7
“Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle. Let me ask you a question, and give me the answer.
8
Are you going to discredit my justice and condemn me so that you can say you are right?
9
Are you as strong as God, and can you shout as loudly as he?
10
All right then, put on your robes of state, your majesty and splendor.
11
Give vent to your anger. Let it overflow against the proud.
12
Humiliate the haughty with a glance; tread down the wicked where they stand.
13
Knock them into the dust, stone-faced in death.
14
If you can do that, then I’ll agree with you that your own strength can save you.

15
“Take a look at the hippopotamus!
*
I made him, too, just as I made you! He eats grass like an ox.
16
See his powerful loins and the muscles of his belly.
17
His tail is as straight as a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit together.
18
His vertebrae lie straight as a tube of brass. His ribs are like iron bars.
19
How ferocious he is among all of God’s creation, so let whoever hopes to master him bring a sharp sword!
20
The mountains offer their best food to him—the other wild animals on which he preys.
21
He lies down under the lotus plants, hidden by the reeds,
22
covered by their shade among the willows there beside the stream.
23
He is not disturbed by raging rivers, not even when the swelling Jordan rushes down upon him.
24
No one can catch him off guard or put a ring in his nose and lead him away.

41:
1
“Can you catch a crocodile
*
with a hook and line? Or put a noose around his tongue?
2
Can you tie him with a rope through the nose, or pierce his jaw with a spike?
3
Will he beg you to desist or try to flatter you from your intentions?
4
Will he agree to let you make him your slave for life?
5
Can you make a pet of him like a bird, or give him to your little girls to play with?
6
Do fishing partners sell him to the fishmongers?
7
Will his hide be hurt by darts, or his head with a harpoon?

8
“If you lay your hands upon him, you will long remember the battle that ensues and you will never try it again!
9
No, it’s useless to try to capture him. It is frightening even to think about it!
10
No one dares to stir
him
up, let alone try to conquer him. And if no one can stand before
him,
who can stand before
me?
11
I owe no one anything. Everything under the heaven is mine.

12
“I should mention, too, the tremendous strength in his limbs and throughout his enormous frame.
13
Who can penetrate his hide, or who dares come within reach of his jaws?
14
For his teeth are terrible.
15-17
His overlapping scales are his pride, making a tight seal so no air can get between them, and nothing can penetrate.

18
“When he sneezes, the sunlight sparkles like lightning across the vapor droplets. His eyes glow like sparks.
19
Fire leaps from his mouth.
20
Smoke flows from his nostrils, like steam from a boiling pot that is fired by dry rushes.
21
Yes, his breath would kindle coals—flames leap from his mouth.

22
“The tremendous strength in his neck strikes terror wherever he goes.
23
His flesh is hard and firm, not soft and fat.
24
His heart is hard as rock, just like a millstone.
25
When he stands up, the strongest are afraid. Terror grips them.
26
No sword can stop him, nor spear nor dart nor pointed shaft.
27-28
Iron is nothing but straw to him, and brass is rotten wood. Arrows cannot make him flee. Sling stones are as ineffective as straw.
29
Clubs do no good, and he laughs at the javelins hurled at him.
30
His belly is covered with scales as sharp as shards; they tear up the ground as he drags through the mud.

31-32
“He makes the water boil with his commotion. He churns the depths. He leaves a shining wake of froth behind him. One would think the sea was made of frost!
33
There is nothing else so fearless anywhere on earth.
34
Of all the beasts, he is the proudest—monarch of all that he sees.”

42:
1

Then Job replied to God:

2
“I know that you can do anything and that no one can stop you.
3
You ask who it is who has so foolishly denied your providence. It is I. I was talking about things I knew nothing about and did not understand, things far too wonderful for me.

4
“You said,
*
‘Listen and I will speak! Let me put the questions to you! See if you can answer them!’

5
“But now I say,
*
‘I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you,
6
and I loathe myself and repent in dust and ashes.’”

7

After the Lord had finished speaking with Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite:

“I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you have said about me, as my servant Job was.
8
Now take seven young bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves; and my servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf, and won’t destroy you as I should because of your sin, your failure to speak rightly concerning my servant Job.”

9
So Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer on their behalf.
10
Then, when Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his wealth and happiness! In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!
11
Then all of his brothers, sisters, and former friends arrived and feasted with him in his home, consoling him for all his sorrow and comforting him because of all the trials the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.

12
So the Lord blessed Job at the end of his life more than at the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

13-14
God also gave him seven more sons and three more daughters.
*

These were the names of his daughters: Jemima, Kezia, Keren.

15
And in all the land there were no other girls as lovely as the daughters of Job; and their father put them into his will along with their brothers.

16
Job lived 140 years after that, living to see his grandchildren and great-grandchildren too.
17
Then at last he died, an old, old man, after living a long, good life.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

It is because of this solemn fear of the Lord, which is ever present in our minds, that we work so hard to win others. God knows our hearts, that they are pure in this matter, and I hope that, deep within, you really know it too.

12
Are we trying to pat ourselves on the back again? No, I am giving you some good ammunition! You can use this on those preachers of yours who brag about how well they look and preach but don’t have true and honest hearts. You can boast about us that we, at least, are well intentioned and honest.

13-14
Are we insane to say such things about ourselves?
*
If so, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe that we have died to the old life we used to live.
15
He died for all so that all who live—having received eternal life from him—might live no longer for themselves, to please themselves, but to spend their lives pleasing Christ who died and rose again for them.
16
So stop evaluating Christians by what the world thinks about them or by what they seem to be like on the outside. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, merely as a human being like myself. How differently I feel now!
17
When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!

18
All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him.
19
For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
20
We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you: we beg you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, receive the love he offers you—be reconciled to God.
21
For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us!
*

Psalm 45:1-17

My heart is overflowing with a beautiful thought! I will write a lovely poem to the King, for I am as full of words as the speediest writer pouring out his story.

2
You are the fairest of all;

Your words are filled with grace;

God himself is blessing you forever.

3
Arm yourself, O mighty one,

So glorious, so majestic!

4
And in your majesty

Go on to victory,

Defending truth, humility, and justice.

Go forth to awe-inspiring deeds!

5
Your arrows are sharp

In your enemies’ hearts;

They fall before you.

6
Your throne, O God, endures forever.

Justice is your royal scepter.

7
You love what is good

And hate what is wrong.

Therefore God, your God,

Has given you more gladness

Than anyone else.

8
Your robes are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. In your palaces of inlaid ivory, lovely music is being played for your enjoyment.
9
Kings’ daughters are among your concubines.
*
Standing beside you is the queen, wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir.

10-11
“I advise you, O daughter, not to fret about your parents in your homeland far away. Your royal husband delights in your beauty. Reverence him, for he is your lord.
12
The people of Tyre, the richest people of our day, will shower you with gifts and entreat your favors.”

13
The bride,
*
a princess, waits within her chamber, robed in beautiful clothing woven with gold.
14
Lovely
*
she is, led beside her maids of honor to the king!
15
What a joyful, glad procession as they enter in the palace gates!
16
“Your sons will some day be kings like their father. They shall sit on thrones around the world!

17
“I will cause your name to be honored in all generations; the nations of the earth will praise you forever.”

Proverbs 22:14

A prostitute is a dangerous trap; those cursed of God are caught in it.

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