August 11, 2026

Job32

Elihu Rebukes Job’s Three Friends

1 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God. 3 He burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger.

6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said:

“I am young in years,

and you are aged;

therefore I was timid and afraid

to declare my opinion to you.

7 I said, ‘Let days speak,

and many years teach wisdom.’

8 But it is the spirit in man,

the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand.

9 It is not the old who are wise,

nor the aged who understand what is right.

10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;

let me also declare my opinion.’

11 “Behold, I waited for your words,

I listened for your wise sayings,

while you searched out what to say.

12 I gave you my attention,

and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job

or who answered his words.

13 Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom;

God may vanquish him, not a man.’

14 He has not directed his words against me,

and I will not answer him with your speeches.

15 “They are dismayed; they answer no more;

they have not a word to say.

16 And shall I wait, because they do not speak,

because they stand there, and answer no more?

17 I also will answer with my share;

I also will declare my opinion.

18 For I am full of words;

the spirit within me constrains me.

19 Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;

like new wineskins ready to burst.

20 I must speak, that I may find relief;

I must open my lips and answer.

21 I will not show partiality to any man

or use flattery toward any person.

22 For I do not know how to flatter,

else my Maker would soon take me away.

Job33

Elihu Rebukes Job

1 “But now, hear my speech, O Job,

and listen to all my words.

2 Behold, I open my mouth;

the tongue in my mouth speaks.

3 My words declare the uprightness of my heart,

and what my lips know they speak sincerely.

4 The Spirit of God has made me,

and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

5 Answer me, if you can;

set your words in order before me; take your stand.

6 Behold, I am toward God as you are;

I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

7 Behold, no fear of me need terrify you;

my pressure will not be heavy upon you.

8 “Surely you have spoken in my ears,

and I have heard the sound of your words.

9 You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression;

I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

10 Behold, he finds occasions against me,

he counts me as his enemy,

11 he puts my feet in the stocks

and watches all my paths.’

12 “Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you,

for God is greater than man.

13 Why do you contend against him,

saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’?

14 For God speaks in one way,

and in two, though man does not perceive it.

15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

while they slumber on their beds,

16 then he opens the ears of men

and terrifies them with warnings,

17 that he may turn man aside from his deed

and conceal pride from a man;

18 he keeps back his soul from the pit,

his life from perishing by the sword.

19 “Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed

and with continual strife in his bones,

20 so that his life loathes bread,

and his appetite the choicest food.

21 His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,

and his bones that were not seen stick out.

22 His soul draws near the pit,

and his life to those who bring death.

23 If there be for him an angel,

a mediator, one of the thousand,

to declare to man what is right for him,

24 and he is merciful to him, and says,

‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;

I have found a ransom;

25 let his flesh become fresh with youth;

let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him;

he sees his face with a shout of joy,

and he restores to man his righteousness.

27 He sings before men and says:

‘I sinned and perverted what was right,

and it was not repaid to me.

28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,

and my life shall look upon the light.’

29 “Behold, God does all these things,

twice, three times, with a man,

30 to bring back his soul from the pit,

that he may be lighted with the light of life.

31 Pay attention, O Job, listen to me;

be silent, and I will speak.

32 If you have any words, answer me;

speak, for I desire to justify you.

33 If not, listen to me;

be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

Job34

Elihu Asserts God’s Justice

1 Then Elihu answered and said:

2 “Hear my words, you wise men,

and give ear to me, you who know;

3 for the ear tests words

as the palate tastes food.

4 Let us choose what is right;

let us know among ourselves what is good.

5 For Job has said, ‘I am in the right,

and God has taken away my right;

6 in spite of my right I am counted a liar;

my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’

7 What man is like Job,

who drinks up scoffing like water,

8 who travels in company with evildoers

and walks with wicked men?

9 For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing

that he should take delight in God.’

10 “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:

far be it from God that he should do wickedness,

and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

11 For according to the work of a man he will repay him,

and according to his ways he will make it befall him.

12 Of a truth, God will not do wickedly,

and the Almighty will not pervert justice.

13 Who gave him charge over the earth,

and who laid on him the whole world?

14 If he should set his heart to it

and gather to himself his spirit and his breath,

15 all flesh would perish together,

and man would return to dust.

16 “If you have understanding, hear this;

listen to what I say.

17 Shall one who hates justice govern?

Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty,

18 who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’

and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’

19 who shows no partiality to princes,

nor regards the rich more than the poor,

for they are all the work of his hands?

20 In a moment they die;

at midnight the people are shaken and pass away,

and the mighty are taken away by no human hand.

21 “For his eyes are on the ways of a man,

and he sees all his steps.

22 There is no gloom or deep darkness

where evildoers may hide themselves.

23 For God has no need to consider a man further,

that he should go before God in judgment.

24 He shatters the mighty without investigation

and sets others in their place.

25 Thus, knowing their works,

he overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.

26 He strikes them for their wickedness

in a place for all to see,

27 because they turned aside from following him

and had no regard for any of his ways,

28 so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him,

and he heard the cry of the afflicted—

29 When he is quiet, who can condemn?

When he hides his face, who can behold him,

whether it be a nation or a man?—

30 that a godless man should not reign,

that he should not ensnare the people.

31 “For has anyone said to God,

‘I have borne punishment; I will not offend any more;

32 teach me what I do not see;

if I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?

33 Will he then make repayment to suit you,

because you reject it?

For you must choose, and not I;

therefore declare what you know.

34 Men of understanding will say to me,

and the wise man who hears me will say:

35 ‘Job speaks without knowledge;

his words are without insight.’

36 Would that Job were tried to the end,

because he answers like wicked men.

37 For he adds rebellion to his sin;

he claps his hands among us

and multiplies his words against God.”

Romans6

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans7

Released from the Law

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

The Law and Sin

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.