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Psalm 26

1  Give judgement for me, O Lord,
      for I have walked with integrity; ♦︎
   I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.
2  Test me, O Lord, and try me; ♦︎
   examine my heart and my mind.
3  For your love is before my eyes; ♦︎
   I have walked in your truth.
4  I have not joined the company of the false, ♦︎
   nor consorted with the deceitful.
5  I hate the gathering of evildoers ♦︎
   and I will not sit down with the wicked.
6  I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, ♦︎
   that I may go about your altar,
7  To make heard the voice of thanksgiving ♦︎
   and tell of all your wonderful deeds.
8  Lord, I love the house of your habitation ♦︎
   and the place where your glory abides.
9  Sweep me not away with sinners, ♦︎
   nor my life with the bloodthirsty,
10  Whose hands are full of wicked schemes ♦︎
   and their right hand full of bribes.
11  As for me, I will walk with integrity; ♦︎
   redeem me, Lord, and be merciful to me.
12  My foot stands firm; ♦︎
   in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.

Job’s Three Friends

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. ¹²When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. ¹³They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Job Curses the Day He Was Born

3After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. ²Job said:
³ ‘Let the day perish on which I was born,
   and the night that said,
   “A man-child is conceived.”
⁴ Let that day be darkness!
   May God above not seek it,
   or light shine on it.
⁵ Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
   Let clouds settle upon it;
   let the blackness of the day terrify it.
⁶ That night—let thick darkness seize it!
   let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
   let it not come into the number of the months.
⁷ Yes, let that night be barren;
   let no joyful cry be heard^* in it.
⁸ Let those curse it who curse the Sea,^*
   those who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.
⁹ Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
   let it hope for light, but have none;
   may it not see the eyelids of the morning—
¹⁰ because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
   and hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹ ‘Why did I not die at birth,
   come forth from the womb and expire?
¹² Why were there knees to receive me,
   or breasts for me to suck?
¹³ Now I would be lying down and quiet;
   I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
¹⁴ with kings and counsellors of the earth
   who rebuild ruins for themselves,
¹⁵ or with princes who have gold,
   who fill their houses with silver.
¹⁶ Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child,
   like an infant that never sees the light?
¹⁷ There the wicked cease from troubling,
   and there the weary are at rest.
¹⁸ There the prisoners are at ease together;
   they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
¹⁹ The small and the great are there,
   and the slaves are free from their masters.

²⁰ ‘Why is light given to one in misery,
   and life to the bitter in soul,
²¹ who long for death, but it does not come,
   and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
²² who rejoice exceedingly,
   and are glad when they find the grave?
²³ Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
   whom God has fenced in?
²⁴ For my sighing comes like^* my bread,
   and my groanings are poured out like water.
²⁵ Truly the thing that I fear comes upon me,
   and what I dread befalls me.
²⁶ I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
   I have no rest; but trouble comes.’

23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,^* heirs according to the promise.