Job 8 Cross References - ISV

¹ Bildad: God Rewards the GodlyThen in response, Bildad from Shuah said: ² “How long will you keep talking like this? How long will you keep talking like a wind storm? ³ Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what’s right? ⁴ “If your children sin against him, he’ll make them a prisoner of their sins. ⁵ If you seek God, if you ask the Almighty for mercy, ⁶ if you are clean and upright, surely then, he’ll act on your behalf and restore your rightful place. ⁷ Your beginning may be small, but later years will be very great. ⁸ “Inquire of the previous generation, won’t you please? Consider what their forefathers searched out. ⁹ Because we are of yesterday and we know nothing, for our time on earth is only a shadow. ¹⁰ Won’t they instruct you, and tell you, and bring out words from the heart? ¹¹ “Can papyrus grow where there’s no marsh? Can reeds flourish without water? ¹² While they are still green and not yet ready to be harvested, they wither before any plant. ¹³ Such are the paths of everyone who forgets God— the hope of the godless will be destroyed: ¹⁴ his confidence is shattered; his trust is in a spider’s web. ¹⁵ He leans against his house, but it won’t stand; he grabs hold of it firmly, but it doesn’t last. ¹⁶ He is a fresh sapling planted in the sunlight, spreading out its branches over its garden. ¹⁷ Its roots weave around a pile of stones, seeking to entrench itself among the rocks. ¹⁸ If he is uprooted from his place,
then it will deny him: ‘I never saw you.’ ¹⁹ “Indeed, this is the benefit of God’s way: from the soil other plants will sprout. ²⁰ Surely God won’t reject those who are blameless or hold hands with those who practice evil. ²¹ He will soon fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips will shout with joy. ²² Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.

¹¹ Job’s Friends VisitWhen Job’s three friends heard all these tragedies that happened to him, they each traveled from their home towns to visit him. Eliphaz came from Teman, Bildad came from Shuah, and Zophar came from Naamath. They met together and went to console and comfort him.

³ Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so they may serve me.

⁷ Then the officials of Pharaoh told him, “How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go so they may serve the LORD their God! Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is about to be destroyed?”

¹¹ “Go out,” he responded, “and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD.” And there was the LORD, passing by! A tremendous, mighty windstorm was tearing at the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces in the presence of the LORD, but the LORD was not in the windstorm. After the wind there came an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

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

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

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.

² “Shouldn’t a multitude of words be answered, or a person who talks too much be vindicated? ³ Will your irrational babble silence people, and when you mock them, will you escape without being shamed?

² “Should a wise person respond with knowledge based on wind? Should he fill his stomach with a wind storm from the east?

³ Will windy words like yours never end? What is upsetting you that you keep on arguing?

² “When are you going to stop your word hunt? Think first, and then we can talk.

² “How long do you intend to keep torturing me and trying to break me by what you’re saying? ³ Ten times you’ve tried to humiliate me! You’re not ashamed to wrong me!

²² “You naïve ones, how long will you love naiveté? And how long will scoffers delight in scoffing or fools hate knowledge?”

²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won’t he?”

⁴ Flawless is the work of the Rock, because all his ways are just. A faithful God—never unjust— righteous and upright is he.

⁷ So let the fear of the LORD rest upon you, be on your guard, and act carefully, because with the LORD our God there is neither injustice, nor partiality, nor bribery.”

¹⁷ ‘Can a mortal person be more righteous than God? Or can the purity of the valiant exceed that of his maker?’

² “Indeed, I’m fully aware that this is so, but how can a person become right with God?

³ Does it delight you to oppress or despise what you have made, while you smile at the plans of the wicked?

⁷ Job Accuses God of Being Angry“Although I cried out ‘Violence!’ I received no answer; I cried for help, but there was no justice.

¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Where’s the profit in talking to him?’

²⁰ Their own eyes will see their destruction; and they’ll drink the wrath of the Almighty.

⁵ Elihu Reviews Job’s Complaint against God’s InjusticeNow this is Job’s claim: ‘Even though I’m innocent, God has stopped treating me righteously.

¹⁰ God is Just“Therefore you men of understanding, listen to me! Far be it for God to practice wickedness, or the Almighty to do what is wrong, ¹¹ because he repays a person for his behavior; and according to a person’s conduct, he lets it happen to him. ¹² Truly, God doesn’t practice wickedness, and the Almighty doesn’t pervert justice.

¹⁷ Can one who hates justice really govern? And if God is righteous and mighty, can you condemn him? ¹⁸ Can one say to a king, ‘You’re vile!’ or to nobles, ‘You’re wicked!’? ¹⁹ Who isn’t partial to princes? Who doesn’t give preference to the nobles over the poor? Nevertheless, all of them are his handiwork.

¹³ Theirs is a useless plea— God won’t listen; the Almighty won’t pay any attention.

² “Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God’s accuser answer.”

⁸ Indeed would you annul my justice and condemn me, just so you can claim that you’re righteous?

¹⁴ Righteousness and justice make up the foundation of your throne; gracious love and truth meet before you.

⁴ A mighty king who loves justice, you have established fairness. You have exercised justice and righteousness over Jacob.

²⁵ Accusing God of Unrighteousness“Yet you keep saying, ‘The LORD isn’t being consistent with his standards.’ Pay attention, you house of Israel: Is my behavior really inconsistent with my standards? Isn’t it your behavior that isn’t just?

¹⁷ “Nevertheless, your people’s children keep saying, ‘Living life the Lord’s way isn’t right,’ when all the while it is their way of living that isn’t right.

²⁰ “And yet you keep saying, ‘Living life the Lord’s way isn’t right,’ But I will judge every one of you according to the way you live, you house of Israel!”

¹⁴ So the LORD watched for the right time to bring the calamity upon us, because the LORD our God is righteous regarding everything he does, but we have not obeyed his voice.

⁵ But because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart you are reserving wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁴ Of course not! God is true, even if everyone else is a liar. As it is written, “You are right when you speak, and win your case when you go into court.”
⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God’s righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.) ⁶ Of course not! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

³ They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the lamb: “Your deeds are both spectacular and amazing, Lord God Almighty. Your ways are just and true, King of the nations.

⁷ Then I heard the altar reply, “Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

¹³ Now the men of Sodom were particularly evil and sinful in their defiance of the LORD.

¹³ because we’re going to destroy it. The LORD knows how their behavior stinks, so he sent us here to destroy it!”
¹⁴ Lot then went out and told his sons-in-law (they had married his daughters), “Get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
¹⁵ As dawn was breaking, the angels pressured Lot. “Get going!” they told him. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be engulfed by the devastation that’s coming to this city.”
¹⁶ But Lot kept lingering in the city, so the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters (because of the LORD’s compassion for him!), brought them out of the city, and left them outside. ¹⁷ Then one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back or stop anywhere on the plain. Escape to the hills, or you’ll be swept away!”
¹⁸ “No! Please, my lords!” Lot pleaded with them. ¹⁹ “Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I’m afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it’s a small one. Let me escape there! It’s a small one, isn’t it? That way I’ll stay alive!”
²¹ “All right,” the angel replied to Lot, “I’ll agree with your request! I won’t overthrow the town that you mentioned. ²² Hurry up and flee there, because I cannot do anything until you get to that town.” Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.
²³ Lot’s Wife Becomes a Pillar of SaltThe sun had risen over the land about the time Lot reached Zoar. ²⁴ Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the LORD on Sodom and Gomorrah, ²⁵ overthrowing those cities, all of the plain, and everyone who lived in the cities. He also destroyed the plants that grew out of the ground.

⁵ When their time of feasting had concluded, Job would rise early in the morning to send for them and consecrate them to God. He would offer a burnt offering for each one, because Job thought, “Perhaps my children sinned by cursing God in their hearts.” Job did this time and again.

¹⁸ While this messenger was still speaking, another came and announced, “Your children were celebrating in their oldest brother’s house ¹⁹ when a strong wind came straight out of the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people, and they died. I alone escaped to tell you!”

⁴ His children are far from deliverance; they’ll be maltreated before they leave home, with no one to rescue them.

¹⁶ His roots wither underneath, while his branches above are being cut off. ¹⁷ No one remembers him anywhere in the land; no one names streets in his honor. ¹⁸ He is driven away from light to darkness, made to wander the landscape. ¹⁹ He has no children or descendants within his own people; and no survivors where he once lived.

¹² But when he was in trouble, he sought the face of the LORD his God, humbled himself magnificently before the God of his ancestors, ¹³ and prayed to him. Moved by Manasseh’s entreaties, the LORD heard his supplications and brought him back to his kingdom in Jerusalem. That’s how Manasseh learned that the LORD is God.

⁸ God Can be Trusted in Adversity“Now as for me, I would seek God if I were you; I would commit my case to God.

¹³ Zophar Counsels Job to Repent“Now for you, if you will prepare your heart, spread out your hands to him.

