Today’s Reading :  Job 16 – 20  and  1Thessalonians 4  (KJV)

 

 

Job 16

Job 16:1  Then Job answered and said,

Job 16:2  I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

Job 16:3  Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

Job 16:4  I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

Job 16:5  But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.

Job 16:6  Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

Job 16:7  But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.

Job 16:8  And thou hast filled me with wrath, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

Job 16:9  He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

Job 16:10  They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.

Job 16:11  God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

Job 16:12  I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

Job 16:13  His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

Job 16:14  He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

Job 16:15  I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.

Job 16:16  My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Job 16:17  Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

Job 16:18  O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.

Job 16:19  Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.

Job 16:20  My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

Job 16:21  O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

Job 16:22  When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

 

 

Job 17

Job 17:1  My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

Job 17:2  Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

Job 17:3  Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

Job 17:4  For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

Job 17:5  He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

Job 17:6  He hath made me also a byword of the people; and formerly I was as a tabret.

Job 17:7  Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

Job 17:8  Upright men shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

Job 17:9  The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

Job 17:10  But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

Job 17:11  My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

Job 17:12  They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

Job 17:13  If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

Job 17:14  I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

Job 17:15  And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

Job 17:16  They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

 

 

Job 18

Job 18:1  Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

Job 18:2  How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Job 18:3  Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

Job 18:4  He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

Job 18:5  Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

Job 18:6  The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

Job 18:7  The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

Job 18:8  For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

Job 18:9  The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

Job 18:10  The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

Job 18:11  Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

Job 18:12  His strength shall be hunger-bitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

Job 18:13  It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.

Job 18:14  His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

Job 18:15  It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

Job 18:16  His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

Job 18:17  His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

Job 18:18  He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

Job 18:19  He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

Job 18:20  They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were frightened.

Job 18:21  Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

 

 

Job 19

Job 19:1  Then Job answered and said,

Job 19:2  How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

Job 19:3  These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

Job 19:4  And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

Job 19:5  If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:

Job 19:6  Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Job 19:7  Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

Job 19:8  He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

Job 19:9  He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

Job 19:10  He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

Job 19:11  He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

Job 19:12  His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

Job 19:13  He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

Job 19:14  My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

Job 19:15  They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

Job 19:16  I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.

Job 19:17  My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Job 19:18  Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spoke against me.

Job 19:19  All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

Job 19:20  My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

Job 19:21  Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

Job 19:22  Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job 19:23  Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

Job 19:24  That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!

Job 19:25  For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

Job 19:26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Job 19:27  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Job 19:28  But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

Job 19:29  Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

 

 

Job 20

Job 20:1  Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

Job 20:2  Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.

Job 20:3  I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.

Job 20:4  Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,

Job 20:5  That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

Job 20:6  Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

Job 20:7  Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

Job 20:8  He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

Job 20:9  The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

Job 20:10  His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.

Job 20:11  His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

Job 20:12  Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;

Job 20:13  Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:

Job 20:14  Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.

Job 20:15  He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.

Job 20:16  He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.

Job 20:17  He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

Job 20:18  That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

Job 20:19  Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away a house which he built not;

Job 20:20  Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

Job 20:21  There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

Job 20:22  In the fullness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

Job 20:23  When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

Job 20:24  He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

Job 20:25  It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

Job 20:26  All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

Job 20:27  The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

Job 20:28  The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

Job 20:29  This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

 

 

1Thessalonians 4

1Th 4:1  Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.

1Th 4:2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.

1Th 4:3  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

1Th 4:4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

1Th 4:5  Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

1Th 4:6  That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

1Th 4:7  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

1Th 4:8  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

1Th 4:9  But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

1Th 4:10  And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;

1Th 4:11  And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

1Th 4:12  That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

1Th 4:13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

1Th 4:18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.