Job 35 - 36 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 35 - 36

Elihu Answers Job

Then Elihu answered and said, 2

“Do you think this is according to justice?

Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?

For you say, ‘What use will it be to You?

What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

I will respond to you,

And your friends with you.

Look at the heavens and see;

And perceive the clouds—they are higher than you.

If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him?

And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?

If you are righteous, what do you give to Him,

Or what does He receive from your hand?

Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,

And your righteousness is for a son of man.

“Because of many oppressions they cry out;

They cry for help because of the arm of many oppressors.

But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,

Who gives songs of praise in the night,

Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth

And makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’

There they cry out, but He does not answer

Because of the pride of evil men.

Surely God will not listen to an empty cry,

Nor will the Almighty perceive it.

How much less when you say you do not perceive Him,

The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!

And now, because He has not visited in His anger,

Nor has He acknowledged transgression well,

So Job opens his mouth vainly;

He multiplies words without knowledge.”

Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice

Then Elihu continued and said, 2

“Wait for me a little, and I will show you

That there is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.

I will take up my knowledge from afar,

And I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

For truly my words are not a lie;

One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

Behold, God is mighty but does not reject;

He is mighty in the power of His heart.

He does not keep the wicked alive,

But gives justice to the afflicted.

He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous;

But with kings on the throne

He has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

And if they are bound in fetters,

And are caught in the cords of affliction,

Then He declares to them their work

And their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.

He opens their ear to discipline,

And says that they return from wickedness.

If they hear and serve Him,

They will end their days in prosperity

And their years in pleasures.

But if they do not hear, they shall pass away by a weapon

And they will breathe their last without knowledge.

But the godless in heart lay up anger;

They do not cry for help when He binds them.

They die in youth,

And their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.

He delivers the afflicted in their affliction,

And opens their ear in time of oppression.

Then indeed, He enticed you from the mouth of distress,

Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;

And the comfort of your table full of fatness.

“But you were full of judgment on the wicked;

Judgment and justice take hold of you.

Beware lest wrath entice you to scoffing;

And do not let the greatness of the atonement turn you aside.

Will your cries keep you from distress,

Or all the forces of your power?

Do not long for the night,

When people vanish in their place.

Be careful, do not turn to wickedness,

For you have chosen this to affliction.

Behold, God is exalted in His power;

Who is a teacher like Him?

Who has appointed Him His way,

And who has said, ‘You have worked out unrighteousness’?

“Remember that you should exalt His work,

Of which men have sung.

All men have beheld it;

Man looks from afar.

Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;

The number of His years is unsearchable.

For He draws up the drops of water,

They distill rain for His stream,

Which the clouds pour down,

They drip upon man abundantly.

Can anyone discern the spreading of the clouds,

The thundering of His pavilion?

Behold, He spreads His lightning about Him,

And He covers the depths of the sea.

For by these He judges peoples;

He gives food in abundance.

He covers His hands with the lightning,

And commands it to strike the mark.

Its thundering declares about Him;

The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.

Luke 14

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely. 2 And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 And Jesus answered and spoke to the scholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4 But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. 5 And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” 6 And they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Wedding Feast

7 And He was telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in shame you proceed to occupy the last place. 10 But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who recline at the table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” 12 And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for it will be repaid to you at the resurrection of the righteous.” 15 But when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

16 And He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many. 17 And at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 19 And another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. I ask you, consider me excused.’ 20 And another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’ 21 And when the slave came back, he reported these things to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the fences, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.’”

The Cost of Discipleship

25 Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Lest, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. 34 “Therefore, salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? 35 It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Psalm 45

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

For the choir director. According to Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. A Maskil. A Song of Love.

My heart overflows with a good theme;

I address my verses to the King;

My tongue is the pen of a skillful scribe.

You are fairer than the sons of men;

Grace is poured upon Your lips;

Therefore God has blessed You forever.

Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One,

In Your splendor and Your majesty!

And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,

For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;

Let Your right hand teach You awesome things.

Your arrows are sharp;

The peoples fall under You;

Your arrows are in the heart of the King’s enemies.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;

A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of joy above Your companions.

All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;

Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

Kings’ daughters are among Your noble ladies;

At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:

Forget your people and your father’s house;

Then the King will desire your beauty.

Because He is your Lord, bow down to Him.

The daughter of Tyre will come with a present;

The rich among the people will seek your favor.

The King’s daughter is all glorious within her chamber;

Her clothing is interwoven with gold.

She will be led to the King in embroidered work;

The virgins, her companions who follow her,

Will be brought to You.

They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing;

They will enter into the King’s palace.

In place of your fathers will be your sons;

You shall set them up as princes in all the earth.

I will cause Your name to be remembered from generation to every generation;

Therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever.