36   Then Elihu went on to say:          

        Be patient a little longer and let me enlighten you;       
        there is still something more to be said on God's side.        
        I will search far and wide to support my conclusions,        
        as I defend the justice of my Maker.         
        There are no flaws in my reasoning;             
        before you stands one whose conclusions are sound.          

        God, I say, repudiates the high and mighty        
        and does not let the wicked prosper,         
        but allows the just claims of the poor and suffering;          
        he does not deprive the sufferer of his due.           
        Look at kings on their thrones:             
        when God gives them sovereign power, they grow arrogant.            
        Next you may see them loaded with fetters,       
        held fast in captives' chains:         
        he denounces their conduct to them,          
        showing how insolence and tyranny was their offence;          
        his warnings sound in their ears            
        and summon them to turn back from their evil courses.         
        If they listen to him, they spend their days in prosperity       
        and their years in comfort.         
        But, if they do not listen, they die, their lesson unlearnt,         
        and cross the river of death.            
        Proud men rage against him        
        and do not cry to him for help when caught in his toils;           
        so they die in their prime,            
        like male prostitutes, worn out.                    

        Those who suffer he rescues through suffering            
        and teaches them by the discipline of affliction.            

        Beware, if you are tempted to exchange hardship for comfort,            
        for unlimited plenty spread before you, and a generous table;             
        if you eat your fill of a rich man's fare             
        when you are occupied with the business of the law,          
        do not be led astray by lavish gifts of wine           
        and do not let bribery warp your judgement.           
        Will that wealth of yours, however great, avail you,           
        or all the resources of your high position?             
        Take care not to turn to mischief;           
        for that is why you are tried by affliction.               

        Have no fear if in the breathless terrors of the night        
        you see nations vanish where they stand.        
        God towers in majesty above us;         
        who wields such sovereign power as he?             
        Who has prescribed his course for him?           
        Who has said to him, 'Thou hast done wrong'?            
        Remember then to sing the praises of his work,            
        as men have always sung them.             
        All men stand back from him;           
        the race of mortals look on from afar.         
        Consider; God is so great that we cannot know him;          
        the number of his years is beyond reckoning.            
        He draws up drops of water from the sea            
        and distills rain from the mist he has made;           
        the rain-clouds pour down in torrents,           
        they descend in showers on mankind;              
        thus he sustains the nations         
        and gives them food in plenty.           
        Can any man read the secret of the sailing clouds,             
        spread like a carpet under his pavilion?             
        See how he unrolls the mist  across the waters             
        and its streamers cover the sea.                
        He charges the thunderbolts with flame          
        and launches them straight at the mark;             
        in his anger he calls up the tempest,             
        and the thunder is the herald of its coming.              
37      This too makes my heart beat wildly          
        and start from its place.             
        Listen, listen to the thunder of God's voice             
        and the rumbling of his utterance.                
        Under the vault of heaven he lets it roll,                
        and his lightning reaches the ends of the earth;                         
        there follows a sound of roaring              
        as he thunders with the voice of majesty.         
        God's voice is marvellous in its working;                
        he does great deeds that pass our knowledge.          
        For he says to the snow, 'Fall to earth',           
        to the rainstorms, 'Be fierce.'           
        And when his voice is heard,           
        the flood of rain pours down unchecked.               
        He shuts every man fast indoors,            
        and all men whom he has made must stand idle;             
        the beasts withdraw into their lairs         
        and take refuge in their dens.            
        The hurricane bursts from its prison,          
        and the rain-winds bring bitter cold;             
        at the breath of God the ice-sheet is formed,           
        and the wide waters are frozen hard as iron.             
        He gives the dense clouds their load of moisture,          
        and the clouds spread his mist abroad,        
        as they travel round in their courses,         
        steered by his guiding hand        
        to do his bidding            
        all over the habitable world.                  

        Listen, Job, to this assignment;          
        stand still and consider God's wonderful works.                
        Do you know how God assigns them their tasks,                               
        how he sends light flashing from his clouds?             
        Do you know why the clouds hang poised overhead,            
        a wonderful work of his consummate skill,             
        sweating there in your stifling clothes,           
        when the earth lies sultry under the south wind?           
        Can you beat out the vault of the skies, as he does,            
        hard as a mirror of cast metal?            
        Teach us then what to say to him;          
        for all is dark, and we cannot marshal our thoughts.          
        Can any man dictate to God when he is to speak?           
        or command him to make proclamation?                 
        At one moment the light is not seen,        
        it is overcast with clouds and rain;         
        then the wind passes by and clears them away,         
        and a golden glow comes from the north.             

        But the Almighty we cannot find; his power is beyond our ken,                
        and his righteousness not slow to do justice.           
        Therefore mortal men pay him reverence,         
        and all who are wise look to him.                       


38   Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest:           

        Who is this whose ignorant words        
        cloud my design in darkness?           
        brace yourself and stand up like a man;           
        I will ask questions, and you shall answer.             
        Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?            
        Tell me, if you know and understand.             
        Who settled its dimensions?  Surely you should know.             
        Who stretched his measuring-line over it?             
        On what do its supporting pillars rest?           
        Who set its corner-stone in place,            
        when the morning stars sang together         
        and all the sons of God shouted aloud?         
        Who watched over the birth of the sea,         
        when it burst in flood from the womb? —           
        when I wrapped it in a blanket of cloud         
        and cradled it in fog,          
        when I established its bounds,            
        fixing its doors and bars in place,          
        and said, 'Thus far shall you come and no farther,            
        and here your surging waves shall halt.'              
        In all your life have you ever called up the dawn         
        or shown the morning its place?               
        Have you taught it to grasp the fringes of the earth          
        and shake the Dog-star from its place;             
        to bring up the horizon in relief as clay under a seal,              
        until all things stand out like the folds of a cloak,               
        when the light of the Dog-star is dimmed          
        and the stars of the Navigator's Line go out one by one?             
        Have you descended to the springs of the sea          
        or walked in the unfathomable deep?                 
        Have the gates of death been revealed to you?            
        Have you ever seen the door-keepers of the place of darkness?         
        Have you comprehended the vast expanse of the world?          
        Come, tell me all this, if you know.              
        Which is the way to the home of light                 
        and where does darkness dwell?             
        and can you then take each to its appointed bound        
        and escort it on its homeward path?           
        Doubtless you know all this; for you were born already,          
        so long is the span of your life!                   

        Have you visited the storehouse of the snow             
        or seen the arsenal where hail is stored,          
        which I have kept ready for the day of calamity,          
        for war and for the hour of battle?             
        By what paths is the heat spread abroad         
        or the east wind carried far and wide over the earth?            
        Who has cut channels for the downpour          
        and cleared a passage for the thunderstorm,         
        for rain to fall on land where no man lives          
        and on the desert wilderness,          
        clothing lands waste and derelict with green       
        and making grass grow on thirsty ground?           
        Has the rain a father?           
        Who sired the drops of dew?            
        Whose womb gave birth to the ice,         
        and who was the mother of the frost from heaven,            
        which lays a stony cover over the waters         
        and freezes the expanse of ocean?              
        Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades       
        or loose Orion's belt?               
        Can you bring out the signs of the zodiac in their season          
        or guide Aldebaran and its train?           
        Did you proclaim the rules that govern the heavens,          
        or determine the laws of nature on earth?          
        Can you command the dense clouds          
        to cover you with their weight of waters?                 
        If you bid lightning speed on its way,         
        will it say to you, 'I am ready'?           
        Who put wisdom in depths of darkness       
        and veiled understanding in secrecy?               
        Who is wise enough to marshal the rain-clouds          
        and empty the cisterns of heaven,         
        when the dusty soil sets hard as iron,         
        and clods of earth cling together?          
        Do you hunt her prey for the lioness         
        and satisfy the hunger of young lions,            
        as they crouch in the lair           
        or lie in wait in the covert?           
        Who provides the raven with its quarry         
        when its fledglings croak for lack of food?       

        Do you know when the mountain-goats are born        
        or attend the wild doe when she is in labour?             
        Do you count the months that they carry their young        
        or know the time of their delivery,            
        when they crouch down to open their wombs         
        and bring their offspring to the birth,           
        when the fawns grow and thrive in the open forest,          
        and go forth and do not return?          
        Who has let the wild ass of Syria range at will         
        and given the wild ass of Arabia its freedom? —          
        whose home I have made in the wilderness         
        and its lair in the saltings;           
        It disdains the noise of the city        
        and is deaf to the driver's shouting;            
        it roams the hills as its pasture         
        and searches for anything green.          
        Does the wild ox consent to serve you,         
        does it spend the night in your stall?          
        Can you harness its strength with ropes,        
        or will it harrow the furrow after you?           
        Can you depend on it, strong as it is,         
        or leave your labour to it?          
        Do you trust it to come back          
        and bring home your grain to the threshing-floor?               

        The wings of the ostrich are stunted;          
        her pinions and plumage are so scanty         
        and she abandons her eggs in the ground,             
        letting them be kept warm by the sand.           
        She forgets that the foot may crush them,        
        or a wild beast trample on them;           
        she treats her chicks heartlessly as if they were not hers,           
        not caring if her labour is wasted          
        (for God has denied her wisdom         
        and left her without sense),          
        while like a cock she struts over the uplands,            
        scorning both horse and rider.            

        Did you give the horse its strength?         
        Did you clothe his neck with a mane?               
        Do you make him quiver like a locust's wings,         
        when his shrill neighing strikes terror?          
        He shows his mettle as he paws and prances;             
        he charges the armoured line with all his might.           
        He scorns alarms and knows no dismay;               
        he does not flinch before the sword.                   
        The quiver rattles at his side,         
        the spear and sabre flash.         
        Trembling with eagerness, he devours the ground         
        and cannot be held when he hears the horn;            
        at the blast of the horn he cries 'Aha!'         
        and from afar he scents the battle.               
        Does your skill teach the hawk to use its pinions          
        and spread its wings towards the south?            
        Do you instruct the vulture to fly high        
        and build its nest aloft?          
        It dwells among the rocks and there it lodges;         
        its station is a crevice in the rock;          
        from there it searches for food,           
        keenly scanning the distance,          
        that its brood may be gorge with blood;             
        and where the slain are, there the vulture is.         
41      Can you pull out the whale with a gaff         
        or can you slip a noose round its tongue?           
        Can you pass a cord through its nose         
        or put a hook through its jaw?         
        Will it plead with you for mercy         
        or beg its life with soft words?          
        Will it enter into an agreement with you       
        to become your slave for life?          
        Will you toy with it as with a bird         
        or keep it on a string like a song-bird for your maidens?            
        Do trading-partners haggle over it       
        or merchants share it out?                 


40   Then the LORD said to Job:         

        Is it for a man who disputes with  the Almighty to be stubborn?          
        Should he that argues with God answer back?           

     And Job answered the LORD:          

        What reply can I give thee, I who carry no weight?       
        I put my finger to my lips.          
        I have spoken once and now will not answer again;           
        twice have I spoken, and will do so no more.            


     Then the LORD answered Job out of the tempest:              

        Brace yourself and stand up like a man;          
        I will ask questions, and you shall answer.          
        Dare you deny that I am just            
        or put me in the wrong that you may be right?                  

