Job 39 - 40 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 39 - 40

“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?

Do you keep watch over the calving of the deer?

Can you count the months they fulfill,

Or do you know the time they give birth?

They kneel down; they bring forth their young;

They send out their labor pains.

Their children become strong; they grow up in the open field;

They leave and do not return to them.

“Who sent out the wild donkey free?

And who loosed the bonds of the swift donkey,

For whom I have set the desert plain as a home

And the salt land as his dwelling place?

He laughs at the tumult of the city;

The shoutings of the driver he does not hear.

He explores the mountains for his pasture

And searches after every green thing.

Will the wild ox consent to serve you,

Or will he spend the night at your manger?

Can you bind the wild ox in a furrow with ropes,

Or will he harrow the valleys after you?

Will you trust him because his power is great

And leave your labor to him?

Will you believe him that he will return your seed of grain

And gather it from your threshing floor?

“The ostriches’ wings flap joyously

But are they the pinion and plumage of a stork?

For she leaves her eggs to the earth

And warms them in the dust,

And she forgets that a foot may crush them,

Or that a beast of the field may trample them.

She treats her children cruelly, as if they were not hers;

Though her labor be empty, she is without dread,

Because God has made her forget wisdom,

And has not given her a share of understanding.

When she raises herself up high,

She laughs at the horse and his rider.

“Do you give the horse his might?

Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

Do you make him leap like the locust?

His splendid snorting is terrible.

He paws in the valley and rejoices in his power;

He goes out to meet the weapons.

He laughs at dread and is not dismayed;

And he does not turn back from the sword.

The quiver rattles against him,

The flashing spear and javelin.

With shaking and rage he races over the ground,

And he does not stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’

And he scents the battle from afar,

And the thunder of the commanders and the shout of war.

“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars,

Stretching his wings toward the south?

Is it at your command that the eagle goes on high

And raises his nest high?

On the cliff he dwells and lodges,

Upon the rocky crag, a fortress.

From there he spies out food;

His eyes see it from afar.

His young ones also suck up blood;

And where the slain are, there is he.”

Job Places His Hand over His Mouth

Then Yahweh answered Job and said, 2

“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?

Let him who reproves God answer it.”

3 Then Job answered Yahweh and said, 4

“Behold, I am insignificant; what can I respond to You?

I place my hand over my mouth.

Once I have spoken, and I will not answer;

Even twice, and I will add nothing more.”

Yahweh Will Ask Job

6 Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 7

“Now gird up your loins like a man;

I will ask you, and you make Me know.

Will you really annul My judgment?

Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?

Or do you have an arm like God,

And can you thunder with a voice like His?

“Adorn yourself with exaltation and loftiness,

And clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

Pour out the overflowings of your anger,

And look on everyone who is proud, and make him low.

Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him,

And tread down the wicked in their place.

Hide them in the dust together;

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

Then I will also praise you,

That your own right hand can save you.

Behold the Behemoth

“Behold now, Behemoth, which I made along with you;

It eats grass like an ox.

Behold now, its power in its loins

And its vigor in the muscles of its belly.

It hangs its tail like a cedar;

The sinews of its thighs are knit together.

Its bones are tubes of bronze;

Its limbs are like bars of iron.

“It is the first of the ways of God;

Let its Maker bring near its sword.

Surely the mountains bring it food,

And all the beasts of the field play there.

Under the lotus plants it lies down,

In the hidden place of the reeds and the marsh.

The lotus plants cover it with shade;

The willows of the brook surround it.

If a river oppresses, it is not alarmed;

It is secure, though the Jordan bursts forth to its mouth.

Can anyone capture it before its eyes,

With snares can anyone pierce its nose?

Luke 16

The Parable of the Unrighteous Steward

Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a steward, and this steward was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called for him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ 3 And the steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the stewardship people will take me into their homes.’ 5 And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘One hundred baths of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly, for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves from the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will take you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much, and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since that time the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail. 18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I am asking you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Psalm 48

The City of Our God

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised,

In the city of our God, His holy mountain.

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,

Is Mount Zion in the far north,

The city of the great King.

God, in her palaces,

Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

For, behold, the kings assembled themselves,

They passed by together.

They saw it, then they were astonished;

They were dismayed, they fled in alarm.

Panic seized them there,

Anguish, as of a woman in childbirth.

With the east wind

You break the ships of Tarshish.

As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of Yahweh of hosts, in the city of our God;

God will establish her forever. Selah.

We have thought on Your lovingkindness, O God,

In the midst of Your temple.

As is Your name, O God,

So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness.

Let Mount Zion be glad,

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice

Because of Your judgments.

Walk about Zion and go around her;

Count her towers;

Consider her ramparts;

Go through her palaces,

That you may recount it to the next generation.

For this is God,

Our God forever and ever;

He will guide us over death.