harsh servitude on earth, do they not? His days are like those of a hired laborer, are they not? ² I’m like a servant who longs for the shade, like a hired laborer who is looking for his wages. ³ Truly I’ve been allotted months of emptiness; nights of trouble have been appointed for me. ⁴ “When I lie down I ask, ‘When will I wake up?’ But the night continues and I keep tossing and turning until dawn. ⁵ My skin is covered with worms and clods of dirt; my skin becomes rough and then breaks out afresh. ⁶ My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope. ⁷ Remember that my life is a breath; my eyes won’t go back to seeing good things. ⁸ The eyes of the one who sees me won’t see me anymore; your eyes will look for me but I won’t be around! ⁹ As a cloud fades away and vanishes, the one who descends to the afterlife doesn’t return. ¹⁰ He doesn’t return again to his house, and his place won’t recognize him anymore.”
¹¹ Job Intends to Complain“In addition, I won’t keep my opinion to myself; I’ll speak from my distressed spirit; I’ll complain with my bitter soul. ¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you keep watching me? ¹³ For I’ve said, ‘My bed will comfort me; my couch will ease my burdens while I complain.’ ¹⁴ But then you scared me with dreams; you terrified me with visions. ¹⁵ I would rather die by strangulation than continue living. ¹⁶ I hate the thought of living forever! Leave me alone, because my days are pointless.”
¹⁷ Job Acknowledges Humankind’s Insignificance“What is a human being, that you make so much of him; that you set your affections on him, ¹⁸ visit him every morning, and test him continually? ¹⁹ Why won’t you look away from me? Why don’t you leave me alone so I can swallow my saliva? ²⁰ So what if I sin? What have I done against you, you observer of humankind? Why have you made me your target? Why burden yourself with me? ²¹ Why haven’t you pardoned my transgression and taken away my iniquity? Now I’m about to lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I won’t be around!”

⁵⁰ “He is to bring an accounting to the one who bought him, starting from the year he had sold himself until the year of jubilee. The price of his sale is to correspond to the number of years comparable to the time a hired servant stays with him.

¹⁸ Don’t view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years—twice the time of a paid worker. Then the LORD will bless you in all that you do.”

⁷ But mankind is born headed for trouble, just as sparks soar skyward.”

⁵ Since his days have been determined, the number of his months is known to you. You’ve set his limit and he cannot exceed it. ⁶ Look away from him and leave him alone, so he can enjoy his time, like a hired worker.”

¹³ There is Life after Death“Won’t you keep me safe in the afterlife? Conceal me until your anger subsides. Set an appointment for me, then remember me. ¹⁴ If a human being dies, will he live again? I will endure the entire time of my assigned service, until I am changed.

⁴ “LORD, let me know how my life ends, and the standard by which you will measure my days, whatever it is! Then I will know how transient my life is.

⁸ Just as no human being has control over the wind to restrain it, so also no human being has control over the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged during war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

¹⁶ For this is what the LORD is saying to me: “Within three years, according to the years of a contract worker, the pomp of Kedar will come to an end.

⁵ “Go tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the LORD God of your ancestor David has to say: “I’ve heard your prayer and I’ve seen your tears; so I will add fifteen years to your life.

² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her heavy service has been completed, that her penalty has been paid, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”

¹ The Workers in the Vineyard “The kingdom from heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² After agreeing to pay the workers one denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing in the marketplace without work. ⁴ He told them, ‘You go into the vineyard, too, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So off they went. He went out again about noon and about three o’clock and did the same thing. ⁶ About five o’clock he went out and found some others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why are you standing here all day long without work?’ ⁷ They told him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He told them, ‘You go into the vineyard as well.’
⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ ⁹ Those who were hired at five o’clock came, and each received a denarius.
¹⁰ “When the first came, they thought they would receive more, but each received a denarius as well. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner, ¹² ‘These last fellows worked only one hour, but you paid them the same as us, and we’ve been working all day, enduring the scorching heat!’
¹³ “But he told one of them, ‘Friend, I’m not treating you unfairly. You did agree with me for a denarius, didn’t you? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go. I want to give this last man as much as I gave you. ¹⁵ I am allowed to do what I want with my own money, am I not? Or are you envious because I’m generous?’