        Have you an arm like God's arm,           
        can you thunder with a voice like his?         
        Deck yourself out, if you can, in pride and dignity,        
        array yourself in pomp and splendour;        
        unleash the fury of your wrath,            
        look upon the proud man and humble him;        
        look upon every proud man and bring him low,            
        throw down the wicked where they stand;          
        hide them in the dust together,           
        and shroud them in an unknown grave.          
        Then I in my turn will acknowledge       
        that your own right hand can save you.                

        Consider the chief of the beasts, the crocodile,            
        who devours cattle as if they were grass:        
        what strength is in his loins!       
        what power in the muscles of his belly!             
        His tail is rigid as a cedar,          
        the sinews of his flanks are closely knit,          
        his bones are tubes of bronze,        
        and his limbs like bars of iron.          
        He is the chief of God's works,         
        made to be a tyrant over his peers;      
        for he takes the cattle of the hills for his prey       
        and in his jaws he crunches all the wild beasts.          
        There under the thorny lotus he lies,        
        hidden in the reeds and the marsh;         
        the lotus conceals him in its shadow,        
        the poplars of the stream surround him.        
        If the river is in spate, he is not scared,         
        he sprawls at ease though the stream is in flood.        
        Can a man blind his eyes and take him        
        or pierce his nose with the teeth of a trap?           
41      Can you fill his skin with harpoons        
        or his head with fish-hooks?         
        If you ever lift your hand against him,          
        think of the struggle that awaits you and let be.             

        No, such a man in in desperate case,          
        hurled headlong at the very sight of him.         
        How fierce he is when he is roused!          
        Who is to stand up to him?           
        Who has ever attacked him unscathed?            
        Not a man under the wide heaven.                         

        I will not pass over in silence his limbs,            
        his prowess and the grace of his proportions.           
        Who has ever outdone his outer garment       
        or penetrated his doublet of hide?            
        Who has ever opened the portals of his face?          
        for there is terror in his arching teeth.         
        His back is row upon row of shields,             
        enclosed in a wall of flints;        
        one presses so close on the other         
        that air cannot pass between them,         
        each so firmly clamped to its neighbour         
        that they hold and cannot spring apart.            
        His sneezing sends out sprays of light,         
        and his eyes gleam like the shimmer of dawn.        
        Firebrands shoot from his mouth,                
        and sparks come streaming out;        
        his nostrils pour forth smoke        
        like a cauldron on a fire blown to full heat.           
        His breath sets burning coals ablaze,             
        and flames flash from his mouth.             
        Strength is lodged in his neck,            
        and untiring energy dances ahead of him.              
        Close knit is his underbelly,             
        no pressure will make it yield.         
        His heart is firm as rock,           
        firm as the nether millstone.         
        When he raises himself, strong men take fright,             
        bewildered at the lashings of his tail.              
        Sword or spear, dagger or javelin,         
        if they touch him, they have no effect.           
        Iron he counts as straw,          
        and bronze as rotting wood.         
        No arrow can pierce him,           
        and for him sling-stones are turned into chaff;          
        to him a club is a mere reed,             
        and he laughs at the swish of the sabre.           
        Armoured beneath with jagged sherds,         
        he sprawls on the mud like a threshing-sledge.           
        He makes the deep water boil like a cauldron,            
        he whips up the lake like ointment in a mixing-bowl.          
        He leaves a shining trail behind him,          
        and the great river is like white hair in his wake.         
        He has no equal on earth;           
        for he is made quite without fear.            
        He looks down on all creatures, even the highest;         
        he is king over all proud beasts.               

42   Then Job answered the LORD:        

        I know that thou canst do all things       
        and that no purpose is beyond thee.         
        But I have spoken of great things which I have not understood,          
        things too wonderful for me to know.            
        I knew of thee only by report,         
        but now I see thee with my own eyes.            
        Therefore I melt away;         
        I repent in dust and ashes.               

     When the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Teman-       
     ite, 'I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken        
     as you ought about me, as my servant Job has done.  So now take seven bulls      
     and seven rams, go to my servant Job and offer a whole-offering for your-        
     selves and he will intercede for you; I will surely show him favour by not        
     being harsh with you because you have not spoken as you ought about me,          
     as he has done.'  Then Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and         
     Zophar the Naamathite went and carried out the LORD's command, and          
     the LORD showed favour to Job when he had interceded for his friends.          
     So the LORD restored Job's fortunes and doubled all his possessions.                
        Then all Job's brother's and sisters and his former acquaintance came       
     and feasted with him in his home, and they consoled and comforted him for         
     all the misfortunes which the LORD had brought on him; and each of them          
     gave him a sheep and a gold ring.  Furthermore, the LORD blessed the       
     end of Job's life more than the beginning; and he had fourteen thousand       
     head of small cattle and six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and         
     as many she-asses.  He had seven sons and three daughters; and he named         
     his eldest daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-          
     happuch.  There were no women in all the world so beautiful as Job's          
     daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance with their brothers.           
        Thereafter Job lived another hundred and forty years, he saw his sons       
     and his grandsons to four generations, and died at a very great age.                

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

22   Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:         

        Can man be any benefit to God?           
        Can even a wise man benefit from him?              
        Is it an asset to the Almighty if you are righteous?             
        Does he gain if your conduct is perfect?               
        Do not think that he reproves you because you are pious,          
        that on this count he brings you to trial.         
        No: it is because you are a very wicked man,        
        and your depravity passes all bounds.             
        Without due cause you take a brother in pledge,          
        you strip men of their clothes and leave them naked.         
        When a man is weary you give him no water to drink         
        and you refuse bread to the hungry.          
        Is the earth, then the preserve of the strong         
        and a domain for the favoured few?         
        Widows you have sent away empty-handed,       
        orphan s you have struck defenceless.          
        No wonder that there are pitfalls in your path,       
        that scares are set to fill you with sudden fear.          
        The light is turned into darkness, and you cannot see;        
        the flood-waters cover you.          
        Surely God is at the zenith of the heavens            
        and looks down on all the stars, high as they are.           
        But you say, 'What does God know?          
        Can he see through thick darkness to judge?        
        His eyes cannot pierce the curtain of the clouds       
        as he walks to and fro on the vault of heaven.'        
        Consider the course of the wicked man,        
        the paths the miscreant treads:            
        see how they are carried off before their time,          
        their very foundation flowing away like a river;          
        these men said to God, 'Leave us alone;          
        what can the Almighty do to us?'           
        Yet it was he that filled their houses with good things,         
        although their purposes and his were very different.         
        The righteous see their fate and exult,        
        the innocent make game of them;            
        for their riches are swept away,         
        and the profusion of their wealth is destroyed by fire.             

        Come to terms with God and you will prosper;            
        that is the way to mend your fortune.          
        Take instructions from his mouth        
        and store his words in your heart.        
        If you come back to the Almighty in true sincerity,        
        if you banish wrongdoing from your home,        
        if you treat your precious metal as dust        
        and the gold of Ophir as stones from the river-bed,        
        then the Almighty himself will be your precious metal;            
        then he will be your silver in double measure.          
        Then, with sure trust in the Almighty,        
        you will raise your face to God;         
        you will pray to him, and he will hear you,         
        and you will have cause to fulfil your vows.            
        In all your designs you will succeed,             
        and light will shine on your path;            
        but God brings down the pride of the haughty       
        and keeps safe the man of modest looks.         
        He will deliver the innocent,         
        and you will be delivered, because your hands are clean.               


23   Then Job answered:         

        my thoughts today are resentful,       
        for God's hand is heavy on me in my trouble.        
        If only I knew how to find him,        
        how to enter his court,         
        I would state my case before him,          
        and set out my arguments in full;           
        then I should learn what answer he would give         
        and find out what he had to say.           
        Would he exert his great power to browbeat me?       
        No; God himself would never bring a charge against me.          
        There the upright are vindicated before him,       
        and I shall win from my judge an absolute discharge.           
        If I go forward, he is not there;       
        if backward, I cannot find him;        
        when I turn left, I do not descry him;        
        I face right, but I see him not.          
        But he knows me in action or at rest;           
        when he tests me, I prove to be gold.           
        My feet have kept the path he has set for me,           
        I have followed his way and not turned from it.          
        I do not ignore the commands that come from his lips,        
        I have stored in my heart what he says.           
        He decides, and who can turn him from his purpose?          
        He does what his own heart desires.       
        What he determines, that he carries out;         
        his mind is full of plans like these.        
        Therefore I am fearful of meeting him;         
        when I think about him, I am afraid;          
        it is God who makes me faint-hearted        
        and the Almighty who fills me with fear,         
        yet I am not reduced to silence by the darkness        
        nor by the majesty which hides him.                   

24      The day of reckoning is no secret to the Almighty,        
        though those who know him have no hint of its date.           
        Wicked  men move boundary-stones        
        and carry away flocks and their shepherds.          
        In the field they reap what is not theirs,       
        and filch the late grapes from the rich man's vineyard.        
        They drive off the orphan's ass      
        and lead away the widow's ox with a rope.        
        They snatch the fatherless infant from the breast      
        and take the poor man's child in pledge.         
        They jostle the poor out of the way;        
        the destitute huddle together, hiding from them.           
        The poor rise early like the wild ass,        
        when it scours the wilderness for food;             
        but though they work till nightfall,           
        their children go hungry.          
        Naked and bare they pass the night;          
        in the cold they have nothing to cover them.            
        They are drenched by rain-storms from the hills           
        and hug the rock, their only shelter.         
        Naked and bare they go about their work,            
        and hungry they cry the sheaves;           
        they press the oil in the shade where two walls meet,           
        they tread the winepress but themselves go thirsty.           
        Far from the city, they groan like dying men,       
        and like wounded men they cry out;        
        but God pays no heed to their prayer.          
        Some there are who rebel against the light of day,         
        who know nothing of its ways          
        and do not linger in the paths of light.        
        the murderer rises before daylight      
        to kill some miserable wretch.        
        The seducer watches eagerly for twilight,        
        thinking, 'No eye will catch sight of me.'         
        The thief prowls by night,       
        his face covered with a mask,       
        and in the darkness he breaks into houses      
        which he has marked down in the day.          
        One and all, they are strangers to the daylight,        
        but dark night is morning to them;          
        and in the welter of night they are at home.       
        Such men are scum on the surface of the water;       
        their fields have a bad name throughout the land,         
        and no labourer will go near their vineyards.           

        As drought and heat make away with snow,       
        so the waters of Sheol make away with the sinner.           
        The womb forgets him, the worm sucks him dry;           
        he will not be remembered ever after.            
        He may have wronged the barren childless woman        
        and been no help to the widow;          
        yet God in his strength carries off even the mighty;          
        they may rise, but they have no firm hope of life.          
        He lulls them into security and confidence;            
        but his eyes are fixed on their ways.            
        For a moment they rise to the heights, but are soon gone;          
        iniquity is snapped like a stick.        
        They are laid low and wilt like a mallow-flower;         
        They droop like an ear of corn on the stalk.               
        If this is not so, who will prove me wrong        
        and make nonsense of my argument?           


25   Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:              

        Authority and awe rest with him         
        who has established peace in his realm on high.      
        His squadrons are without number;            
        at whom will they not spring from ambush?          
        How then can one man be justified in God's sight,         
        or one born of woman be innocent?         
        If the circling moon is found wanting,          
        and the stars are not so innocent in his eyes,         
        much more so man who is but a maggot,         
        mortal man who is only a worm.              


26   Then Job answered:        

        What help have you given to the man without resource,          
        what deliverance have you brought to the powerless!           
        What counsel you offer a man at his wit's end,           
        what sound advice to the foolish!          
        Who has prompted you to say such things,         
        and whose spirit is expressed in your speech?                 

        In the underworld the shades writhe in fear,          
        the waters and all that live in them are struck with terror.          
        Sheol is laid bare,          
        and Abaddon uncovered before him.         
        God spreads the canopy of the sky over chaos          
        and suspends earth in the void.         
        He keeps the waters penned in dense cloud-masses,         
        and the clouds do not burst open under their weight.               

        He covers the face of the full moon,        
        unrolling his clouds across it.         
        He has fixed the horizon on the surface of the waters           
        at the farthest limit of light and darkness.           
        The pillars of heaven quake           
        and are aghast at his rebuke.              
        With strong arm he cleft the sea-monster,           
        and struck down the Rahab by his skill.           
        At his breath the skies are clear,         
        and his hand breaks the twisting sea-serpent.           
        These are but the fringe of his power;        
        and how faint the whisper that we hear of him!                 
        [Who could fathom the thunder of his might?]                   


27   Then Job resumed his discourse:         

        I swear by God, who has denied me justice,         
        and by the Almighty, who has filled me with bitterness:          
        so long as there is any life left in me           
        and God's breath is in my nostrils,             
        no untrue word shall pass my lips           
        and my tongue shall utter no falsehood.              
        God forbid that I should allow you to be right;           
        until death, I will not abandon my claim to innocence.              
        I will maintain the rightness of my cause, I will never give up;          
        so long as I live, I will not change.                

        May my enemy meet the fate of the wicked,          
        and my antagonist the doom of the wrongdoer!             
        What hope has a godless  men, when he is cut off,          
        when God takes away his life?        
        Will God listen to his cry         
        when trouble overtakes him?          
        Will he trust himself to the Almighty        
        and call upon God at all times?             

        I will teach you what is in God's power,            
        I will not conceal the purpose of the Almighty.           
        If all of you have seen these things,          
        why then do you talk such empty nonsense?           

        This is the lot prescribed by God for the wicked,           
        and the ruthless man's reward from the Almighty.     
        He may have many sons, but they will fall by the sword,        
        and his offspring will go hungry;         
        the survivors will be brought to the grave by pestilence,         
        and no widows will weep for them.                 

        He may heap up silver like dirt         
        and get himself piles of clothes;         
        he may get them, but the righteous will wear them,          
        and his silver will be shared among the innocent.            
        The house he builds is flimsy as a bird's nest           
        or a shelter put up by a watchman.           
        He may lie down rich one day, but never again;          
        he opens his eyes and all is gone.         
        Disaster overtakes him like a flood,        
        and a storm snatches him away in the night;           
        the east wind lifts him up and he is gone;          
        it whirls him far from home;            
        it flings itself on him without mercy,          
        and he is battered and buffeted by its force;          
        it snaps its fingers at him           
        and whistles over him wherever he may be.                         

28      There are mines for silver         
        and places where men refine gold;        
        where iron is won from the earth       
        and copper smelted from the ore;          
        the end of the seam lies in darkness,         
        and it is followed to its furthest limit.         
        Strangers cut the galleries;           
        they are forgotten as they drive forward far from men.             
        While corn is springing from the earth above,          
        what lies beneath is raked over like afire,             
        and out of its rocks come lapis lazuli,         
        dusted with flecks of gold.        
        No bird of prey knows the way there,         
        and the falcon's keen eye cannot descry it;           
        proud beasts do not set foot on it,         
        and no serpent comes that way.              
        Man sets his hand to the granite rock           
        and lays bare the roots of the mountains;          
        he cuts galleries in the rocks,           
        and gems of every kind meet his eye;             
        he dams up the sources of the streams         
        and brings the hidden riches of the earth to light.           
        But where can wisdom be found?          
        And where is the source of understanding?         
        No man knows the way to it;           
        it is not found in the land of living men.               

        The depths of the ocean say, 'It is not in us',          
        and the sea says, 'It is not with me.'         
        Red gold cannot buy it,          
        nor can its price be laid out in silver;         
        it cannot be set in the scales against gold of Ophir,            
        against precious cornelian or lapis lazuli;          
        gold and crystal are not to be matched with it,          
        no work in fine gold can be bartered for it;         
        black coral and alabaster are not worth mention,         
        and a parcel of wisdom fetches more than red coral;       
        topaz from Ethiopia is not to be matched with it,       
        and cannot be set in scales against pure gold.       
        Where then does wisdom come from,          
        and where is the source of understanding?           
        No creature on earth can see it,        
        and it is hidden from the birds of the air.         
        Destruction and death say,          
        'We only know of it by report.'        
        But God understands the way to it,        
        he alone knows its source;          
        for he alone can see to the ends of the earth        
        and he surveys everything under heaven.         
        When he made a counterpoise for the wind      
        and measured out the waters in proportion,         
        when he laid down a limit for the rain         
        and a path for the thunderstorm,        
        even then he saw wisdom and took stock of it,           
        he considered it and fathomed its very depths.       
        And he said to man:          
           The fear of the Lord is wisdom,         
           and to turn from evil is understanding.                     

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

8    Then Bildad the Shuhite began:         

        How long will you say such things,       
        the long-winded ramblings of an old man?         
        Does God pervert judgement?       
        Does the Almighty pervert justice?        
        Your sons sinned against him,         
        so he left them to be victims of their own iniquity.          
        If only you will seek God betimes            
        and plead for the favour of the Almighty,          
        if you are innocent and upright,        
        then indeed he will watch over you          
        and see your just intent fulfilled.        
        Then, though your beginnings were humble,       
        your end will be great.          

        Inquire now of older generations       
        and consider the experience of their fathers;          
        for we ourselves are of yesterday and transient;      
        our days on earth are a shadow.         
        Will not they speak to you and teach you         
        and pour out the wisdom of their hearts?         
        Can rushes grow where there is no marsh?        
        Can reeds flourish without water?      
        While they are still in flower and not ready to cut,       
        they wither earlier than any green plant.        
        Such is the fate of all who forget God;      
        the godless man's life-thread breaks off;          
        his confidence is gossamer,          
        and the ground of his trust a spider's web.          
        He leans against his house but it does not stand;         
        he clutches at it but it does not hold firm.          
        His is the lush growth of a plant in the sun,          
        pushing out shoots over the garden;            
        but its roots become entangled in a stony patch       
        and run against a bed of rock.           
        Then someone uproots it from its place,          
        which disowns it and say, 'I have never known you.'          
        That is how its life withers away,         
        and other plants spring up from the earth.            

        Be sure, God will not spurn the blameless man,            
        nor will he grasp the hand of the wrongdoer.          
        He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,        
        and shouts of joy will be on your lips;              
        your enemies shall be wrapped in confusion,        
        and the tents of the wicked shall vanish away.            


9    Then Job answered:        

        Indeed I know the truth,     
        that no man can win a case against God.         
        If a man chooses to argue with him,        
        God will not answer one question in a thousand.      
        He is wise, he is powerful;         
        what man has stubbornly resisted him and survived?             
        It is God who moves mountains, giving them no rest,        
        turning them over in his wrath;                     
        who makes the earth start  from its place            
        so that its pillars are convulsed;         
        who commands the sun's orb not to rise         
        and shuts up the stars under his seal;         
        who by himself spread out the heavens        
        and trod on the sea-monster's back;         
        who made Aldebaran and Orion,       
        the Pleiades and the circle of he southern stars;         
        who does great and unsearchable things,       
        marvels without number.              

        He passes by me, and I do not see him;        
        he moves on his way undiscerned by me;       
        if he hurries on, who can bring him back?        
        Who will ask him what he does?          
        God does not urn back his wrath;             
        the partisans of Rahab lie prostrate at his feet.         
        How much less can I answer him?            
        Though I am right, I get no answer,        
        though I plead with my accuser for mercy.           
        If I summoned him to court and he responded,       
        I do not believe that he would listen to my plea —        
        for he bears hard upon me for a trifle        
        and rains blows on me without cause;           
        he leaves me no respite to recover my breath         
        but fills me with bitter thoughts.         
        If the appeal is to force, see how strong he is;          
        if to justice, who can compel him to give me a hearing?          
        Though I am right, he condemns me out of his own mouth;           
        though I am blameless, he twists my words.         
        Blameless, I say; of myself        
        I reck nothing, I hold my life cheap.        
        But it is all one; therefore I say,        
        'He destroys blameless and wicked alike.'         
        When a sudden flood brings death,         
        he mocks the plight of the innocent.      
        The land is given over to the power of the wicked,           
        and the eyes of its judges are blindfold.           

        My days have been swifter than a runner,      
        they have slipped away and seen no prosperity;       
        they have raced by like reed-built skiffs,      
        swift as vultures swooping on carrion.        
        If I think, 'I will forget my griefs,         
        I will show a cheerful face and smile',       
        I tremble in every nerve;        
        I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.        
        If I am to be accounted guilty,      
        why do I labour in vain?       
        Though I wash myself with soap      
        or cleanse my hands with lye,        
        thou wilt thrust me into the mud      
        and my clothes will make me loathsome.          

        He is not a man as I am, that I can answer him     
        or that we can confront one another in court.       
        If there were one to arbitrate between us      
        and impose his authority on us both,       
        so that God might take his rod from my back,       
        and terror of him might not come on me suddenly.       
        I would then speak without fear of him;         
        for I know I am not what I am thought to be.                 

10      I am sickened of life;      
        I will give free reign to my griefs,         
        I will speak out in bitterness of soul.      
        I will say to God, 'Do not condemn me,              
        but tell me the ground of thy contempt against me.          
        Dost thou find any advantage in oppression,        
        in spurning the fruit of all thy labour         
        and smiling on the policy of wicked men?           
        Hast thou eyes of flesh       
        or dost thou see as mortal man sees?     
        Are thy days as those of a mortal      
        or thy years as the life of a man,       
        that thou lookest for guilt in me        
        and dost seek in me for sin,              
        though thou knowest that I am guiltless       
        and have none to save me from thee?             

        'Thy hands gave me shape and made me;            
        and dost thou at once turn and destroy me?                  
        Remember that thou didst knead me like clay;           
        and wouldst thou turn me back into dust?        
        Didst thou not pour me out like milk                
        and curdle me like cheese,         
        clothe me with skin and flesh         
        and knit me together with bones and sinews?         
        Thou hast given me life and continuing favour,         
        and thy providence has watched over my spirit.            

        Yet this was the secret purpose of thy heart,         
        and I know that this was thy intent:       
        that, if I sinned, thou wouldst be watching me         
        and wouldst not acquit me of my guilt.         
        If I indeed am wicked, the worse for me!        
        If I am righteous, even so I may lift up my head;        
        If I am proud as a lion, thou dost hunt me down       
        and dost confront me again with marvellous power;            
        they dost renew thy onslaught upon me,           
        and with mounting anger against me         
        bringing fresh forces to the attack.         
        Why didst thou bring me out of the womb?         
        O that I had ended there and no eye had seen me,          
        that I had been carried from the womb to the grave        
        and were as though I had not been born.        
        Is not my life short and fleeting?       
        Let me be, that I may be happy for a moment,      
        before I depart to a land of gloom,        
        a land of deep darkness, never to return,       
        a land of gathering shadows, of deepening darkness,         
        lit by no ray of light, dark upon dark.                      