²¹ Eliphaz Challenges Job to Repent“Get to know God, and you’ll be at peace with him, and then prosperity will come to you. ²² Accept what he has to teach you, and treasure his words in your heart. ²³ “If you return to the Almighty you’ll be restored, as you remove iniquity from your household. ²⁴ Bury your gold nuggets in the dust, and your source of gold among the stones in a streambed, ²⁵ and then the Almighty will be your gold and your refined silver. ²⁶ “Then you’ll take delight in the Almighty; and will turn your face toward God. ²⁷ You’ll entreat him and he’ll listen to you as you fulfill your vows. ²⁸ When you make a decision on something, it will be established for you, and light will brighten your way. ²⁹ “For when they’re humbled, you may respond; ‘It’s their pride!’ but he delivers the humble. ³⁰ He’ll even deliver the guilty, who will be delivered through your innocence.”

⁶ Steps to Reconciliation“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. ⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous person his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, So he’ll have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he’ll pardon abundantly.

⁷ Ask, Search, Knock
“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ Because everyone who keeps asking will receive, and the person who keeps searching will find, and the person who keeps knocking will have the door opened.

⁷ A Rest for the People of GodTherefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as they did when they provoked me during the time of testing in the wilderness.

⁷ Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be miserable, mourn, and cry. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the Lord’s presence, and he will exalt you.

⁸ Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on earth. The man is blameless as well as upright. He fears God and keeps away from evil.”

⁶ “Your fear of God has been your confidence, hasn’t it? The integrity of your life has been your hope, hasn’t it? ⁷ Now please think: Who has ever perished when they’re innocent? Where have the upright been destroyed?

²⁴ You’ll know that your home is secure; when you search your possessions, and nothing will be missing.

¹⁷ even though violence is not my intention, and my prayer is pure.”

¹⁴ “They say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We have no desire to know your ways. ¹⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Where’s the profit in talking to him?’

⁶ Get up, LORD, in your anger! Rise up, because of the fury of my enemies; Arouse yourself for me; you have ordained justice.

⁵ I hate the company of those who practice evil, nor do I sit with the wicked. ⁶ I wash my hands innocently. I go around your altar, LORD,

²³ Wake up! Why are you asleep, Lord? Get up! Don’t cast us off forever!

⁴ Without any fault on my part, they rush together and prepare themselves. Get up! Come help me! Pay attention! ⁵ You, LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, God of Israel, stir yourself up to punish all the nations. Show no mercy to those wicked transgressors. Interlude

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won’t listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity.”

¹⁰ Encouragement to the Righteous“Tell the righteous that things will go well, because they will enjoy the fruit of their actions.”

⁹ “Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of long ago. Was it not you who split apart Rehob, who pierced that sea monster through?

⁸ Instructions to Men and WomenTherefore, I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without being angry or argumentative.

¹⁹ This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and how we will be able to keep ourselves strong in his presence.
²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God. ²² Whatever we request we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

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.

¹² The LORD blessed Job during the latter part of his life more than the former, since he owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ He also had seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that grows brighter until the full light of day.

²⁰ Listen to advice and accept discipline, and you’ll be wise for the rest of your life.

¹⁰ For who has despised the time of insignificant things? They will rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These seven lights represent the eyes of the LORD, which are looking throughout all of the earth.”

⁷ It will be a unique day, known only to the LORD—neither daytime nor nighttime—and it will come about at twilight there will be light!

¹² because to anyone who has something, more will be given, and he will have more than enough. But from the one who doesn’t have anything, even what he has will be taken away from him.

³¹ The Parables about a Mustard Seed and Yeast
He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom from heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field. ³² Although it is the smallest of all seeds, when it is fully grown it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, and the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.”

²⁰ For if, after escaping the world’s corruptions through a full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah, they are again entangled and conquered by those corruptions, then their last condition is worse than their former one.

³² Who is Like the LORD?“Indeed, ask from one end of the heavens to the other about days of old, before your time, when God created mankind on the earth. Did we ever have anything as great as this, or ever hear of anything like it?

⁷ An Exhortation to Remember God’s WorkRemember the days of old, reflect on the years of previous generations. Ask your father, and he’ll tell you; your elders will inform you.

¹² God is the All-Wise and All-Powerful Creator“Wisdom may be found in the company of the aged. Understanding comes with longevity.

¹⁰ “We have both the gray-haired and the aged with us, and they are far older than your father.

¹⁸ which is what wise men have explained, who didn’t withhold anything from their ancestors.