⁹ Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours in the day, aren’t there? If anyone walks during the day he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks at night he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

¹³ “You are not to oppress your neighbor or rob him.
“The wages of a hired laborer are not to remain in your possession until morning.

¹⁵ Pay his wages that same day before the sun sets, because he is poor and his livelihood depends on it. Otherwise, he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will incur guilt.”

¹³¹ I open my mouth and pant as I long for your commands.

⁶ I stretch out my hands toward you, longing for you like a parched land. Interlude

⁴ Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let’s attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

⁵ The Judgment of God“I’ll come near to you for judgment. I’ll be a witness, quick to speak against sorcerers, against adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who defraud the laborer of his wage, against those who defraud the widow and the orphan, against those who deprive the alien of justice, and against those who don’t fear me,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁴ Look! The wages that you kept back from the workers who harvested your fields are shouting out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.

⁷ Job Claims of God’s Mistreatment“God has certainly worn me out; you devastated my entire world.

² “I wish I could go back to how things were a few months ago; when God used to watch over me,

⁶ I am weary from my groaning. Every night my couch is drenched with tears, my bed is soaked through.

⁵ Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand; It is nothing compared to yours. Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind. Interlude

¹⁴ I observed every activity done on earth. My conclusion: all of it is pointless—like chasing after the wind.

⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see.

¹³ For I’ve said, ‘My bed will comfort me; my couch will ease my burdens while I complain.’ ¹⁴ But then you scared me with dreams; you terrified me with visions.

¹² They have transformed night into day— ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is about to become dark.’

¹⁷ The night racks my bones; and the pain that gnaws on me will not rest.

⁴ You kept my eyes open; I was troubled and couldn’t speak.

²³ I am fading away like a shadow late in the day; I am shaken off like a locust.

⁶ My soul looks to the Lord more than watchmen look for the morning— more, indeed, than watchmen for the morning.

¹¹ “O afflicted one, passed back and forth, and not comforted, Look! I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

⁷ So Satan left the LORD’s presence and struck Job with terrible boils from the sole of his feet to the top of his head. ⁸ Job took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself while sitting among the ashes.

³¹ you’ll still drop me into the Pit, and my own clothes will despise me.

¹⁴ if I call out to the Pit, ‘You’re my father!’ or say to the worm, ‘My mother!’ or ‘My sister!’

²⁶ Even after my skin has been destroyed, clothed in my flesh I will see God,

²⁰ The womb will forget them. Maggots will find them to be a delicacy! They won’t be remembered anymore, their iniquity will be cut to pieces like firewood.

¹⁸ My clothes are disheveled by his forceful treatment of me; he restricts my movement like the collar of my cloak. ¹⁹ “He tossed me into the mire; I’ve become like dust and ashes.

⁵ My wounds have putrefied and festered because of my foolishness. ⁶ I am bent over and walk about greatly bowed down; all day long I go around mourning. ⁷ My insides are burning and my body is unhealthy.

⁶ From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there’s no soundness evident— only bruises, sores, and festering wounds that haven’t been cleaned out, bandaged, or treated with oil.”

¹¹ Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the noise of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering.”

²⁴ “Then they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of the people who rebelled against me. For their worm will not die, nor will their fire be extinguished, and they will remain an object of revulsion to all humanity.”

⁴³ You’ll remember all your practices and evil actions by which you’ve become defiled. You’ll loathe yourselves because of all the evil things you’ve done.

²³ Immediately the angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

¹¹ “Do I have the strength to wait? And why should I be patient?

²⁵ Job Argues that God Won’t Acquit Him“My days pass faster than a runner; but they pass quickly without seeing anything good.

¹⁵ Even though he kills me, I’ll continue to hope in him. At least I’ll be able to argue my case to his face!

²² For when only a few years have elapsed, I’ll start down a path from which I’ll never return.”

¹¹ My days are passed; my plans have been shattered; along with my heart’s desires.

¹⁵ where would my hope be? “And speaking of my hope, who would notice it?

