7th December

¹ Then Job answered and said,² I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?³ If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.⁴ He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?⁵ Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.⁶ Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.⁷ Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.⁸ Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.⁹ Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.¹⁰ Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.¹¹ Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.¹² Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?¹³ If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.¹⁴ How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?¹⁵ Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.¹⁶ If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.¹⁷ For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.¹⁸ He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.¹⁹ If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?²⁰ If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.²¹ Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.²² This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.²³ If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?²⁵ Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.²⁶ They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.²⁷ If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:²⁸ I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.²⁹ If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?³⁰ If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;³¹ Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.³² For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.³³ Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.³⁴ Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:³⁵ Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

¹ Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.² But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.³ Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.⁴ And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.⁵ And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.⁶ And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.⁷ And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.⁸ And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.⁹ Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:¹² And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:¹³ Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.¹⁴ And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.¹⁵ And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

¹ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.² My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;³ Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.⁴ But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.⁵ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.⁶ But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.⁷ For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.⁸ A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.⁹ Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:¹⁰ But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.¹¹ For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.¹² Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.¹³ Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:¹⁴ But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.¹⁵ Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.¹⁶ Do not err, my beloved brethren.¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.¹⁸ Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.¹⁹ Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:²⁰ For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.²¹ Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.²³ For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:²⁴ For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.²⁵ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.²⁶ If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.²⁷ Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.