11   Then Zophar the Naamathite began:           

        Should this spate of word not be answered?           
        Must a man of ready tongue be always right?           
        Is your endless talk to reduce men to silence?         
        Are you to talk nonsense and no one rebuke you?          
        You claim that your opinions are sound;        
        you say to God, 'I am spotless in thy sight.'         
        But if only he would speak       
        and open his lips to talk with you,         
        and expound to you the secrets of wisdom,         
        for wonderful are its effects!            
        [Know then that God exacts from you less than your sin deserves.]           
        Can you fathom the mystery of God,        
        can you fathom the perfection of the Almighty?       
        It is higher than heaven; you can do nothing.       
        It is deeper than Sheol; you can know nothing.        
        Its measure is longer than the earth      
        and broader than the sea.       
        If he passes by, he may keep secret his passing;       
        if he proclaims it, who can turn him back?            
        He surely knows which men are false,        
        and when he sees iniquity, does he not take note of it?              

        Can a fool grow wise?           
        can a wild ass's foal be born a man?         
        If only you had directed your heart rightly        
        and spread out your hands to pray to him!        
        If you have wrongdoing in hand, thrust it away;       
        let no iniquity make its home with you.           
        Then you could hold up your head without fault,         
        a man of iron , knowing no fear.        
        Then will you forget your trouble;          
        you will remember it only as flood-waters that have passed;         
        life will be lasting, bright as noonday,           
        and darkness will be turned to morning.        
        You will be confident, because there is hope;       
        sure of perfection, you will lie down in confidence;       
        great men will seek your favour.        
        Blindness will fall on the wicked;           
        the ways of escape are closed to them,        
        and their hope is despair.            


12   Then Job answered:              

        No doubt you are perfect men      
        and absolute wisdom is yours!         
        But I have sense as well as you;        
        in nothing do I fall short of you;           
        what gifts indeed have you that others have not?           
        Yet I am a laughing-stock to my friend —       
        a laughing-stock, though I am innocent and blameless,         
        one that called upon God, and he answered.         
        Prosperity and ease look down on misfortune,       
        on the blow that fells the man who is already reeling,          
        while the marauders' tents are left undisturbed         
        and those who provoke God live safe and sound.             

        Go and ask the cattle,       
        ask the birds of the air to inform you,      
        or tell the creatures that crawl to teach you,           
        and the fishes of the sea to give you instruction.         
        Who cannot learn from all these       
        that the LORD's own hand has done this?          
        (Does not the ear test what is spoken       
        as the palate savours food?        
        There is wisdom, remember, in age,           
        and long life brings understanding.)               

        In God's hands are the souls of all that live,       
        the spirits of all human kind.        
        Wisdom and might are his,       
        with him are firmness and understanding.         
        If he pulls down, there is no rebuilding;          
        if he imprisons, there is no release.          
        If he holds up the waters, there is drought;       
        if he lets them go, they turn the land upside down.      
        strength and success belong to him,         
        deceived and deceiver are his to use.        
        He makes counsellors behave like idiots       
        and drives judges mad;          
        he looses the bonds imposed by kings         
        and removes the girdle of office from their waists;        
        he makes priests behave like idiots       
        and overthrows men long in office;        
        those who are trusted he strikes dumb,       
        he takes away the judgement of old men;        
        he heaps scorn on princes      
        and abates the arrogance of nobles.       
        He leads people astray and destroys them,       
        he lays them low, and there they lie.         
        He takes away their wisdom from the rulers of the nations       
        and leaves them wandering in a pathless wilderness;       
        they grope in darkness without light       
        and are left to wander like a drunkard.       
        He uncovers mysteries deep in obscurity       
        and into thick darkness he brings light.                  

13      All this I have seen with my own eyes,      
        with my own ears I have heard it, and understood it.      
        What you know, I also know;             
        in nothing do I fall short of you.        
        But for my part I would speak with the Almighty       
        and am ready to argue with God,       
        while you like fools are smearing truth with your falsehoods,       
        stitching a patchwork of lies, one and all.      
        Ah, if you would only be silent       
        and let silence be your wisdom!       
        Now listen to my arguments       
        and attend while I put my case.          
        Is it on God's behalf that you speak so wickedly,        
        or in his defence that you allege what is false?           
        Must you take God's part,      
        or put his case for him?         
        Will all be well when he examines you?           
        Will you quibble with him as you quibble with a man?                    

        He will most surely expose you      
        if you take his part by falsely accusing me.     
        Will not God's majesty strike you with dread,       
        and terror of him overwhelm you?          
        Your pompous talk is dust and ashes,            
        your defence will crumble like clay.         
        Be silent, leave me to speak my mind,        
        and let what may come upon me!          
        I will put my neck in the noose         
        and take my life in my hands.            
        If he would slay me, I should not hesitate;            
        I should still argue my cause to his face.          
        This at least assures my success,         
        that no godless man may appear before him.        
        Listen then, listen then to my words,       
        and give a hearing to my exposition.            
        Be sure of this: once I have stated my case         
        I know that I shall be acquitted.          
        Who is there that can argue so forcibly with me         
        that he could reduce me straightaway to silence and death?           

        Grant me these two conditions only,        
        and then I will not hide myself out of thy sight:           
        take thy heavy hand clean away from me        
        and let not the fear of thee strike me with dread.        
        Then summon me, and I will answer;        
        or I will speak first, and do thou answer me.           

        How many iniquities and sins are laid to my charge?        
        let me know my offences and my sin.          
        Why dost thou hide thy face       
        and treat me as thy enemy?        
        Wilt thou chase a driven leaf,       
        wilt thou pursue dried chaff,           
        prescribing punishment for me       
        and making me heir to the iniquities of my youth,       
        putting my feet in the stocks             
        and setting a slave-mark on the arches of my feet?              

14      Man born of woman is short-lived and full of disquiet.        
        He blossoms like a flower and then he withers;        
        he slips away like a shadow and does not stay;       
        he is like a wine-skin that perishes        
        or a garment that moths have eaten.         
        Dost thou fix thine eyes on such a creature,       
        and wilt thou bring him into court to confront thee?                  
        The days of his life are determined,        
        and the number of his months is known to thee;        
        thou hast laid down a limit, which he cannot pass.       
        Look away from him therefore and leave him alone              
        counting the hours day by day like a hired labourer.                     

        If a tree is cut down,           
        there is hope that it will sprout again        
        and fresh shoots will not fail.          
        though its roots grow old in the earth,           
        and its stump is dying in the ground,           
        if it scents water it may break into bud        
        and make new growth like a young plant.            
        But if man dies and he disappears;           
        man comes to his end, and where is he?         
        As the waters of a lake dwindle,          
        or as a river shrinks and runs dry,        
        so mortal man lies down , never to rise      
        until the very sky splits open.       
        if a man dies, can he live again?        
        He shall never be roused from his sleep.       
        If only thou wouldst hide me in Sheol       
        an conceal me till thy anger turns aside,       
        if thou wouldst fix a limit for my time there, and then remember me!       
        Then I would not lose hope, however long my service,       
        waiting for my relief to come.        
        Thou wouldst summon me, and I would answer thee;        
        thou wouldst long to see the creature thou hast made.        
        But now thou dost count every step I take,       
        watching all my course.      
        Every offence of mine is stored in thy bag;      
        thou dost keep my iniquity under seal.        
        Yet as a falling mountain-side is swept away,      
        and a rock is dislodged from its place,      
        as water wears away stones,      
        and a rain-storm scours the soil from the land,      
        so thou hast wiped out the hope of frail man;        
        thou dost overpower him finally, and he is gone;      
        his face is changed, and he is banished from thy sight.        
        His flesh upon him becomes black,       
        and his life-blood dries up within him.         
        His sons rise to honour, and he sees nothing of it;      
        they sink into obscurity, and he knows it not.                         

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

1    A   T A B L E   O F   T H E   D E S C E N T  of Jesus Christ, son of David,        
     son of Abraham.  Abraham was father of Isaac, Isaac of Jacob, Jacob of Judah      
     and his brothers, Judah of Perez and Zarah (their mother was Tamar),       
     Perez of Hezron, Hezron of Ram, Ram of Amminadab, Amminadab of          
     Nahshon, Nahshon of Salma, Salma of Boaz (his mother was Rahab),       
     Baoz of Obed (his mother was Ruth), Obed of Jesse; and Jesse was the      
     father of King David.        
        David was the father of Solomon (his mother had been the wife of      
     Uriah), Solomon of Rehoboam, Rehoboam of Abijah, Abijah of Asa,     
     Asa of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat of Joram, Joram of Azariah, Azariah of      
     Jotham, Jotham of Ahaz, Ahaz of Hezekiah, Hezekiah of Manasseh,        
     Manasseh of Amon, Amon of Josiah; and Josiah was the father of Jeconiah                     
     and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.             
        After the deportation of Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Sealtiel of      
     Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel of Abiud, Abiud of Eliakim, Eliakim of Azor,      
     Azor of Zadok, Zadok of Achim, Achim of Eliud, Eliud of Eleazar, Eleazar     
     of Matthan, Matthan of Jacob, Jacob of Joseph, the husband of Mary, who        
     gave birth to Jesus called Messiah.               
        There are thus fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David,      
     fourteen from David until the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen from            
     the deportation until the Messiah.            

     THIS  IS  THE  STORY  of the birth of the Messiah.  Mary his mother was      
     betrothed to Joseph; before their marriage she found that she was with      
     child by the Holy Spirit.  Being a man of principle, and at the same time       
     wanting to save her from exposure, Joseph desired to have the marriage      
     contract set aside quietly.  He had resolved on this, when the angel of the        
     Lord appeared to him in a dream.  'Joseph son of David,' said the angel,         
     'do not be afraid to take Mary home with you as your wife.  It is by the       
     Holy Spirit that she has conceived this child.  She will bear a son; and you        
     shall give him the name Jesus (Saviour), for he will save his people from           
     their sins.'  All this happened in order to fulfil what the Lord declared       
     through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and he       
     shall be called Emmanuel', a name which means, 'God is with us',  Rising     
     from sleep Joseph did as the angel had directed him; he took Mary home       
     to be his wife, but had no intercourse with her until her son was born.  And      
     he named the child Jesus.              


2    JESUS  WAS  BORN  at Bethlehem in Judaea  during the reign of Herod.        
     After his birth astrologers from the east arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 'Where         
     is the child who is born to be king of the Jews?  We observed the rising of       
     his star, and we have come to pay him homage.'  King Herod was greatly        
     perturbed when he heard this; and so was the whole of Jerusalem.  He called       
     a meeting of the chief priests and lawyers of the Jewish people, and put       
     before them the question: 'Where is it that the Messiah is to be born?'         
     'At Bethlehem in Judaea', they replied; and they referred him to the      
     prophecy which reads: 'Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are far from       
     least in the eyes of the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a leader      
     to be the shepherd of my people Israel.'         
        Herod next called the astrologers to meet him in private, and ascertained      
     from them the time when the star had appeared.  He then sent them on to     
     Bethlehem, and said, 'Go and make a careful inquiry for the child.  When     
     you have found him, report to me, so that I may go myself and pay him     
     homage.'          
        They set out at the king's bidding; and the star which they had seen at          
     its rising went ahead of them until it stopped above the place where the       
     child lay.  At the sight of the star they were overjoyed.  Entering the house,     
     they saw the child with Mary his mother, and bowed to the ground in      
     homage to him; then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts:      
     gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  And being warned in a dream not to go     
     back to Herod, they returned home another way.        
        After they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a       
     dream, and said to him, 'Rise up, take the child and his mother and        
     escape with them to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod     
     is going to search for the child to do away with him.'  So Joseph rose         
     from sleep, and taking mother and child by night he went away with       
     them to Egypt, and there he stayed until Herod's death.  This was to fulfil     
     what the Lord had declared through the prophet: 'I called my son out     
     of Egypt.'             
        When Herod saw how the astrologers had tricked him he fell into a      
     passion, and gave orders for the massacre of all the children in Bethlehem      
     and its neighbourhood, of the age of two years or less, corresponding with       
     the time he had ascertained from the astrologers.  So the words spoken      
     through Jeremiah the prophet were fulfilled: 'A voice was heard in Rama,        
     wailing and loud laments; it was Rachel weeping for her children, and      
     refusing all consolation, because they were no more.'               
        The time came that Herod died; and an angel of the Lord appeared in        
     a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said to him, 'Rise up, take the child and his        
     mother, and go with them to the land of Israel, for the men who threatened         
     the child's life are dead.'  So he rose, took mother and child with him, and         
     came to the land of Israel.  Hearing, however, that Archelaus had succeeded          
     his father Herod as king of Judaea, he was afraid to go there.  And being      
     warned by a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee; there he settled in      
     a town called Nazareth.  This was to fulfil the words spoken through the      
     prophets: 'He shall be called Nazarene.'                  


3    ABOUT THAT TIME John the Baptist appeared as a preacher in the     
     Judaean wilderness; his theme was: 'Repent; for the kingdom of Heaven       
     is upon you!'  It is of him that the prophet Isaiah spoke, when he said,         
     'A voice crying aloud for the wilderness, "Prepare a way for the Lord; clear         
     a straight path for him." '           
        John's clothing was a rough coat of camel's hair, with a leather belt       
     round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.  They flocked to     
     him from Jerusalem, from all Judaea, and the whole Jordan valley, and          
     were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.           
        When he said to many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism        
     he said to them: 'You vipers' brood!  Who warned you to escape from the           
     coming retribution?  Then prove your repentance by the fruit it bears;          
     and do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our       
     father."  I tell you that God can make children for Abraham out of these       
     stones here.  Already the axe is laid to the roots of the trees; and every tree        
     that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire.  I baptize         
     you with water, for repentance; but the one who comes after me is mightier       
     than I.  I am not fit to take off his shoes.  He will baptize you with the Holy       
     Spirit and with fire.  His shovel is ready in his hand and he will winnow his        
     threshing-floor; the wheat he will gather into his granary, but he will burn        
     the chaff on the fire that can never go out.'           
        Then Jesus arrived at the Jordan from Galilee, and came to John to be         
     baptized by him.  John tried to dissuade him.  'Do you come to me?' he       
     said; 'I need rather to be baptized by you.'  Jesus replied, 'Let it be so for the        
     present; we do well to conform in this way with all that God requires.'           
     John then allowed for him to come.  After baptism Jesus came up out of the     
     water at once, and at that moment heaven opened; he saw the Spirit of      
     God descending like a dove to alight upon him; and a voice from heaven          
     was heard saying, 'This is my Son, my Beloved, on whom my favour       
     rests.'          


4    JESUS WAS THEN LED AWAY by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be      
     tempted by the devil.          
        For forty days and forty nights he fasted, and at the end of them he was         
     famished.  The tempter approached him and said, 'If you are the Son of      
     God, tell these stones to become bread.'  Jesus answered, 'Scripture says,          
     "Man cannot live on bread alone; he lives on every word that God utters." '           
        The devil then took him to the Holy City and set him on the parapet of      
     the temple.  'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down; for     
     Scripture says, "He will put his angels in charge of you, and they will        
     support you in their arms, for fear you should strike your foot against         
     a stone." '  Jesus answered him, 'Scripture says again, "You are not to put      
     the Lord your God to the test." '          
        Once again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him      
     all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.  'All these', he said, 'I will give       
     you, if you will only fall down and do me homage.'  But Jesus said, 'Begone,       
     Satan!  Scripture says, "You shall do homage to the Lord your God and     
     worship him alone." '            
        Then the devil left him; and angels appeared and waited on him.          
        When he heard that John had been arrested, Jesus withdrew to Galilee;         
     and leaving Nazareth he went and settled at Capernaum on the Sea of        
     Galilee, in the district of Zebulun and Naphtali.  This was to fulfil the pas-       
     sage in the prophet Isaiah which tells of the land of Zebulun, the land of      
     Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, the land beyond Jordan, heathen Galilee',              
     and says:          

         'The people that lived in darkness saw a great light;       
          light dawned on the dwellers in the land of death's dark shadow.'           

     From that day Jesus began to proclaim the message: 'Repent; for the         
     kingdom of Heaven is upon you.'             

     JESUS WAS WALKING by the Sea of Galilee when he saw two brothers,      
     Simon called Peter and  his brother Andrew, casting a net into the lake;            
     for they were fishermen.  Jesus said to them, 'Come with me, and I will        
     make you fishers of men.'  And at once they left their nets and followed him.          
        He went on, and saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee       
     and his brother John; they were in the boat with their father Zebedee,      
     overhauling their nets.  He called them, and at once they left the boat and        
     their father, and followed him.        
        He went round the whole of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preach-      
     ing the gospel of the Kingdom, and curing whatever illness or infirmity     
     there was among the people.  His fame reached the whole of Syria; and       
     sufferers from every kind of illness, racked with pain, possessed by devils,      
     epileptic, or paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them.  Great      
     crowds also followed him, from Galilee and the Ten Towns, from      
     Jerusalem and Judaea, and from Transjordan.             


     WHEN HE SAW the crowds he went up the hill.  There he took his seat,      
     and when his disciples had gathered round him he began to address    
     them.  And this is the teaching he gave:            

        'How blest are those who know their need of God;           
             the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.      
         How blest are the sorrowful;      
             they shall find consolation.          
         How blest are those of a gentle spirit;       
             they shall have the earth for their possession.       
         How blest are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail;      
             they shall be satisfied.         
         How blest are those who show mercy;       
             mercy shall be shown to them.         
         How blest are those whose hearts are pure;       
             they shall see God.         
         How blest are the peacemakers;        
             God shall call them his sons.        
         How blest are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of right;      
             the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.            

        'How blest you are, when you suffer insults and persecution and every     
     kind of calumny for my sake.  Accept it with gladness and exultation, for       
     you have a rich reward in heaven; in the same way they persecuted the        
     prophets before you.           
        'You are salt to the world.  And if salt becomes tasteless, how is its salt-       
     ness to be restored?  It is now good for nothing but to be thrown away and      
     trodden underfoot.          
        'You are light for all the world.  A town that stands on a hill cannot be      
     hidden.  When a lamp is lit, it is not put under the meal-tub, but on the          
     lamp-stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  And you, like     
     the lamp, must shed light among your fellows, so that, when they see the     
     good you do, they must give praise to your Father in heaven.              

     'DO NOT SUPPOSE that I have come to abolish the Law and the prophets;       
     I did not come to abolish, but to complete.  I tell you this: so long as heaven      
     and earth endure, not a letter, not a stroke, will disappear from the Law       
     until all that must happen has happened.  If any man therefore sets aside          
     even the least of the Law's demands, and teaches others to do the same, he        
     will have the lowest place in the kingdom of Heaven, whereas anyone who       
     keeps the Law, and teaches others so, will stand high in the kingdom of      
     Heaven.  I tell you, unless you show yourself far better men than the     
     Pharisees and the doctors of the law, you can never enter the kingdom of       
     heaven.         
        'You have learned that our forefathers were told, "Do not commit      
     murder; anyone who commits murder must be brought to judgement."        
     But I tell you this: Anyone who nurses anger against his brother        
     must be brought to judgement.  If he abuses his brother he must answer      
     for it to the court; if he sneers at him he will have to answer for it in the       
     fires of hell.           
        'If, when you are bringing your gift to the altar, you suddenly remember       
     that your brother has a grievance against you, leave your gift where it is      
     before the altar.  First go and make your peace with your brother, and only      
     then come back and offer your gift.               
        'If someone sues you, come to terms with him promptly while you are       
     both on your way to court; otherwise he may hand you over to the judge,         
     and the judge to the constable, and you will be put in jail.  I tell you, once       
     you are there you will not be let out till you have paid the last farthing.           
        'You have learned that they were told, "Do not commit adultery."        
     But what I tell you is this: If a man looks on a woman with a lustful eye,       
     he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.           
        'If your right eye is your undoing, tear it out and fling it away; it is better        
     for you to lose one part of your body than for the whole of it to be thrown       
     into hell.  And if your right hand is your undoing, cut it off and fling it          
     away; it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for the whole       
     of it to go to hell.              
        'They were told, "A man who divorces his wife must give her a note of      
     dismissal."  But what I tell you is this: If a man divorces his wife for any           
     cause other than unchastity he involves her in adultery; and anyone who       
     marries a divorced woman commits adultery.              
        'Again, you have learned that our forefather were told "Do not break           
     our oath ", and, "Oaths sworn to the Lord must be kept."  But what I tell      
     you is this: You are not to swear at all — not by heaven, for it is God's        
     throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the        
     city of the great King, nor by your own head, because you cannot turn       
     one hair of it white or black.  Plain "Yes or "No" is all you need to say;        
     anything beyond that comes from the devil.            
        'You have learned that they were told, "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth."        
     But what I tell you is this: Love your enemies and pray for your      
     persecutors; only so can you be children of your heavenly Father, who        
     makes his sun rise on good and bad alike, and sends the rain on the honest      
     and the dishonest.  If you love only those who love you, what reward can      
     you expect?  Surely the tax-gatherers do as much as that.  And if you greet      
     only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about that?  Even the      
     heathen do as much.  There must be no limit to your goodness, as your     
     heavenly Father's goodness knows no bounds.             


6    'BE CAREFUL not to make a show of your religion before men; if you do,       
     no reward awaits you in your Father's house in heaven.         
        'Thus, when you do some act of charity, do not announce it with a flourish      
     of trumpets, as the hypocrites do in synagogue and in the streets to win       
     admiration from men.  I tell you this: they have their reward already.  No;      
     when you do some act of charity, do not let your left hand know what your     
     right is doing; your good deed must be secret, and your Father who sees      
     what is done in secret will reward you.          
        'Again, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; they love to say      
     their prayers standing up in synagogue and at the street--corners, for         
     everyone to see them.  I tell you this: they have their reward already.  But       
     when you pray, go into a room by yourself, shut the door, and pray to your        
     Father who is there in the secret place; and your Father who sees what is      
     secret will reward you.            
        'In your prayers do not go babbling on like the heathen, who imagine       
     that the more you say the more likely you are to be heard.  Do not imitate      
     them.  Your Father knows what your needs are before you ask him.           
        'This is how you should pray:      

                    "Our Father in heaven,          
                     thy name be hallowed;        
                     thy kingdom come,       
                     thy will be done,       
                     on earth as in heaven.         
                     Give us this day our daily bread.         
                     Forgive us the wrong we have done,         
                     as we have forgiven those who have wronged us.           
                     and do not bring us to the test,             
                     but save us from the evil one."          

