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Daily Readings for December 10
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Job 12
1.Then Job answered, 2."No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 3.But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these? 4.I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. 5.In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. 6.The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
7."But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. 8.Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. 9.Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this, 10.in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 11.Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? 12.With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
13."With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. 14.Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15.Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. 16.With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. 17.He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. 18.He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. 19.He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. 20.He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. 21.He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. 22.He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. 23.He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. 24.He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. 25.They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Nahum 1
1.An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 2.Yahweh1 is a jealous God2 and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies. 3.Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4.He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. 5.The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. 6.Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him. 7.Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him. 8.But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9.What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time. 10.For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble. 11.There is one gone forth out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness. 12.Thus says Yahweh: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 13.Now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart." 14.Yahweh has commanded concerning you: "No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."
15.Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.
Nahum 2
1.He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily! 2.For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches. 3.The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished. 4.The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings. 5.He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place. 6.The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7.It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. 8.But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. "Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back. 9.Take the spoil of silver. Take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture. 10.She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale. 11.Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid? 12.The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey. 13."Behold, I am against you," says Yahweh of Armies, "and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard."
James 5
1.Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 2.Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3.Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4.Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies10. 5.You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6.You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn't resist you.
7.Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 8.You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9.Don't grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won't be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door. 10.Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11.Behold, we call them blessed who endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the Lord in the outcome, and how the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. 12.But above all things, my brothers, don't swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath; but let your "yes" be "yes," and your "no," "no;" so that you don't fall into hypocrisy.11
13.Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. 14.Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, 15.and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16.Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. 17.Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18.He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.
19.Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20.let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.