⁵ You will sweep them away while they are asleep— by morning they are like growing grass. ⁶ In the morning it blossoms and is renewed, but toward evening, it fades and withers.

¹¹ My life is like a declining shadow, and I am withering like a plant.

¹⁵ A person’s life is like grass— it blossoms like wild flowers, ¹⁶ but when the wind blows through it, it withers away and no one remembers where it was.

⁴ The human person is a mere empty breath; his days are like a fading shadow.

³² The wicked person is thrown down by his own wrongdoing, but the righteous person has a place of safety in death.

¹² My house has been plucked up and vanishes from me like a shepherd’s tent; like a weaver, I’ve taken account of my life, and he cuts me off from the loom— day and night you make an end of me. ¹³ I’ve been swept bare until morning; just like a lion, he breaks all my bones— day and night you make an end of me.

⁶ The Word of God Endures ForeverA voice says, “Cry out!” So I asked, “What am I to cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its loyalty is like the flowers of the field. ⁷ Grass withers and flowers fade away when the LORD’s breath blows on them; surely the people are like grass.

²⁵ “Don’t run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you say, ‘It’s hopeless! Because I love foreign gods, I’ll go after them!’”

¹² At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope and were in the world without God.

¹¹ For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass. The flower in it drops off, and its beauty is gone. That is how the rich person will fade away in his pursuits.

¹⁴ You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

¹³ Be HolyTherefore, prepare your minds for action, keep a clear head, and set your hope completely on the grace to be given you when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.

²⁴ For “All human life is like grass, and all its glory is like a flower in the grass. The grass dries up and the flower drops off,

³⁶ Their father Jacob told them, “You’re causing me to lose my children! Joseph is gone. Now Simeon is gone, and you’re planning to take Benjamin, too. Everything’s going against me!”

⁸ Please remember what you spoke in commanding your servant Moses. You said, ‘If you rebel, I will scatter you among the nations

⁹ “‘Please remember that you’ve made me like clay and you’ll return me to dust.

²¹ before I go, never to return, leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow. ²² It’s a gloomy land, like deepest darkness; where there’s no order, and where even the brightness is like darkness.’”

¹⁸ Remember this: The enemy scorns the LORD and a foolish people despises your name.

²² Get up, God, and prosecute your case— remember that you’re being scorned by fools all day long.

³⁹ For he remembered that they were only flesh, a passing wind that doesn’t return.

⁴⁷ Remember how short my lifetime is! How powerless have you created all human beings!

⁵⁰ Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servant! I carry inside me all the insults of many people,

¹⁵ Jeremiah’s Revised ComplaintYou are aware— LORD, remember me, pay attention to me, and vindicate me in front of those who pursue me. You are patient— don’t take me away. Know that I suffer insult because of you!

¹⁸ If he is uprooted from his place,
then it will deny him: ‘I never saw you.’

²⁷ You’ve locked my feet in stocks; you watch all my steps; You’ve limited where I can walk.

³ Indeed, have you opened your eyes on one like this— to bring me into a legal fight with you?

⁹ “An eye that gazes at him won’t do so again; and his place won’t even recognize him.

³⁶ But then he passed away; in fact, he simply was not there. When I looked for him, he could not be found.

¹¹ You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities; you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth. Indeed, every person is a puff of wind. Interlude

⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, what we have concealed in the light of your presence. ⁹ All our days pass away in your wrath; our years fade away and end like a sigh.

²³ But now that he has died, what’s the point of fasting? Can I bring him back again? I’ll be going to be with him, but he won’t be returning to me.”

¹⁴ After all, even though we all die, and we’re all like water being spilled on the ground that cannot be recovered, nevertheless God doesn’t take away life, but carries out his plans so as not to cast away permanently from him those who are presently estranged.

²¹ before I go, never to return, leaving for the land of deep darkness and shadow.

⁸ These things are higher than the heavens, so what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol, so what can you know?

¹⁰ “But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be? ¹¹ As water disappears from the sea, or water evaporates from a river, ¹² so also a person lies down and does not get up; they won’t awaken until the heavens are no more, nor will they arise from their sleep.”

