14th December

¹ Then Job answered and said,² I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.³ Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?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.⁵ But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.⁶ Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?⁷ But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.⁸ And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.⁹ He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.¹⁰ They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.¹¹ God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.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.¹³ His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.¹⁴ He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.¹⁵ I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.¹⁶ My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;¹⁷ Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.¹⁸ O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.¹⁹ Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.²⁰ My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.²¹ O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!²² When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

¹ My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.² Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?³ Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.⁵ He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.⁶ He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.⁸ Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.⁹ The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.¹⁰ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.¹² They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.¹³ If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.¹⁴ I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.¹⁵ And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.² O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.⁴ And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.⁵ Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.⁶ He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.⁸ Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?⁹ Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.¹⁰ The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.¹² Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.¹³ Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.¹⁴ Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.¹⁵ Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.¹⁶ When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.¹⁷ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.¹⁹ The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

¹ Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:² Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,³ According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:⁴ Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.⁵ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;⁶ And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;⁷ And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.⁸ For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.⁹ But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.¹⁰ Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:¹¹ For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.¹² Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.¹³ Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;¹⁴ Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.¹⁵ Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.¹⁶ For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.¹⁷ For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.¹⁸ And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.¹⁹ We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:²⁰ Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.²¹ For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;⁵ And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;⁶ And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;⁷ And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:⁸ (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)⁹ The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:¹⁰ But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.¹¹ Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.¹² But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;¹³ And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;¹⁴ Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:¹⁵ Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;¹⁶ But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.¹⁷ These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.¹⁸ For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.¹⁹ While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.²⁰ For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.²¹ For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.²² But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.