Job 35 - 36, Luke 14, Psalm 45 — Legacy Standard Bible

Elihu Answers Job

35Then Elihu answered and said,

²“Do you think this is according to ^ajustice?Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?³“For you say, ‘^aWhat use will it be to ¹You?^bWhat profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’⁴“I will respond to you,And your friends with you.⁵“^aLook at the heavens and see;And perceive ^bthe clouds—they are higher than you.⁶“If you have sinned, ^awhat do you accomplish against Him?And if your transgressions are many, what do you do to Him?⁷“If you are righteous, ^awhat do you give to Him,Or what does He receive from your hand?⁸“Your wickedness is for a man like yourself,And your righteousness is for a son of man.⁹“Because of ^amany oppressions they cry out;They cry for help because of the arm ^bof many oppressors.¹⁰“But ^ano one says, ‘Where is God my Maker,Who ^bgives songs of praise in the night,¹¹Who ^ateaches us more than the beasts of the earthAnd makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’¹²“There ^athey cry out, but He does not answerBecause of the pride of evil men.¹³“Surely ^aGod will not listen to ¹an empty cry,Nor will the Almighty perceive it.¹⁴“How much less when ^ayou say you do not perceive Him,The ^bcase is before Him, and you must wait for Him!¹⁵“And now, because He has not visited in His anger,Nor has He acknowledged ¹transgression well,¹⁶So Job opens his mouth vainly;He multiplies words ^awithout knowledge.”

Elihu Says God Gives the Afflicted Justice

36Then Elihu continued and said,

²“Wait for me a little, and I will show youThat there ¹is yet more to be said in God’s behalf.³“I will take up my knowledge from afar,And I will ascribe ^arighteousness to my Maker.⁴“For truly ^amy words are not a lie;One who is ¹^,^bperfect in knowledge is with you.⁵“Behold, God is mighty but does not ^areject;He is ^bmighty in the power of His heart.⁶“He does not ^akeep the wicked alive,But gives justice to ^bthe afflicted.⁷“He does not ^awithdraw His eyes from the righteous;But ^bwith kings on the throneHe has seated them forever, and they are exalted.⁸“And if they are bound in fetters,And are caught in the cords of ^aaffliction,⁹Then He declares to them their workAnd their transgressions, that they have ^amagnified themselves.¹⁰“^aHe opens their ear to discipline,And ^bsays that they return from wickedness.¹¹“If they hear and serve Him,They will ^aend their days in prosperityAnd their years in ^bpleasures.¹²“But if they do not hear, they shall pass away ^aby a weaponAnd they will ^bbreathe their last without knowledge.¹³“But the godless in heart lay up anger;They do not cry for help when He binds them.¹⁴“¹They die in youth,And their life perishes among the ^acult prostitutes.¹⁵“He delivers the afflicted in ¹their ^aaffliction,And ^bopens their ear in ²time of oppression.¹⁶“Then indeed, He ^aenticed you from the mouth of distress,Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint;And the comfort of your table full of ¹fatness.¹⁷“But you were full of ^ajudgment on the wicked;Judgment and justice take hold of you.¹⁸“Beware lest ^awrath entice you to scoffing;And do not let the greatness of the ^batonement turn you aside.¹⁹“Will your ¹cries keep you from distress,Or all the forces of your power?²⁰“Do not long for ^athe night,When people ¹vanish in their place.²¹“Be careful, do ^anot turn to wickedness,For you have chosen this to ^baffliction.²²“Behold, God is exalted in His power;Who is a ^ateacher like Him?²³“Who has appointed Him His way,And who has said, ‘^aYou have worked out ¹unrighteousness’?²⁴“Remember that you should ^aexalt His work,Of which men have ^bsung.²⁵“All men have beheld it;Man looks from afar.²⁶“Behold, God is ^aexalted, and ^bwe do not know Him;The ^cnumber of His years is unsearchable.²⁷“For ^aHe draws up the drops of water,They distill rain for His ¹stream,²⁸Which the clouds pour down,They drip upon man abundantly.²⁹“Can anyone discern the ^aspreading of the clouds,The ^bthundering of His ¹pavilion?³⁰“Behold, He spreads His ¹lightning about Him,And He covers the depths of the sea.³¹“For by these He ^ajudges peoples;He ^bgives food in abundance.³²“He covers His hands with the ¹lightning,And ^acommands it to strike the mark.³³“Its ^athundering declares about Him;The cattle also, concerning what is coming up.

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

14And it happened that when He went into the house of one of the ¹leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, ^athey were watching Him closely. ²And behold, in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy. ³And Jesus answered and spoke to the ^ascholars of the Law and Pharisees, saying, “^bIs it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” ⁴But they were silent. And He took hold of him, healed him, and sent him away. ⁵And He said to them, “¹^,^aWhich 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^aAnd they could make no reply to this.

Parable of the Wedding Feast

⁷And He was telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how ^athey were picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, ^ado not recline at the place of honor, lest someone more highly regarded than you be invited by him, ⁹and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then ^ain shame you ¹proceed 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, ^amove up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who recline at the table with you. ¹¹“^aFor everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²And 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 ¹reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed, since they ¹do not have the means to repay you; for it will be repaid to you at ^athe resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵But when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “^aBlessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Parable of the Dinner

¹⁶And He said to him, “^aA 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 ¹piece 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, ‘^aI 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 ¹fences, 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

²⁵Now many crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, ²⁶“^aIf anyone comes to Me, and does not ¹hate 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 ^acarry 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, ³⁰saying, ‘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 ^aconsider 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 ¹a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³“So then, none of you can be My disciple who ^adoes not give up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good, but ^aif 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. ^aHe who has ears to hear, ¹let him hear.”

Your Throne, O God, Is Forever

For the choir director. According to ¹Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. A ²Maskil. A Song of Love.

My heart ³overflows with a good theme;I ⁴address my ⁵verses to the ⁶King;My tongue is the pen of ^aa skillful scribe.²You are fairer than the sons of men;^aGrace is poured ¹upon Your lips;Therefore God has ^bblessed You forever.³Gird ^aYour sword on Your thigh, O ¹^,^bMighty One,In Your splendor and Your majesty!⁴And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,For the cause of truth and ^ameekness and righteousness;Let Your ^bright hand teach You ¹awesome things.⁵Your ^aarrows are sharp;The ^bpeoples fall under You;Your arrows are ^cin the heart of the King’s enemies.⁶^aYour throne, O God, is forever and ever;A scepter of ^buprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.⁷You have ^aloved righteousness and hated wickedness;Therefore God, Your God, has ^banointed YouWith the oil of joy above Your companions.⁸All Your garments are fragrant with ^amyrrh and aloes and cassia;Out of ivory palaces ^bstringed instruments have made You glad.⁹Kings’ daughters are among ^aYour noble ladies;At Your ^bright hand stands the queen in ^cgold from Ophir.¹⁰Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:^aForget your people and your father’s house;¹¹Then the King will desire your beauty.Because He is your ^aLord, ^bbow down to Him.¹²The daughter of ^aTyre will come with a present;The ^brich among the people will seek your favor.¹³The King’s daughter is all glorious within her chamber;Her clothing is ^ainterwoven with gold.¹⁴She will be ^aled to the King ^bin embroidered work;The ^cvirgins, her companions who follow her,Will be brought to You.¹⁵They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing;They will enter into the King’s palace.¹⁶In place of your fathers will be your sons;You shall set them up as princes in all the earth.¹⁷I will cause ^aYour name to be remembered from generation to every generation;Therefore the peoples ^bwill give You thanks forever and ever.