⁶ Barachel’s son Elihu from Buz responded and said: I’m younger than you are. Because you’re older, I was terrified to tell you what I know. ⁷ I thought, experience should speak; abundance of years teaches wisdom.

¹ To the Director: An instruction of the Sons of Korah.
A Prayer in Times of Defeat God, we heard it with our ears; our ancestors told us about what you did in their day— a long time ago.

³ things that we have heard and known and that our ancestors related to us. ⁴ We will not withhold them from their descendants; we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD— his might and awesome deeds that he has performed.

¹⁹ The living—yes the living—they thank you, just as I am doing today; fathers will tell their children about your faithfulness.

⁴ For everything that was written long ago was written to instruct us, so that we might have hope through the endurance and encouragement that the Scriptures give us.

¹¹ These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down as a warning for us in whom the culmination of the ages has been attained.

⁹ “I’m 130 years old,” Jacob replied. “My years have turned out to be few and unpleasant, but I haven’t yet reached the age my ancestors did during their travels on earth.”

¹⁵ For we are aliens and vagrants in your presence, as were all of our ancestors. Our days on the earth pass away like shadows, and we have no hope.

⁶ My days pass as swiftly as a hand-loom; they come to their conclusion without hope.

² He springs up like a flower and then withers. Like a shadow, he disappears and doesn’t last.

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

⁴ One thousand years in your sight are but a single day that passes by, just like a night watch.

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

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

⁷ Teach them repeatedly to your children. Talk about them while sitting in your house or walking on the road, and as you lie down or get up.

¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them while sitting in your house, walking on the road, or when you are about to lie down or get up.

⁷ Wisdom Can Be Found in God’s Creation“Ask the wild animals, and they’ll teach you; the birds of the sky will tell you. ⁸ Or ask the green plants of the earth and they’ll teach you; let the fish in the sea tell you.

⁷ I thought, experience should speak; abundance of years teaches wisdom.

⁴ One generation will acclaim your works to another and will describe your mighty actions.

²³ A wise person’s thoughts control his words, and his speech promotes instruction.

¹⁵ The mind of a discerning person gains knowledge, while the ears of wise people seek out knowledge.

³⁵ A good person brings good things out of a good treasure house, and an evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure house.

⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did, and by faith he was declared to be righteous, since God himself accepted his offerings. And by faith he continues to speak, even though he is dead.

¹ We Must Look Off to JesusTherefore, having so vast a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles us, let us keep running with endurance the race set before us,

³ But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus container, coated it with asphalt and pitch, placed the child in it, and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

⁵ A Rebuke to Egypt’s Ecology and Industry“The water sources of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will become dry and parched. ⁶ The canals will stink, and the tributaries of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. Reeds and rushes will wither away. ⁷ And the bulrushes along the Nile, along the mouth of the Nile, will wither away. All the sown fields of the Nile will become parched, and they will be blown away; there will be nothing left.

⁶ May they become like a tuft of grass on a roof top, that withers before it takes root— ⁷ not enough to fill one’s hand or to bundle in one’s arms.

⁶ He will be like a bush in the desert, and he won’t see when good comes. He will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitants.

²⁰ As for what was sown on the stony ground, this is the person who hears the word and accepts it joyfully at once,

¹⁰ and a rich person in his having been humbled, because he will fade away like a wild flower. 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.

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,

¹² be careful not to forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and slavery.

¹¹ Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the LORD your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I’m commanding you this day.

¹⁴ then you will become arrogant. You’ll neglect the LORD your God,

¹⁹ If you neglect the LORD your God, follow other gods, and serve and worship them, I testify to you today that you will certainly be destroyed.

²⁰ But what the wicked look for will fail; their way of escape will be taken away from them; their only hope is to take their final breath.”

¹⁶ I have this as my salvation: the godless person won’t be appearing before him.

³⁴ For the company of the godless is desolation, and fire consumes the tents of those who bribe.

¹⁴ Torn from the security of his home, he is brought before the king of terrors.

⁵ The wicked triumph only briefly; the joy of the godless is momentary.

⁸ For where is the hope of the godless when he is eliminated; when God takes away his life? ⁹ Will God hear his cry when distress overtakes him? ¹⁰ Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?”

¹³ The godless at heart cherish anger; they won’t cry out for help when God afflicts them.

¹⁷ The wicked will turn back to where the dead are— all the nations that have forgotten God.

⁴ With haughty arrogance, the wicked thinks, “God will not seek justice.” He always presumes “There is no God.”

²² Consider this, you who have forgotten God— Otherwise, I will tear you in pieces and there will be no deliverer:

²⁸ What the righteous hope for brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked dies.

⁷ After they’re overthrown, the wicked won’t be found, but the house of the righteous stands firm.

¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”

¹³ As a result, you have forgotten the LORD who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations, and you live in constant fear every day because of the oppressor’s fury, since he’s ready to destroy. Now where is the oppressor’s fury?

¹⁸ So I say, “My strength is gone as is my hope in the LORD.”

⁵¹ Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹ A Warning against HypocrisyMeanwhile, the people had gathered by the thousands and were trampling on one another. Jesus began to speak first to his disciples. “Watch out for the yeast—that is, the hypocrisy—of the Pharisees! ² There is nothing covered up that won’t be exposed and nothing secret that won’t be made known.

⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs and weave a spider’s web; whoever eats their eggs dies, and any crushed egg hatches out futility. ⁶ Their cobwebs cannot become clothing, they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are deeds of iniquity, and acts of violence fill their hands.

¹⁸ “He has built his house like a moth’s cocoon, like a temporary sunshade that a watchman makes.

¹¹ Their inner thoughts are on their homes forever; their dwellings from generation to generation. They even name their lands after themselves.

⁵ But God will tear you down forever; he will take you away, even snatching you out of your tent! He will uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude ⁶ The righteous will fear when they see this, but then they will laugh at him, saying, ⁷ “Look, here is a young man who refused to make God his strength; instead, he trusted in his great wealth and made his wickedness his strength.

¹⁰ The wicked person sees this and flies into a rage; his teeth gnash and wear away. The desire of the wicked will amount to nothing.

²⁴ The Two Foundations
“Therefore, everyone who listens to these messages of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation was on the rock.
²⁶ “Everyone who keeps on hearing these messages of mine and never puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and battered that house, and it collapsed—and its collapse was total.”

⁴⁷ I will show you what everyone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. ⁴⁸ They are like a person building a house, who dug a deep hole to lay the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the floodwaters pushed against that house but couldn’t shake it, because it had been founded on the rock. ⁴⁹ But the person who hears what I say but doesn’t act on it is like someone who built a house on the ground without any foundation. When the floodwaters pushed against it, that house quickly collapsed, and the resulting destruction of that house was extensive.”

³ “I myself saw a fool becoming established, but I suddenly cursed where he lived.

⁷ The Wicked Prospers“Why do the wicked live to reach old age and increase in power and wealth, too? ⁸ Their children grow up while they’re alive, and they live to see their grandchildren. ⁹ Their houses are safe from fear, and God’s chastisement never visits them. ¹⁰ Their bull breeds without fail, and their cows calve without miscarriages. ¹¹ They release their children to play like sheep; their young ones dance about, ¹² singing with tambourines and lyres as they rejoice to the sound of flutes. ¹³ They grow old in prosperity, as they descend peacefully into the afterlife.

³⁵ I once observed a wicked and oppressive person, flourishing like a green tree in native soil. ³⁶ But then he passed away; in fact, he simply was not there. When I looked for him, he could not be found.

³ For I was envious of the proud when I observed the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴ For there is no struggle at their deaths, and their bodies are healthy. ⁵ They do not experience problems common to ordinary people; they aren’t afflicted as others are. ⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace and violence covers them like a garment. ⁷ Their eyes bulge from obesity and the imaginations of their mind cross the border into sin. ⁸ In their mockery they speak evil; from their arrogant position they speak oppression. ⁹ They choose to speak against heaven; while they talk about things on earth. ¹⁰ Therefore God’s people return there and drink it all in like water until they’re satiated. ¹¹ Then they say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” ¹² Just look at these wicked people! They’re perpetually carefree as they increase their wealth.

¹¹ Its branches spread out to the Mediterranean Sea and its shoots to the Euphrates River.

¹⁶ The LORD once called you a green olive tree, with beautiful shape and fruit. With a great roaring sound, he has set fire to it and its branches will be destroyed.

¹⁶ His roots wither underneath, while his branches above are being cut off.

¹⁹ My roots have spread out and have found water, and dew settles at night on my branches.

²⁴ The Effects of Divine JudgmentTherefore, as flames of fire devour straw, as dry grass collapses in flames, so their root will be rotten, and their blossom will blow away like dust, because they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴ No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the earth, than he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest sweeps them away like stubble.

¹ Jeremiah’s Complaint about Justice You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease? ² You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. “You are near to us,” they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you’re far from their hearts.