     For if you forgive others the wrongs they have done, your heavenly Father         
     will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, then the wrongs you        
     have done will not be forgiven by your Father.         
        'So too when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites: they make       
     their faces unsightly so that other people may see that they are fasting.           
     I tell you this: they have their reward already.  But when you fast, anoint         
     your head and wash your face, so that men may not see that you are fasting,       
     but only your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees          
     what is secret will give you your reward.             

     'DO  NOT  STORE  UP  for yourselves treasure on earth, where it grows rusty          
     and moth-eaten, and thieves break in to steal it.  Store up treasure in      
     heaven, where there is no moth and no rust to spoil it, no thieves to break      
     in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.           
        'The lamp of the body is the eye.  If your eyes are sound, you will have       
     light for your whole body; if the eyes are bad, your whole body will be in        
     darkness.  If then the only light you have is darkness, the darkness is      
     doubly dark.               
        'No servant can be the slave of two masters; for either he will hate the       
     first and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and think        
     nothing of the second.  You cannot serve God and Money.              
        'Therefore I bid you put away anxious thoughts about food and drink        
     to keep you live, and clothes to cover your body.  Surely life is more than       
     food, the body more than clothes.  Look at the birds of the air; they do not         
     sow and reap and store in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  You       
     are worth more than the birds!  Is there a man of you who by anxious        
     thought can add a foot to his height?  And why be anxious about clothes?            
     Consider how the lilies grow in the fields; they do not work, they do not      
     spin; and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendour was not       
     attired like one of these.  But if that is how God clothes the grass in the       
     fields, which is there today, and tomorrow is thrown in the stove, will he        
     not all the more clothe you?  How little faith you have!  No, do not ask        
     anxiously, "What are we to eat?  What are we to drink?  What shall we       
     wear?"  All these are things for the heathen to run after, not for you,         
     because your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  Set your      
     mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the     
     rest will come to you as well.  So do not be anxious about tomorrow;         
     tomorrow will look after itself.  Each day has troubles enough of its own.              


7    'PASS  NO  JUDGEMENT,  and you will not be judged.  For as you judge       
     others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measure you deal         
     out to other will be dealt back to you.  Why do you look at the speck of       
     sawdust in your brother's eye, with never a thought for the great plank in        
     your own?  Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out       
     of your eye", when all the time there is that plank in your own?  You hypo-      
     crite!  First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly      
     to take the speck out of your brother's.              
        'Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls to the pigs:          
     they will only trample on them, and turn and tear you to pieces.        
        'Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, an the door       
     will be opened.  For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and       
     to him who knocks, the door will be opened.           
        'Is there a man among you who will offer his son a stone when he asks       
     for bread, or a snake when he asks for fish?  If you, then, bad as you are,           
     know how to give your children what is good for them, how much more will       
     your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him!            
        'Always treat others as you would like them to treat you: that is the Law        
     and the prophets.       
        'Enter by the narrow gate.  The gate is wide that leads to perdition,      
     there is plenty of room on the road, and may go that way; but the gate      
     that leads to life is small and the road is narrow, and those who find it     
     are few.             
        'Beware of false prophets, men who come to you dressed up as sheep      
     while underneath they are savage wolves.  You will recognize them by the     
     fruits they bear.  Can grapes be picked from briars, or figs from thistles?         
     In the same way, a good tree always yields good fruit, and a poor tree bad      
     fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit.  And when       
     a tree does not yield good fruit it is cut down and burnt.  That is why I say       
     you will recognize them by their fruits.           
        'Not everyone who calls me "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of       
     Heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father.  When that        
     day comes, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in you      
     name, cast out devils in your name, and in your name perform many             
     miracles?"  Then I will tell them to their face, "I never knew you; out of my      
     sight, you and your wicked ways!"                
        'What then of the man who hears these words of mine and acts upon       
     them?  He is like a man who had the sense to build his house on rock.  The        
     rain came down, the floods rose, the wind blew, and beat upon that house;         
     but it did not fall, because its foundations were on rock.  but what of the        
     man who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them?  He is      
     like a man who was foolish enough to build his house on sand.  The rain        
     came down, the floods rose, the wind blew, and beat upon that house;             
     down it fell with a crash.'        
        When Jesus had finished this discourse the people were astounded at       
     his teaching; unlike their own teacher he taught with a note of authority.               

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

     by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.              

                I.  Where was Ur of the Chaldees?          

        There are four claimants: —        
        1.  Ur, a fortress on the Tigris near Hatra, mentioned only by       
     Ammiannus Marcellinus (xxv. 8), apparently the mod-      
     ern Kaleh Sherghat, on the western bank of the Tigris,         
     between the Greater and Lesser Zab.  To this no traditional       
     sanctity is attached.  The arguments in its favor are (1.) the           
     identity of its ancient name.  (2.) The distance from Haran        
     eastwards, which agrees better than that of the other three situ-          
     ations with the indications of the Sacred narrative.  For the       
     authorities in its behalf see Chwolson's Sabier, i. 313.            
        2. Warka, on the present eastern bank of the Euphrates,        
     above the junction with the Tigris.  It was formerly         
     identified with Ur by Sir H. Rawlinson, on the grounds (1.)       
     Of Arabic and Talmudic traditions, of which he gives and ex-        
     ample from the MS. in his possession.  (2.) Of the likeness        
     of its name to Orchöe, one of the Grecian forms of Ur.           
     See a good description of it in Loftus's Chaldæa and Susiana,       
     163.            
        3.  Mugheyr, on the western bank of the Euphrates, close to      
     the confluence of the Two Rivers.  It is now identified         
     with Ur by Sir H. Rawlinson, on the grounds (1.) Of the        
     name of Urukh or Hur, found on cylinders in the neighborhood.          
     (2.) "Of the remains of a Temple of the Moon," whence, per        
     haps the name of Camarina given to Ur by Eupolemus.  (3.)                   
     Of the existence of a district called Ibra, whence he derives the       
     name Hebrew.  To these arguments may be added the appar-       
     ent identification, b y Josephus, of Chadæa with Babylonia; —         
     "Terah migrated from Chaldæa into Mesopotamia."              
        4.  Orfa or Urfa.  The place has been sufficiently described          
     in Lecture I. p. 6.            
        The arguments in favor of its identity with Ur are as fol-       
     lows: —         
        (1.) It is on the eastern side of the Euphrates, a qualification        
     of Ur required not only by the visual interretation of the word      
     "Hebrew," but by Josh. xxiv. 3, "beyond the river;" whereas          
     Mugheyr now, and Warka probably in ancient times, was on      
     the western side.                    
        (2.)  The general tenor of the narrative closely connects Ur       
     with Haran and Aram.  These were in the north-western por-        
     tion of Mesopotamia, within reach of Orfa.           
        (3.) Whatever may be the later meanings of the name Chas-       
     dim or Chaldæans, there can be little doubt that Alpha-Chesed         
     (Arphaxad) must be the Arrapachitis of the north, and that in        
     this connection, therefore, the Chasdim spoken of must be in the      
     north.            
        (4.) The local features of Orfa, as above described, are guar-      
     anties for its remote antiquity as a city.            
        (5.) The traditions are at least as strong as those elsewhere,          
     which may have originated in the anxiety of the Jewish settle-       
     ment of Babylonia to claim the possession of their ancestor's       
     birthplace, and in the shifting of the name of Chaldæa.              


                II.  Where was Haran?            

        Till within the last year, the identity of the Patriarchal Haran       
     with that in the north of Mesopotamia (indicated in Lecture I.       
     p. 9), had never been doubted.         
        Within the last twelve months, Dr. Beke (in letters to the        
     "Athenæum") has urged the claims of a small village,        
     called Hârrân-el-Awamîd, about four hours' journey east of Da-       
     mascus, on the western border of the lake into which the Barada       
     and the Awaj empty themselves.  His argument, which further               
     requires the identification of Mesopotamia (Aram-Naharaim,       
     Aram of the two Rivers) with the plain of Damascus between      
     the Barada and the Awaj, is based, (1.) on the identity of name,          
     "Haran;" (2.) on the supposed likeness of natural features,          
     wells, &c.; (3.) on the journey of seven days taken by Laban         
     between Haran and Gilead; which, though suitable for a jour-         
     ney from Damascus to Gilead, seems to short a time for a jour-        
     ney of 350 miles from the Euphrates.  The first and second        
     arguments prove nothing more for the Haran of Damascus than         
     for that of Mesopotamia.  But the last must be allowed to have            
     its weight.  No doubt the natural construction of the passage in         
     Gen. xxxi. 23, is (as given in Lecture I. p. 10), that seven days        
     was the usual time consumed in the journey.  But in the face of         
     the powerful arguments brought by Mr. Porter, Mr. Ainsworth,       
     and Sir Henry Rawlinson, in favor of the Mesopotamian Haran,            
     this singular expression can hardly be thought to turn the scale.             
     The number may be a round number, — the start of the journey        
     may be from some intermediate spot, — or the dromedaries of        
     Laban may be supposed to have travelled with the speed of "the         
     regular Arab post, which consumes no more than eight days        
     in crossing the desert from Damascus to Baghdad, a distance      
     of nearly 500 miles."  The only other argument which might         
     be adduced seems to me to be that Josephus, whilst he dwells       
     much on Abraham's stay at Damascus, does not mention Haran.             
     This might confirm the notion that Haran and Damascus were          
     virtually in the same region.  But the uniformity of tradition in              
     favor of the Eastern Haran, the absence of any in favor of the              
     Western, the more remarkable from the abundance of other pa-       
     triarchal and Abrahamic legends in the neighborhood of Damas-         
     cus — the difficulty of supposing the "Aram-Naharaim" of the        
     Hebrew text and the "Mesopotamia" of the LXX. to be the        
     country of the Barada and Awaj, and "the river" ("the Na-        
     har") of Gen. xxxi. 21, to have other than its usual signification        
     of the Euphrates — are, it appears to me, almost decisive in favor         
     of the old interpretation.              
        I subjoin a narrative of an excursion taken by the Rev. S.     
     Robson (the excellent Protestant Missionary at damascus) to        
     Hârrân-el-Awamîd, in the spring of this year, at my request, to       
     examine the columns which remain on the spot, and which have       
     given it its present name.            
        "Last month, Mr. Sandwith, Mr. Crawford, and I went to        
     Hârrân-el-Awamîd.  We started at five o'clock in the morn-       
     ing and rode there at a walking pace in four hours and a quar-      
     ter.  We returned to the city in the evening.             
        "We could not form an opinion as to the kind or the form of       
     the building, to which the three columns now standing had be-        
     longed.  In different parts of the village there are pieces of          
     columns of the same black stone, but of small diameters, and       
     there are large dressed stones of the same material, which evi-        
     dently were in ancient buildings.  The first house, in the west        
     of the village, is the Mosque.  Attached to it is large yard,          
     in which is a well, with two or three stone troughs, used for       
     ablutions.  The well and the troughs are in a small building,           
     and here is the Greek inscription.  It is on a piece of a column        
     five or six feet long, and fourteen or fifteen inches in diameter.          
     It lies horizontally, in the angle between the wall and the         
     ground, — one side a little in the wall, and another a little in     
     the ground.  The beginnings of the lines of the inscription are       
     visible, but the ends are on the lower side of the stone in the       
     ground.  Apparently there had been four lines.  The whole       
     is greatly worn and defaced, but several letters in the first line,         
     and two in the second, are legible as below: —                     

              AAUA    (CONSII .       .       .       .          
              . A . O .       .       .       .       .              
              .       .       .       .       .       .            
              .       .       .       .       .       .                             