¹⁵ My greatest fears have overcome me; my honor is assaulted as though by a wind storm; my prosperity evaporates like a morning cloud.”

¹¹ He also loads the clouds with moisture, scattering his lightning with the clouds.

¹³ Stop looking at me with chastisement, so I can smile again, before I depart and am no more.

¹¹ I said, “I won’t see the LORD in the land of the living; and I’ll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

²¹ He’ll be swept up by a storm wind and carried away; he’ll be whirled away from his place.

²³ but it will clap its hands over him, hissing at him as it lunges toward him.”

¹⁶ but when the wind blows through it, it withers away and no one remembers where it was.

²¹ Joseph’s Brothers Mull over Their Predicament“We’re all guilty because of what we did to our brother!” they told each other. “We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We’re in this mess because we wouldn’t listen!”

¹⁰ Deeply distressed, she prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

²⁷ As she came near the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. When Gehazi intervened to push her away, the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is deeply troubled! The LORD has concealed the thing from me, and hasn’t informed me.”
²⁸ Then she asked, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I beg you, ‘Don’t mislead me?’”

²⁶ Did you intend your words to reprove, even though the speech of a desperate person is just wind?

¹ Job Asks God to Acquit Him “I am disgusted with living, so I’m going to talk about my complaint freely. I’ll speak out from the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁵ “‘Woe to me if I’m guilty! If I’m innocent, I cannot lift my head, because I am filled with disgrace. Look at my affliction!

¹³ Job Resolves to Present His Case“Don’t talk to me! It’s my turn to speak; then whatever happens, happens.

⁶ “But if I speak, my pain isn’t assuaged; if I refrain from speaking, what do I have to lose?”

³ Bear with me and let me speak! Then, after I’ve spoken, you’ll be free to mock me. ⁴ After all, isn’t my complaint against a human being? If so, why shouldn’t I be impatient?

²⁵ Others die with a bitter soul, never having tasted the good life.

³ My heart within me became incensed; as I thought about it, the fire burned. Then I spoke out:

⁹ In the great congregation I have proclaimed the righteous good news. Behold, I did not seal my lips, LORD, as you know.

¹⁵ What can I say, so I tell myself, since he has done this to me? I will walk slowly all my years because of my soul’s anguish.

¹⁷ Yes, it was for my own good that I suffered extreme anguish. But in love you have held back my life from the Pit in which it has been confined; you have tossed all my sins behind your back.

³⁷ Taking Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him, he began to be grieved and troubled. ³⁸ Then he told them, “I’m so deeply grieved that I feel I’m about to die. Wait here and stay awake with me.”

⁴⁴ In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like large drops of blood falling on the ground.

⁴ I wrote to you out of great sorrow and anguish of heart—along with many tears—not to make you sad but to let you know how much love I have for you.

¹⁷ Job Acknowledges Humankind’s Insignificance“What is a human being, that you make so much of him; that you set your affections on him,

⁶ On what were its bases set? Who laid its corner stone ⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the divine beings shouted joyfully? ⁸ “Who enclosed the sea with limits when it gushed out of the womb, ⁹ when I made clouds to be its clothes and thick darkness its swaddling blanket, ¹⁰ when I proscribed a boundary for it, set in place bars and doors for it; ¹¹ and said, ‘You may come only this far and no more. Your majestic waves will stop here.’?

