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Daily Readings for December 4
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Job 5
1."Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn? 2.For resentment kills the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple. 3.I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation. 4.His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them, 5.whose harvest the hungry eats up, and take it even out of the thorns. The snare gapes for their substance. 6.For affliction doesn't come forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground; 7.but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
8."But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God, 9.who does great things that can't be fathomed, marvelous things without number; 10.who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; 11.so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to safety. 12.He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can't perform their enterprise. 13.He takes the wise in their own craftiness; the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. 14.They meet with darkness in the day time, and grope at noonday as in the night. 15.But he saves from the sword of their mouth, even the needy from the hand of the mighty. 16.So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.
17."Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. 18.For he wounds, and binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole. 19.He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. 20.In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. 21.You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 22.At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth. 23.For you shall be allied with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you. 24.You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing. 25.You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth. 26.You shall come to your grave in a full age, like a shock of grain comes in its season. 27.Look this, we have searched it, so it is. Hear it, and know it for your good."
Micah 1
1.The word of Yahweh1 that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2.Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord2 Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3.For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. 4.The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.
5."All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn't it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren't they Jerusalem? 6.Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations. 7.All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return."
8.For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls. 9.For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10.Don't tell it in Gath. Don't weep at all. At Beth Ophrah3 I have rolled myself in the dust. 11.Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won't come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection. 12.For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. 13.Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14.Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15.I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam. 16.Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!
Hebrews 11
1.Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. 2.For by this, the elders obtained testimony. 3.By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible. 4.By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks. 5.By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God. 6.Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. 7.By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear,36 prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. 8.By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. 9.By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10.For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11.By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. 12.Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead. 13.These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen37 them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14.For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15.If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 16.But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17.By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son; 18.even he to whom it was said, "In Isaac will your seed be called;"38 19.concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead. 20.By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come. 21.By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. 22.By faith, Joseph, when his end was near, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave instructions concerning his bones. 23.By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. 24.By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25.choosing rather to share ill treatment with God's people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; 26.accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. 27.By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. 28.By faith, he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them. 29.By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up. 30.By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. 31.By faith, Rahab the prostitute, didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace. 32.What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets; 33.who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,39 34.quenched the power of fire,40 escaped the edge of the sword,41 from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee. 35.Women received their dead by resurrection.42 Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36.Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. 37.They were stoned.43 They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword.44 They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38.(of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. 39.These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn't receive the promise, 40.God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.