²⁰ The Lesson from the Dried Fig Tree
While they were walking along early the next morning, they saw the fig tree dried up to its roots.

¹² These people are stains on your love feasts. They feast with you without any sense of awe. They are shepherds who care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds blown about by the winds. They are autumn trees that are fruitless, totally dead, and uprooted.

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!

¹⁰ He doesn’t return again to his house, and his place won’t recognize him anymore.”

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

¹⁰ Yet a little while longer, and the wicked will be no more. You will search for his place, but he will not be there.

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

¹⁸ You have certainly set them in slippery places; you will make them fall to their ruin. ¹⁹ How desolate they quickly become, completely destroyed by calamities.

⁷ Though the wicked sprout like grass; and all who practice iniquity flourish, it is they who will be eternally destroyed.

⁸ He raises the poor up from the dust, he lifts up the needy from the trash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. Indeed the pillars of the earth belong to the LORD, and he has set the world on them.

⁷ since God is the judge. This one he will debase or that one he will exalt.

⁷ He lifts the poor person from the dust, raising the needy from the trash pile

²⁴ Then all the trees of the fields will know that I, the LORD, bring down the lofty tree and exalt the lowly tree. I dry up the green tree and cause the dry tree to bud. I the LORD have spoken this, and I will fulfill it.”

⁹ Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones!

²⁰ As for what was sown on the stony ground, this is the person who hears the word and accepts it joyfully at once, ²¹ but since he doesn’t have any root in himself, he lasts for only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes along because of the word, he immediately falls away.

⁷ Now please think: Who has ever perished when they’re innocent? Where have the upright been destroyed?

²² I say it’s all the same— he destroys both the blameless and the guilty.

³⁰ that the wicked person is spared from times of calamity, that he is rescued on the day of wrath?

²⁴ Though he stumbles, he will not fall down flat, for the LORD will hold up his hand.

³⁷ Observe the blameless! Take note of the upright! Indeed, the future of that man is peace.

¹⁴ For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage.

¹ Cyrus: God’s Deliverer This is what the LORD says to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, as I strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him and gates that cannot keep closed:

⁶ Now Sarah had said, “God has caused me to laugh, and all who hear about it will laugh with me.”

¹¹ And they sang in unison to one another, giving thanks to the LORD: “He is good, and his gracious love to Israel endures forever.”
And all the people shouted out loudly in praise to the LORD when the foundation of the LORD’s Temple was laid.
¹² Remembering the Former TempleNow a number of the priests, the Levities, and the leading officials of the elders—who were very elderly—had seen the former Temple with their own eyes. When they observed the foundation of the Temple being laid, they wept with a loud voice, while the rest of them shouted for joy. ¹³ As a result, the people couldn’t distinguish between the noise coming from the shouts of joy and the noise coming from the weeping people, because everyone was shouting loudly and could be heard a long way off.

⁴³ That day they offered a large number of sacrifices, and they rejoiced, because God had caused them to rejoice enthusiastically. Their wives and children rejoiced, so that Jerusalem’s joy was heard from a long distance.

²² You’ll laugh at destruction and famine; and you need not fear the beasts of the earth.

¹¹ Righteous ones, be glad in the LORD and rejoice! Shout for joy, all of you who are upright in heart!

⁴ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Break forth into joyful songs of praise!

¹ A psalm of thanksgiving
Give Thanks to the LORD Shout to the LORD all the earth!

² Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues formed joyful shouts. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

⁶ The one who goes out weeping, carrying a bag of seeds, will surely return with a joyful song, bearing sheaves from his harvest.

¹³ The Righteous and Wicked ContrastedTherefore, this is what the LORD says: “See, my servants will eat, but you’ll go hungry; my servants will drink, but you’ll go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you’ll be put to shame. ¹⁴ My servants will sing in gladness of heart, but you’ll cry for help from anguish of heart, and you’ll howl from brokenness of spirit.

²¹ How blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be satisfied! How blessed are you who are crying now, because you will laugh!

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!”

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

²⁶ Instead, let those who gloat over the evil directed against me be ashamed and confounded together; Let those who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and dishonor.

²⁹ May my accusers be clothed with shame and wrapped in their humiliation as with a robe.

¹⁸ I will clothe his enemies with disgrace, but on him his crown will shine.”

⁵ Be Humble and AlertIn a similar way, you young people must submit to the elders. All of you must clothe yourselves with humility for the sake of each other, because: “God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble.”