¹ On Leviathan “Can you draw Leviathan out of the water with a hook, or tie down his tongue with a rope? ² Can you attach a bridle to his snout, or pierce his jaw with a hook? ³ Will he make many supplications to you, or will he beg you for mercy? ⁴ Will he try to make a deal with you, so that you may take him in servitude forever? ⁵ “Will you play with him like a pet bird? Will you put a leash on him for your little girls? ⁶ Will your business be able to buy him, Will you divide him among your merchant friends? ⁷ Will you fill his flesh with harpoons, or his head with lances? ⁸ Lay your hand on him, and you’ll remember the struggle. You’ll never do that again! ⁹ “Look! Anyone’s hope to capture him will prove itself false; anyone would be terrified just by looking at him. ¹⁰ No one is fierce enough to dare to arouse him. “Who, then, can stand in my presence and face me? ¹¹ Who can take me to court and be reconciled to me? All of heaven is mine. ¹² “I won’t be silent concerning his limbs, his mighty strength, and orderly frame. ¹³ Who can strip off his outer armor? Who can approach him with a bridle? ¹⁴ Who dares to open his mouth, since it is ringed with his terrible teeth! ¹⁵ His protective scales are his pride, they lie sealed tightly together. ¹⁶ Each one is so close to the other that not even air comes in between them. ¹⁷ Each is attached to the other, grasping each other so they cannot be separated. ¹⁸ “His snorting releases flashes of light; his eyes are like the rays of the dawn. ¹⁹ Flames blaze from his mouth; streams of sparking fire fly out. ²⁰ Smoke billows from his nostrils; like a boiling pot or burning reeds. ²¹ His breath can ignite coal; and flames proceed from his mouth. ²² “His neck is so powerful that all who meet him are terrified. ²³ There is no flaw in his body’s armor; it is firmly fixed on him and unbreachable. ²⁴ His heart is as strong as stone, it is as hard as a lower millstone. ²⁵ When he rears up, the mighty are terrified; they are bewildered as he thrashes about. ²⁶ “Thrusting at him with a sword won’t be effective, nor will spears, darts, or javelins. ²⁷ He regards iron like straw, and hardened bronze like a dead tree. ²⁸ Arrows won’t make him flee; stones from a sling are only pebbles to him. ²⁹ Clubs are like twigs; he laughs at the whoosh of the javelin. ³⁰ “Beneath him he is armored as with sharp potsherds; he tears through muddy ground like a threshing sledge through grain. ³¹ He causes the deep to boil like water in a pot, and churns the sea like one stirs ointment. ³² The sea is luminescent behind him; his wake turns the sea white, like those with gray hair. ³³ “There’s nothing like him on earth; he was created without the ability to fear. ³⁴ He looks down on everything that is high; he rules over every kind of pride.”

⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he placed heavy chains on me.

² “Son of Man, start singing this lamentation about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Tell him, ‘You may have called yourself a lion among nations, but you’re a monster at sea. You thrash about in your rivers, muddy the water with your feet, and relieve yourself in the rivers.’ ³ “This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I’m coming fishing for you! Right in the sight of many nations they’ll haul you up in my dragnet.

³ Truly I’ve been allotted months of emptiness; nights of trouble have been appointed for me. ⁴ “When I lie down I ask, ‘When will I wake up?’ But the night continues and I keep tossing and turning until dawn.

²⁷ If I were to say, ‘Let me forget my complaint,’ change the expression on my face, and look cheerful, ²⁸ then I still dread all of my suffering; I know you still won’t acquit me.

⁵ Then the two of them each had a dream. They both had their dreams the same night, and there were separate interpretations for each dream—the senior security advisor and the head chef to the king of Egypt, who had confined them in prison. ⁶ When Joseph came to see them in the morning, he noticed how downcast they looked! They were both very sad. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him in prison in his master’s house, “Why are you so sad today?”

⁸ Pharaoh Seeks an InterpretationThe very next morning, he was frustrated about the dream, so he sent word to summon all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them what he had dreamed, but no one could interpret them.

¹³ Gideon arrived just as a soldier was talking to a friend about a dream. “Look!” he was saying. “I had a dream that went like this: A loaf of barley bread rolled into the Midianite encampment, came to a tent, and collided with it. The loaf of bread fell down, turned upside down, and the tent collapsed!”
¹⁴ Then his friend replied, “Can this be anything else than the sword of Joash’s son Gideon, that man from Israel? God must have given Midian and the entire encampment into his control!”

¹ King Nebuchadnezzar’s DreamDuring the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him. As a result, he couldn’t sleep.

¹⁹ While he was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him a message that said, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, because today I have suffered terribly due to a dream I had about him.”

