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Psalm 42

1  As the deer longs for the water brooks, ♦︎
   so longs my soul for you, O God.
2  My soul is athirst for God, even for the living God; ♦︎
   when shall I come before the presence of God?
3  My tears have been my bread day and night, ♦︎
   while all day long they say to me, ‘Where is now your God?’
4  Now when I think on these things, I pour out my soul: ♦︎
   how I went with the multitude
      and led the procession to the house of God,
5  With the voice of praise and thanksgiving, ♦︎
   among those who kept holy day.
6  Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, ♦︎
   and why are you so disquieted within me?
7  O put your trust in God; ♦︎
   for I will yet give him thanks,
      who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
8  My soul is heavy within me; ♦︎
   therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan,
      and from Hermon and the hill of Mizar.
9  Deep calls to deep in the thunder of your waterfalls; ♦︎
   all your breakers and waves have gone over me.
10  The Lord will grant his loving-kindness in the daytime; ♦︎
   through the night his song will be with me,
      a prayer to the God of my life.
11  I say to God my rock,
      ‘Why have you forgotten me, ♦︎
   and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresses me?’
12  As they crush my bones, my enemies mock me; ♦︎
   while all day long they say to me, ‘Where is now your God?’
13  Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, ♦︎
   and why are you so disquieted within me?
14  O put your trust in God; ♦︎
   for I will yet give him thanks,
      who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43

1  Give judgement for me, O God,
      and defend my cause against an ungodly people; ♦︎
   deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
2  For you are the God of my refuge;
      why have you cast me from you, ♦︎
   and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresses me?
3  O send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, ♦︎
   and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling,
4  That I may go to the altar of God,
      to the God of my joy and gladness; ♦︎
   and on the lyre I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
5  Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, ♦︎
   and why are you so disquieted within me?
6  O put your trust in God; ♦︎
   for I will yet give him thanks,
      who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Eliphaz Speaks: Job Has Sinned

4Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

Job Is Corrected by God

5‘Call now; is there anyone who will answer you?
To which of the holy ones will you turn?
² Surely vexation kills the fool,
   and jealousy slays the simple.
³ I have seen fools taking root,
   but suddenly I cursed their dwelling.
⁴ Their children are far from safety,
   they are crushed in the gate,
   and there is no one to deliver them.
⁵ The hungry eat their harvest,
   and they take it even out of the thorns;^*
   and the thirsty^* pant after their wealth.
⁶ For misery does not come from the earth,
   nor does trouble sprout from the ground;
⁷ but human beings are born to trouble
   just as sparks^* fly upward.

⁸ ‘As for me, I would seek God,
   and to God I would commit my cause.
⁹ He does great things and unsearchable,
   marvellous things without number.
¹⁰ He gives rain on the earth
   and sends waters on the fields;
¹¹ he sets on high those who are lowly,
   and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
¹² He frustrates the devices of the crafty,
   so that their hands achieve no success.
¹³ He takes the wise in their own craftiness;
   and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.
¹⁴ They meet with darkness in the daytime,
   and grope at noonday as in the night.
¹⁵ But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth,
   from the hand of the mighty.
¹⁶ So the poor have hope,
   and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷ ‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;
   therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.^*
18 For he wounds, but he binds up;
   he strikes, but his hands heal.
¹⁹ He will deliver you from six troubles;
   in seven no harm shall touch you.
²⁰ In famine he will redeem you from death,
   and in war from the power of the sword.
²¹ You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
   and shall not fear destruction when it comes.
²² At destruction and famine you shall laugh,
   and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth.
²³ For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,
   and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.
²⁴ You shall know that your tent is safe,
   you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.
²⁵ You shall know that your descendants will be many,
   and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
²⁶ You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,
   as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season.
²⁷ See, we have searched this out; it is true.
   Hear, and know it for yourself.’

¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul Preaches in Damascus

For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ ²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ ²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus^* was the Messiah.^*

Saul Escapes from the Jews

23 After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; ²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall,^* lowering him in a basket.

Saul in Jerusalem

26 When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. ²⁷But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. ²⁸So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. ²⁹He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. ³⁰When the believers^* learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

31 Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.