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Psalm 55

1  Hear my prayer, O God; ♦︎
   hide not yourself from my petition.
2  Give heed to me and answer me; ♦︎
   I am restless in my complaining.
3  I am alarmed at the voice of the enemy ♦︎
   and at the clamour of the wicked;
4  For they would bring down evil upon me ♦︎
   and are set against me in fury.
5  My heart is disquieted within me, ♦︎
   and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
6  Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, ♦︎
   and a horrible dread has overwhelmed me.
7  And I said: ‘O that I had wings like a dove, ♦︎
   for then would I fly away and be at rest.
8  ‘Then would I flee far away ♦︎
   and make my lodging in the wilderness.
9  ‘I would make haste to escape ♦︎
   from the stormy wind and tempest.’
10  Confuse their tongues, O Lord, and divide them, ♦︎
   for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
11  Day and night they go about on her walls; ♦︎
   mischief and trouble are in her midst.
12  Wickedness walks in her streets; ♦︎
   oppression and guile never leave her squares.
13  For it was not an open enemy that reviled me, ♦︎
   for then I could have borne it;
14  Nor was it my adversary that puffed himself up against me, ♦︎
   for then I would have hid myself from him.
15  But it was even you, one like myself, ♦︎
   my companion and my own familiar friend.
16  We took sweet counsel together ♦︎
   and walked with the multitude in the house of God.
17  Let death come suddenly upon them;
      let them go down alive to the Pit; ♦︎
   for wickedness inhabits their dwellings, their very hearts.

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

8Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
² ‘How long will you say these things,
   and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
³ Does God pervert justice?
   Or does the Almighty^* pervert the right?
⁴ If your children sinned against him,
   he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
⁵ If you will seek God
   and make supplication to the Almighty,^*
6 if you are pure and upright,
   surely then he will rouse himself for you
   and restore to you your rightful place.
⁷ Though your beginning was small,
   your latter days will be very great.

⁸ ‘For inquire now of bygone generations,
   and consider what their ancestors have found;
⁹ for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
   for our days on earth are but a shadow.
¹⁰ Will they not teach you and tell you
   and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹ ‘Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
   Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
¹² While yet in flower and not cut down,
   they wither before any other plant.
¹³ Such are the paths of all who forget God;
   the hope of the godless shall perish.
¹⁴ Their confidence is gossamer,
   a spider’s house their trust.
¹⁵ If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
   if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
¹⁶ The wicked thrive^* before the sun,
   and their shoots spread over the garden.
¹⁷ Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
   they live among the rocks.^*
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
   then it will deny them, saying, “I have never seen you.”
¹⁹ See, these are their happy ways,^*
   and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰ ‘See, God will not reject a blameless person,
   nor take the hand of evildoers.
²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
   and your lips with shouts of joy.
²² Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
   and the tent of the wicked will be no more.’

Directions concerning Marriage

7Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is well for a man not to touch a woman.’ ²But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. ³The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. ⁴For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. ⁵Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ⁶This I say by way of concession, not of command. ⁷I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. ⁹But if they are not practising self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.