²³ Ahithophel’s SuicideMeanwhile, when Ahithophel observed that his counsel was not being acted upon, he saddled his donkey, got up, and left for his hometown. Leaving behind a set of orders for his household, he hanged himself. After his death he was buried in his father’s tomb.

⁵ Then he flung the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, went outside, ran away, and hanged himself.

⁴⁶ Rebekah also told herself, “Heth’s daughters are making me tired of living. If Jacob marries one of Heth’s daughters, and she turns out to be just like these other local women, what kind of life would there be left for me?”

⁴ and ran for a day’s journey deep into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he could die. He asked God, “Enough! LORD! Take my life, because I’m not better than my ancestors!”

²⁰ “Why does God give light to the sufferer or life to the bitter person: ²¹ To those who are longing for death— even though it does not come? To those who search for it more than for hidden treasure? ²² To those who are happy beyond measure when they reach their graves?

⁹ that God would just be willing to crush me; that he would let loose and eliminate me!

²¹ “I’m blameless; I don’t know myself; I despise my life.

²⁰ My days are so few, aren’t they? So leave me alone, then, so I can smile a little

⁶ Look away from him and leave him alone, so he can enjoy his time, like a hired worker.”

¹⁰ Stop scourging me, since I have been crushed by your heavy hand.

⁹ Human beings are a mere vapor, while people in high positions are not what they appear. When they are placed on the scales, they weigh nothing; even when weighed together, they are less than nothing.

³³ So he made their days end in futility, and their years with sudden terror.

¹¹ Because many words lead to pointlessness, how do people benefit from this? ¹² Who knows what is best for people in this life, every day of their pointless lives that they pass through like a shadow? Who informs people on earth what will come along after them?

³ Therefore, LORD, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”

⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.

¹⁴ After whom is the king of Israel going out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog or a single flea?

¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you keep watching me?

¹⁴ If he were to decide to do so, that is, to take back to himself his spirit and breath of life, ¹⁵ every living thing would die all at once, and mankind would return to dust.”

⁴ what is man that you take notice of him, or the son of man that you pay attention to him?

³ LORD, what are human beings, that you should care about them, or mortal man, that you should think about him?

⁶ Instead, someone has declared somewhere, “What is man that you should remember him, or the son of man that you should care for him?

¹ The Command to Offer IsaacSometime later, God tested Abraham. He called out to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am!” he answered.

⁵ You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of the parents to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,

³⁴ Now, go, and lead the people where I told you, and now my angel will go before you, but on the day when I do punish, I’ll punish them for their sin.”

¹⁶ and fed you in the desert with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, to humble and test you so that things go well with you later.

¹⁴ The dead won’t live, and the departed spirits won’t rise— to that end, you punished and destroyed them, then locked away all memory of them.

⁷ Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Look, I’m about to refine and test them. Because they’re my people, what else can I do?

¹⁰ Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined, though the wicked will continue to act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand. Nevertheless, the insightful will understand.

⁹ And I will bring that surviving third through, testing them as if through fire, purifying them like silver, assaying them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

⁷ so that your genuine faith, which is more valuable than gold that perishes when tested by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.

¹⁸ He won’t let me catch my breath; instead, he fills me with bitterness.

³ And my soul is deeply distressed. But you, LORD, how long do I wait?

¹ To the Director: A Davidic Psalm.
A Prayer for Deliverance How long? LORD, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? ² How long must I struggle in my soul at night and have sorrow in my heart during the day? How long will my enemy rise up against me? ³ Look at me! Answer me, LORD, my God! Give light to my eyes! Otherwise, I will sleep in death;

³ How long will the wicked, LORD, how long will the wicked continue to triumph?

¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice, “Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?”

⁶ “You are the LORD; you alone crafted the heavens, the highest heavens with all of their armies; the earth, and everything in it; the seas, and everything in them; you keep giving all of them life, and the army of heaven continuously worships you.

²⁴ “As far as I’m concerned, my food comes to me in the form of sighs, and my cries of anguish pour out like water.

⁴ “The arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit absorbs their poison; God’s terrors have been arranged just for me!

¹¹ Job Intends to Complain“In addition, I won’t keep my opinion to myself; I’ll speak from my distressed spirit; I’ll complain with my bitter soul. ¹² Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you keep watching me?

