November 4, 2026

Job7

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope

1 “Has not man a hard service on earth,

and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?

2 Like a slave who longs for the shadow,

and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,

3 so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

4 When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.

7 “Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will never again see good.

8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.

9 As the cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;

10 he returns no more to his house,

nor does his place know him anymore.

11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

12 Am I the sea, or a sea monster,

that you set a guard over me?

13 When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’

14 then you scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

15 so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my bones.

16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.

Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

17 What is man, that you make so much of him,

and that you set your heart on him,

18 visit him every morning

and test him every moment?

19 How long will you not look away from me,

nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?

20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?

Why have you made me your mark?

Why have I become a burden to you?

21 Why do you not pardon my transgression

and take away my iniquity?

For now I shall lie in the earth;

you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

Job8

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2 “How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

3 Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

4 If your children have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

5 If you will seek God

and plead with the Almighty for mercy,

6 if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will rouse himself for you

and restore your rightful habitation.

7 And though your beginning was small,

your latter days will be very great.

8 “For inquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what the fathers have searched out.

9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are a shadow.

10 Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?

11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

12 While yet in flower and not cut down,

they wither before any other plant.

13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;

the hope of the godless shall perish.

14 His confidence is severed,

and his trust is a spider’s web.

15 He leans against his house, but it does not stand;

he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

16 He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his shoots spread over his garden.

17 His roots entwine the stone heap;

he looks upon a house of stones.

18 If he is destroyed from his place,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

19 Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of the soil others will spring.

20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job9

Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

1 Then Job answered and said:

2 “Truly I know that it is so:

But how can a man be in the right before God?

3 If one wished to contend with him,

one could not answer him once in a thousand times.

4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength

—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—

5 he who removes mountains, and they know it not,

when he overturns them in his anger,

6 who shakes the earth out of its place,

and its pillars tremble;

7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;

who seals up the stars;

8 who alone stretched out the heavens

and trampled the waves of the sea;

9 who made the Bear and Orion,

the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

10 who does great things beyond searching out,

and marvelous things beyond number.

11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;

he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

12 Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?

Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;

beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.

14 How then can I answer him,

choosing my words with him?

15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;

I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

16 If I summoned him and he answered me,

I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

17 For he crushes me with a tempest

and multiplies my wounds without cause;

18 he will not let me get my breath,

but fills me with bitterness.

19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;

though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

21 I am blameless; I regard not myself;

I loathe my life.

22 It is all one; therefore I say,

‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’

23 When disaster brings sudden death,

he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

he covers the faces of its judges—

if it is not he, who then is it?

25 “My days are swifter than a runner;

they flee away; they see no good.

26 They go by like skiffs of reed,

like an eagle swooping on the prey.

27 If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’

28 I become afraid of all my suffering,

for I know you will not hold me innocent.

29 I shall be condemned;

why then do I labor in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow

and cleanse my hands with lye,

31 yet you will plunge me into a pit,

and my own clothes will abhor me.

32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should come to trial together.

33 There is no arbiter between us,

who might lay his hand on us both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me,

and let not dread of him terrify me.

35 Then I would speak without fear of him,

for I am not so in myself.

Job10

Job Continues: A Plea to God

1 “I loathe my life;

I will give free utterance to my complaint;

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;

let me know why you contend against me.

3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,

to despise the work of your hands

and favor the designs of the wicked?

4 Have you eyes of flesh?

Do you see as man sees?

5 Are your days as the days of man,

or your years as a man’s years,

6 that you seek out my iniquity

and search for my sin,

7 although you know that I am not guilty,

and there is none to deliver out of your hand?

8 Your hands fashioned and made me,

and now you have destroyed me altogether.

9 Remember that you have made me like clay;

and will you return me to the dust?

10 Did you not pour me out like milk

and curdle me like cheese?

11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,

and knit me together with bones and sinews.

12 You have granted me life and steadfast love,

and your care has preserved my spirit.

13 Yet these things you hid in your heart;

I know that this was your purpose.

14 If I sin, you watch me

and do not acquit me of my iniquity.

15 If I am guilty, woe to me!

If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,

for I am filled with disgrace

and look on my affliction.

16 And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion

and again work wonders against me.

17 You renew your witnesses against me

and increase your vexation toward me;

you bring fresh troops against me.

18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?

Would that I had died before any eye had seen me

19 and were as though I had not been,

carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few?

Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer

21 before I go—and I shall not return—

to the land of darkness and deep shadow,

22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,

like deep shadow without any order,

where light is as thick darkness.”

Hebrews2

Warning Against Neglecting Salvation

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The Founder of Salvation

5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,

or the son of man, that you care for him?

7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;

you have crowned him with glory and honor,

8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers;

in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.