15th December

¹ Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,² How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.³ Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?⁴ He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?⁵ Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.⁶ The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.⁷ The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.⁹ The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.¹⁰ The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.¹² His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.¹³ It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.¹⁴ His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.¹⁵ It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.¹⁶ His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.¹⁸ He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.¹⁹ He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.²⁰ They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

¹ Then Job answered and said,² How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?³ These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.⁴ And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:⁶ Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.⁷ Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.⁸ He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.⁹ He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.¹⁰ He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.¹² His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.¹³ He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.¹⁵ They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.¹⁶ I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.¹⁸ Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.¹⁹ All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.²⁰ My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.²² Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?²³ Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!²⁴ That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!²⁵ For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:²⁶ And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:²⁷ Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.²⁸ But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.

¹ The word of the LORD which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.² I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD.³ I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked: and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.⁴ I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests;⁵ And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;⁶ And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.⁷ Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.⁸ And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.⁹ In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.¹⁰ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.¹¹ Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.¹² And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.¹³ Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.¹⁴ The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.¹⁵ That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,¹⁶ A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.¹⁷ And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

¹ This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:² That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:³ Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,⁴ And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:⁷ But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.⁸ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.¹¹ Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,¹² Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?¹³ Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.¹⁴ Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.¹⁵ And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;¹⁶ As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.¹⁷ Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.¹⁸ But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.