²⁹ I will be condemned, so why should I wear myself out with this futility? ³⁰ “If I wash myself with water from snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, ³¹ you’ll still drop me into the Pit, and my own clothes will despise me.

²⁶ You’ve accused me of bitter things; you’ve caused me to reap the sins of my youth.

¹⁶ Then you’ll certainly count every step I took, but you won’t keep an inventory of my sin.

¹² “He tore me apart when I was at ease; grabbing me by my neck, he shook me to pieces— then he really made me his target. ¹³ His archers surround me, slashing open my kidneys without pity; he pours out my gall on the ground. ¹⁴ Attack follows attack as he breaks through my defenses! He runs over me like a mighty warrior.

⁵ Your wickedness is great, isn’t it? There’s no limit to your iniquity, is there?

³³ No Secret Sins“Have I covered my transgression like other people, to conceal iniquity within myself?

⁹ ‘I’m pure. I’m without sin; I’m innocent. I’m harboring no iniquity inside of me.

²⁷ The Song of the Ransomed“He’ll sing to mankind with these words: ‘I’ve sinned. I have twisted what is right. Yet he has not repaid me like I deserve.

⁶ If you sin, what will that do to harm him? If you add transgression to transgression what will it do to him?

¹² Indeed, you will make them retreat, when you aim your bow at their faces.

⁶ Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your justice is like the great depths of the sea. You deliver both people and animals, LORD.

⁴ LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, when will your smoldering anger toward your people’s prayers cease?

¹² He bent his bow, aiming at me with his arrow.

¹⁰ Discipline for David’s Sin
Later, David’s conscience bothered him after he had numbered the army, so David told the LORD, “I have sinned greatly by what I did. But now I am asking you, please remove the guilt of your servant, since I have acted very foolishly.”

¹³ “If I had died, I would be lying down by now, undisturbed, asleep, and at rest,

⁸ The eyes of the one who sees me won’t see me anymore; your eyes will look for me but I won’t be around!

¹⁴ If I sin, you watch me and won’t acquit me for my iniquity.

²³ Job Presents Himself for Cross-Examination“How many of my iniquities and sins have you counted? Show me my transgression and sin. ²⁴ Why do you hide your face and regard me as your enemy?

³² when he is carried away to the cemetery and guardians are placed to watch his tomb? ³³ The runoff from the streams will seem sweet to him; everyone will follow after him; countless crows march ahead of him.

¹⁵ A person’s life is like grass— it blossoms like wild flowers,

⁷ then man’s dust will go back to the earth, returning to what it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it.

¹⁹ The Resurrection of the Dead“But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Those who live in the dust will wake up and shout for joy! For your dew is like the dew of dawn, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

⁹ Don’t be angry beyond measure, LORD, and don’t remember our iniquity for a season. Please look now, we are all your people.

⁴² As for us, we have sinned and rebelled; but you have not pardoned us. ⁴³ Clothing yourself with anger, you pursued us. You killed without pity, ⁴⁴ You covered yourself with a cloud that prayer cannot pierce.

²⁰ So why have you completely forgotten us, forsaking us for so long? ²¹ Restore us to yourself, LORD, so that we may return. Renew our days as before, ²² unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us without limit.

² Many of those who are sleeping in the dust of the earth will awaken—some to life everlasting, and some to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

² Bring a prepared speech with you as you return to the LORD. Say to him: ‘Take away all our iniquity, and accept what is good. Then we will present the fruit of our lips.

¹⁸ Who is like God?Is there any God like you, forgiving iniquity, passing over transgressions by the survivors who are your heritage? He is not angry forever, because he delights in gracious love. ¹⁹ He will again show us compassion; he will subdue our iniquities. You will hurl all their sins into the deepest sea.

²⁹ The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

¹⁴ He gave himself for us to set us free from every wrong and to cleanse us so that we could be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good deeds.

⁹ If we make it our habit to confess our sins, in his faithful righteousness he forgives us for those sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

⁵ You know that the Messiah was revealed to take away sins, and there is not any sin in him.