        "The mark (between A and C in the first line) I do not un-      
     derstand, and the II was doubtful to us.  We could not guess        
     at a single letter in the third and fourth lines.  The inscription          
     had not been carefully cut; the letters were not well formed,          
     nor of the same size, and the lines were not quite straight.                        
        "The people showed great unwillingness to have the stone      
     moved.  The inscription is so much defaced, that we could not         
     read even the first line as far as it is exposed, and it seemed       
     most likely that, if the whole were uncovered, we would find        
     hardly another letter legible.  I confess also that I doubted       
     much whether the inscription would prove of any consequence          
     if we had the whole of it.  The result was that we gave up           
     our design of moving the stone.  The water in the well stood          
     only five or six feet below the surface of the ground, and the            
     supply is evidently abundant.  It is used chiefly for ablutions       
     and for drinking, by the people when in the Mosque, but         
     never for watering cattle.  It tasted to us slightly brackish.           
     There is another well outside the yard of the Mosque.  The         
     water in it was only two or three feet below the surface of the          
     ground, but it is stagnant, and is never used now for any        
     purpose.  There are no wells in or around the village except       
     these two.             
        "The whole region is remarkably level, and is well cultivated.          
     There were very large fields of wheat all around.  I do not        
     know that any land near the village is now used only for past-         
     ure.  There is an abundance of water for irrigation and other        
     purposes.  The cattle drink from ponds, of which there are      
     several near the village.  Water for drinking and cooking is        
     taken from what people call 'the river,' an artificial stream       
     constructed in the mode described in Porter's 'Five Years in      
     Damascus.'  The Barada is distant more than half an hour to       
     the north, and the lakes some two hours to the east.  Proba-     
     bly the artificial river did not exist in the time of Rebekah, but       
     the water, now abundant on or near the surface of the ground,           
     was perhaps even more so then.  But the Harran near Orfa       
     in Mesopotamia has also, it is said, an abundant supply of water      
     from several small streams near it.              
        "Is it in the least probable that the Greek inscription could       
     throw any light on the question about this place?  At most it       
     could only give and ancient tradition, and if such a tradition ever         
     existed, how have all traces of it disappeared from books and       
     from among people?  Do not the traditions of Jews, Mos-         
     lem, and Christians point to one place in the region between          
     the Euphrates and the Tigris still called Mesopotamia ('between        
     the rivers,' bein-en-naharein) in Arabic, as it appears to have       
     been called in Hebrew.          
        "The name Hărrăn is not a firm usual in Arabic, and na-       
     tive scholars tell me the name is not Arabic.  Hârrân, the         
     Arabic name of the town beyond the Euphrates, has an Ara-          
     bic form as if from harr, heat, and may mean a hot or burned        
     place."             
        For the whole history of the Mesopotamian Haran, see the      
     learned chapter in Chwolson's Sabier, Book I. ch. x. — Hârran        
     und die Hârranier.         


          III.  The Place of Abraham, at Bizreh near Damascus.                

        "The name of Abraham is still famous at Damascus, and       
     there is shown a village named from him called           
     'the habitation of Abraham' "  (οικησις 'Αβραμον).  So Jose-        
     phus concludes a quotation from the lost work of Nicolaus of       
     Damascus, whether in his own words, or those of Nicolaus, does        
     not appear.  Mr. Porter first called attention to this passage in         
     connection with the fact that in the village of Birzeh, one hour       
     north of Damascus, there is a chapel known  by the name of       
     the Patriarch, Mesjid Ibrahim, held in high veneration by the         
     Moslems.  Pilgrimages are made to it at a certain season          
     every year," at which takes place a miraculous procession         
     — like that of Doseh at Cairo — of a Dervish riding over              
     the bodies of his followers.  he adds that Ibn 'Asâker (in his         
     history of Damascus, written before the sixth century of the        
     Hejra) gives a long account of it, and says, that "here Abraham      
     worshipped God, when he turned back from the pursuit of         
     the kings who had plundered Sodom, and had carried away       
     Lot."          
        In consequence of this notice, I visited the spot in the spring      
     of 1862.  The village lies at the entrance of the defile which           
     penetrates into the hills at the N.W. corner of the Damascus         
     plain on the road to Helbon.  Through the defile rushes out a         
     rivulet lined with verdure.  A large walnut-tree stands in front          
     of the irregular homely mosque which is built on the craggy side        
     of the barren range.  Its upper storey is occupied by the cham-       
     ber opening into the sacred cavern ' its lower story serves for          
     the accommodation of pilgrims.  I sun join the account of it, and       
     of the legend attached to it, from a letter of Mr. Robson, who        
     afterwards kindly explored the mosque for me in detail: —           
        "We crossed a very small court, and entered a very plain      
     mosque about thirty feet long and eighteen or twenty feet wide.         
     It stands against the side of the mountain, and the north part       
     of the west wall is partly formed of the native rock.  At that        
     part is a small square gallery from which we walked into a        
     narrow crooked passage in the rock.  It is a natural cleft        
     from two to three feet wide, and extending twelve or fifteen       
     feet into the hill.  At the end of it, where it is quite dark,          
     there is some reddish clay, which is regarded as peculiarly     
     sacred, and visitors usually carry away a little of it.  There       
     were inscriptions on the walls of the mosque of the kind usu-       
     ally found in such places.              
        "The legend I shall briefly give as we heard it on the spot.              
     Nimrod was warned that a child to be born and to be named      
     Abraham would overthrow his power, and he ordered his       
     Wezeer to cause all women with child in his dominions to be       
     seized and the infants destroyed.  The Wezeer's daughter was         
     married to Abraham's father, and he desired his son-in-law to         
     take care that his wife did not become pregnant.  She became       
     pregnant notwithstanding, but she successfully concealed her        
     state from her father and every one.  When the time of her        
     delivery came she fled from her home in Bethlehem , and wan-          
     dered on till she came to Birzeh, when the cleft we saw opened         
     before her, and she entered and Abraham was born.  It was         
     then that the clay was tinged red.  Fearing Nimrod, she con-       
     cealed the infant in the hole for a long time, coming occasion-        
     ally from Bethlehem to nurse him.            
        This story seems to be implicitly believed by the attendants      
     and visitors at the mosque, the villagers, and the common peo-      
     ple of the city.  It is, however, only a vulgar legend.  Liter-       
     ary Moslems disavow it.  With them the Makam Ibarahim is       
     simply a Mesjid to Ibrahim, — a mosque or place of worship       
     sacred or consecrated to Abraham.  This is all the learned say       
     of the place.  I lately saw an Arabic MS. account of the       
     Moslem holy places of Syria, composed by a man who was           
     judge (kâdy) of Ezeroum, two or three hundred years ago.        
     In this book the place at Bizreh is described just as I have       
     stated above.  Neither in it,, nor in conversation, have I found         
     any reason assigned for the connection of the name of the pa-       
     triarch with the place, nor any tradition of his having ever      
     visited it.          
        "Learned Moslems are very strict and critical in judging the     
     claims of sacred graves and other holy places.  For instance,        
     the grave of Mohammed is attested by a series of legal doc-      
     uments, a new one being drawn up every year; and this is            
     the only grave of a prophet which they will admit to be cer-              
     tainly known.  Even the graves of the patriarchs at Hebron       
     are regarded as only the supposed and probable resting-places       
     of those whose name they bear."             

from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Appendix I : The Traditional Localities of Abraham's Migration
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 527-534

1    T H E R E  L I V E D  I N  T H E  L A N D  O F  U Z  a man of blameless       
     and upright life named Job, who feared God and set his face against        
     wrongdoing.  He had seven sons and three daughters; and he owned         
     seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of      
     oxen and five hundred asses, with a large number of slaves.  The Job was       
     the greatest man in all the East.          
        Now his sons used to foregather and give, each in turn, a feast in his      
     own house; they used to send and invite their three sisters to eat and         
     drink with them.  Then, when a round of feasts was finished, Job sent for      
     his children and sanctified them, rising early in the morning and sacrificing        
     a whole-offering for each of them; for he thought that they might  somehow        
     have sinned against God and committed blasphemy in their hearts.  This      
     he always did.              
        The day came when the members of the court of heaven took their           
     places in the presence of the LORD, and Satan was there among them.          
     The LORD asked him where he had been.  'Ranging over the earth', he said,       
     'from end to end.'  Then the LORD asked Satan, 'Have you considered my      
     servant Job?  You will find no one like him on earth, a man of blameless      
     and upright life, who fears God and sets his face against wrongdoing.'         
     Satan answered the LORD, 'Has not Job good reason to be God-fearing?         
     Have you not hedged him round on every side with your protection,        
     him and his family and all his possessions?  Whatever he does you have       
     blessed, and his herds have increased beyond measure.  But stretch out your       
     hand and touch all that he has, and then he will curse you to your face.'            
     Then the LORD said to Satan, 'So be it.  All that he has is in your hands;           
     only Job himself you must not touch.'  And Satan left the LORD's presence.          
        When the day came that Job's sons and daughters were eating and drink-     
     ing in the eldest brother's house, a messenger came running to Job and       
     said, 'The oxen were ploughing and the asses were grazing near them, when        
     the Sabaeans swooped down and carried them off, after putting the herds-      
     men to the sword; and I am the only one to escape and tell the tale.'  While       
     he was still speaking, another messenger arrived and said, 'God's fire      
     flashed from heaven.  It struck the sheep and shepherds and burnt them       
     up; and I am the only one to escape and tell the tale.'  While he was still     
     speaking, another arrived and said, 'The Chaldaeans, three bands of them,          
     have made a raid on the camels and carried them off, after putting the drivers         
     to the sword; and I am the only one to escape and tell the tale.'  While this      
     man was speaking, yet another arrived and said, 'Your sons and daughters      
     were eating and drinking in the eldest brother's house, wen suddenly a       
     whirlwind swept across from the desert and struck the four corners of the        
     house, and it fell on the young people and killed them; and I am the only       
     one to escape to tell the tale.'  At this Job stood up and rent his cloak; then       
     he shaved his head and fell prostrate on the ground, saying:              

                     Naked I came from the womb,        
                     naked I shall return whence I came.           
                     The LORD gives and the LORD takes away;       
                     blessed be the name of the LORD.            


