Job 10

I am disgusted with my life.
I will give vent to my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God,
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why you prosecute me.
3 Is it good for you to oppress,
to reject the work of your hands,
and favor the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human sees?
5 Are your days like those of a human,
or your years like those of a man,
6 that you look for my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 even though you know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?
8 “Your hands shaped me and formed me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Please remember that you formed me like clay.
Will you now return me to dust?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and wove me together with bones and tendons.
12 You gave me life and faithful love,
and your care has guarded my life.
13 “Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart;
I know that this was your hidden plan:
14 if I sin, you would notice,
and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15 If I am wicked, woe to me!
And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am filled with shame
and have drunk deeply of my affliction.
16 If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion
and again display your miraculous power against me.
17 You produce new witnesses against me
and multiply your anger toward me.
Hardships assault me, wave after wave.
18 “Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I should have died and never been seen.
19 I wish I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
21 before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,
never to return.
22 It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like the darkness.”

Job 11

ZOPHAR SPEAKS
Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

2 Should this abundance of words go unanswered
and such a talker be acquitted?
3 Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?
4 You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in your sight.”
5 But if only God would speak
and open his lips against you!
6 He would show you the secrets of wisdom,
for true wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity.
7 Can you fathom the depths of God
or discover the limits of the Almighty?
8 They are higher than the heavens ​— ​what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol ​— ​what can you know?
9 Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.
10 If he passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop him?
11 Surely he knows which people are worthless.
If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it?
12 But a stupid person will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a human!
13 As for you, if you redirect your heart
and spread out your hands to him in prayer —
14 if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents —
15 then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.
16 For you will forget your suffering,
recalling it only as water that has flowed by.
17 Your life will be brighter than noonday;
its darkness will be like the morning.
18 You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.
19 You will lie down with no one to frighten you,
and many will seek your favor.
20 But the sight of the wicked will fail.
Their way of escape will be cut off,
and their only hope is their last breath.

Job 12

JOB’S REPLY TO ZOPHAR
Then Job answered:

2 No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you!
3 But I also have a mind like you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who doesn’t know the things you are talking about?
4 I am a laughingstock to my friends,
by calling on God, who answers me.
The righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock.
5 The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt
and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.
6 The tents of robbers are safe,
and those who trouble God are secure;
God holds them in his hands.
7 But ask the animals, and they will instruct you;
ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you;
let the fish of the sea inform you.
9 Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 The life of every living thing is in his hand,
as well as the breath of all humanity.
11 Doesn’t the ear test words
as the palate tastes food?
12 Wisdom is found with the elderly,
and understanding comes with long life.
13 Wisdom and strength belong to God;
counsel and understanding are his.
14 Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
whoever he imprisons cannot be released.
15 When he withholds water, everything dries up,
and when he releases it, it destroys the land.
16 True wisdom and power belong to him.
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away barefoot
and makes judges go mad.
18 He releases the bonds put on by kings
and fastens a belt around their waists.
19 He leads priests away barefoot
and overthrows established leaders.
20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech
and takes away the elders’ good judgment.
21 He pours out contempt on nobles
and disarms the strong.
22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness
and brings the deepest darkness into the light.
23 He makes nations great, then destroys them;
he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24 He deprives the world’s leaders of reason,
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
25 They grope around in darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like a drunkard.

Acts 8:4–25

PHILIP IN SAMARIA
4 So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6 The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, as they listened and saw the signs he was performing. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

THE RESPONSE OF SIMON
9 A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and amazed the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God.” 11 They were attentive to him because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time. 12 But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13 Even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.

SIMON’S SIN
14 When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 After they went down there, they prayed for them so that the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit because he had not yet come down on any of them. 16 (They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ) 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20 But Peter told him, “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your heart’s intent may be forgiven. 23 For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by wickedness.”

24 “Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon replied, “so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

25 So, after they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

— Job 10–12, Acts 8:4–25 (CSB)