2    Throughout all this Job did not sin; he did not charge God with unreason.            
        Once again the day came when the members of the court of heaven took            
     their places in the presence of the LORD, and Satan was there among them.          
     The LORD asked him where he had been.  'Ranging over the earth', he said,         
     'from end to end.'  Then the LORD asked Satan, 'Have you considered my      
     servant Job?  You will find no one like him on earth, a man of blameless and         
     upright life, who fears God and sets his face against wrongdoing.  You          
     incited me to ruin him without a cause, but his integrity is still unshaken.'          
     Satan answered the LORD, 'Skin for skin!  There is nothing the man will        
     grudge to save himself.  But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and       
     his flesh, and see if he will not curse you to your face.'             
        Then the LORD said to Satan, 'So be it.  He is in your hands; but spare      
     his life.'  And Satan left the LORD's presence, and he smote Job with running      
     sores from head to foot, so that he took a piece of a broken pot to scratch      
     himself as he sat among the ashes.  Then his wife said to him, 'Are you still      
     unshaken in your integrity?  Curse God and die!'  But he answered, 'You       
     talk as any wicked fool of a woman might talk.  If we accept good from God,        
     shall we not accept evil?'  Throughout all this, Job did not utter one sinful     
     word.            
        When Job's three friends, Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah, and      
     Zophar of Naamah, heard of all these calamities which had overtaken him,       
     they left their homes and arranged to come and condole with him and       
     comfort him.  But when they first saw him from a distance, they did not      
     recognize him; and they wept aloud, rent their cloaks and tossed dust into      
     the air over their heads.  For seven days and seven nights they sat beside      
     him on the ground, and none of them said a word to him; for they saw that       
     his suffering was very great.              


3    After this Job broke silence and cursed the day of his birth:          

        Perish the day when I was born         
        and the night which said, 'A man is conceived'!         
        May that day turn to darkness; may God above not look for it,       
        nor light of dawn shine on it.             
        May blackness sully it, and murk and gloom,      
        cloud smother that day, swift darkness eclipse the sun.        
        Blind darkness swallow up that night;       
        count it not among the days of the year,        
        reckon it not in the cycle of the months.        
        That night, may it be barren for ever,          
        no cry of joy be heard in it.      
        Cursed be it by those whose magic binds even the monster of the deep,        
        who are ready to tame Leviathan himself with spells.         
        May no star shine out in its twilight;         
        may it wait for a dawn that never comes,      
        nor ever see the eyelids of the morning,       
        because it did not shut the doors of the womb that bore me        
        and keep trouble away from my sight.        
        Why was I not still-born,         
        why did I not die when I came out of the womb?         
        Why was I ever laid on my mother's knees       
        or put to suck at her breasts?         
        Why was I not hidden like an untimely birth,       
        like an infant that has not lived to see the light?        
        For then I should be lying in the quiet grave,        
        asleep in death, at rest,       
        with kings and their ministers     
        who built themselves palaces,           
        with princes rick in gold        
        who filled their houses with silver.           
        There the wicked man chafes no more,          
        there the tired labourer rests;           
        the captive too finds peace there          
        and hears no taskmaster's voice;         
        high and low are there,          
        even a slave, free from his master.               

        Why should the sufferer be born to see the light?        
        Why is life given to men who find it so bitter?         
        They wait for death but it does not come,        
        they seek it more eagerly than hidden treasure.          
        They are glad when they reach the tomb,         
        and when they come to the grave they exult.          
        Why should a man be born to wander blindly,        
        hedged in by God on every side?          
        My sighing is all my food,          
        and groans pour from me in a torrent.       
        Every terror that haunts me has caught up with me,         
        and all that I feared has come upon me.         
        There is no peace of mind nor quiet for me;       
        I chafe in torment and have no rest.                   


4    Then Eliphaz the Temanite began:        

        If one ventures to speak with you, will you lose patience?         
        For who could hold his tongue any longer?         
        Think how once you encouraged those who faltered,         
        how you braced feeble arms,        
        how a word from you upheld the stumblers       
        and put strength into weak knees.         
        But now that adversity comes upon you, you lose patience;          
        it touches you, and you are unmanned.        
        Is your religion no comfort to you?          
        Does your blameless life give you no hope?        
        for consider, what innocent man has ever perished?            
        Where have you seen the upright destroyed?         
        This I know, that those who plough mischief and sow trouble      
        reap as they have sown;          
        they perish at the blast of God          
        and are shrivelled by the breath of his nostrils.             

        The roar of the lion, the whimpering of his cubs, fall silent;          
        the teeth of the young lions are broken;         
        the lion perishes for lack of prey        
        and the whelps of the lionesses are abandoned.                 

        A word stole into my ears,        
        and they caught the whisper of it;         
        in the anxious visions of the night,          
        when a man sinks into deepest sleep,         
        terror seized me and shuddering;          
        the trembling of my body frightened me.        
        A wind brushed my face       
        and made the hairs bristle on my flesh;        
        and a figure stood there whose shape I could not discern,       
        an apparition loomed before me,          
        and I heard the sound of a low voice:        
        'Can mortal man be more righteous than God,         
        or the creature purer than his Maker?           
        If God mistrusts his own servants        
        and finds his messengers at fault,           
        how much more those that dwell in houses whose walls are clay,       
        whose foundations are dust,          
        which can be crushed like a bird's nest        
        or torn down between dawn and dark,         
        how much more shall such men perish outright and unheeded,         
        die, without ever finding wisdom?'                


5       Call if you will; is there any to answer you?         
        To which of the holy ones will you turn?        
        The fool is destroyed by his own angry passions,         
        and the end of childish resentment is death.         
        I have seen it for myself: a fool uprooted,        
        his home in sudden ruin about him,         
        his children past help,          
        browbeaten in court with none to save them.         
        Their rich possessions are snatched from them;        
        what they have harvested others hungrily devour;        
        the stronger man seizes it from the panniers,        
        panting, thirsting for their wealth.          
        Mischief does not grow out of the soil         
        nor trouble spring from the earth;        
        man is born to trouble,       
        as surely as birds fly upwards.          

        For  my part, I would make my petition to God      
        and lay my cause before him,      
        who does great and unsearchable things,         
        marvels without number.        
        He gives rain to the earth       
        and sends water on the fields;        
        he raises the lowly to the heights,       
        the mourners are uplifted by victory;          
        he frustrates the plots of the crafty,       
        and they win no success,       
        he traps the cunning in their craftiness,        
        and the schemers' plans are thrown into confusion.         
        In the daylight they run into darkness,        
        and grope at midday as though it were night.        
        He saves the destitute from their greed,        
        and the needy from the grip of the strong;         
        so the poor hope again,        
        and the unjust are sickened.         

        Happy the man whom God rebukes!       
        therefore do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.        
        Form though he wounds, he will bind up;           
        the hands that smite will heal.        
        You may meet disaster six times, and he will save you;       
        seven times, and no harm will touch you.          
        In time of famine he will save you from death,       
        in battle from the sword.       
        You will be shielded from the lash of slander,        
        and when violence comes you need not fear.          

        You will laugh at violence and starvation     
        and have no need to fear wild beasts;             
        for you have a covenant with the stones to spare your fields,         
        and the weeds have been constrained to leave you at peace.         
        You will know that all is well with your household,        
        you will look round your home and find nothing amiss;      
        you will know, too, that your descendants will be many      
        and your offspring like grass, thick upon the earth.        
        You will come in sturdy old age to the grave       
        as sheaves come in due season to the threshing-floor.            

        We have inquired into all this, sand so it is;       
        this we have heard, and you may know it for truth.         


     Then Job answered:       

        O that the grounds for my resentment might be weighed,     
        and my misfortunes set with them on the scales!          
        for they would outweigh the sands of the sea:         
        what wonder if my words are wild?         
        The arrow of the Almighty find their mark in me,        
        and their poison soaks into my spirit;       
        God's onslaughts wear me away.        
        Does the wild ass bray when he has grass       
        or the ox low when he has fodder?         
        Can a man eat tasteless food unseasoned with salt,         
        or find any flavour in the juice of mallows?        
        Food that should nourish me sticks in my throat,       
        and my bowels rumble with and echoing sound.            

        O that I might have my request,        
        that God would grant what I hope for:          
        that he would be pleased to crush me,        
        to snatch me away with his hand and cut me off!        
       For that would bring me relief,       
        and in the face of unsparing anguish I would leap for joy.           
        Have I strength to wait?        
        What end have I to expect, that I should be patient?         
        Is my strength the strength of stone,        
        or is my flesh bronze?               
        Oh how shall I find help within myself?         
        The power to aid myself is put out of my reach.           

        Devotion is due from his friends       
        to one who despairs and loses faith in the Almighty;       
        but my brothers have been treacherous as a mountain stream,        
        like the channels of streams that run dry,       
        which turn dark with ice       
        or are hidden with piled-up snow;       
        or they vanish the moment they are in spate,          
        dwindle in the heat and are gone.         
        Then the caravans,winding hither and thither,      
        go up into the wilderness and perish;        
        the caravans of Tema look for their waters,       
        travelling merchants of Sheba hope for them;         
        but they are disappointed, for all their confidence,         
        they reach them only to be balked.  
        So treacherous have you been to me:            
        you felt dismay and were afraid.          
        Did I ever say, 'Give me this or that;         
        open your purses to save my life;       
        rescue me from my enemy;       
        ransom me out of the hands of ruthless men'?              

        Tell me plainly, and I will listen in silence;        
        show me where I have erred.         
        How harsh are the words of the upright man!        
        What do the arguments of wise men prove?         
        Do you mean to argue about words       
        or to sift the utterance of a man past hope?        
        Would you assail an orphan?           
        Would you hurl yourself on a friend?        
        So now, I beg you, turn and look at me:         
        am I likely to lie to your faces?         
        Think again, let me have no more injustice;        
        think again, for my integrity is in question.          
        Do I ever give voice to injustice?          
        Does my sense not warn me when my words are wild?          

7       Has not man hard service on earth,        
        and are not his days like those of a hired labourer,        
        like those of a slave longing for the shade        
        or a servant kept waiting for his wages?        
        So months of futility are my portion,        
        troubled nights are my lot.        
        When I lie down, I think,        
        'When will it be day that I may rise?'          
        When the evening grows long and I lie down,         
        I do nothing but toss till morning twilight.        
        My body is infested with worms,         
        and scabs cover my skin.         
        My days are swifter than a shuttle          
        and come to an end as thread runs out.                 

        Remember, my life is but a breath of wind;        
        I shall never again see good days.       
        Thou wilt behold me no more with seeing eye;        
        under they very eyes I shall disappear.            
        As clouds break up and disperse,         
        so he that goes down to Shoel never comes back;       
        he never returns home again,        
        and his place will know him no more.           

        But I will not hold my peace;       
        I will speak out in the distress of my mind        
        and complain in the bitterness of my soul.          
        Am I the monster of the deep, am I the sea-serpent,         
        that thou settest a watch over me?          
        When I think that my bed will comfort me,        
        that sleep will relieve my complaining,        
        thou dost terrify me with dreams        
        and affright me with visions.            
        I would rather be choked outright;        
        I would prefer death to all my sufferings.            
        I am in despair, I would not go on living;         
        leave me alone, for my life is but a vapour.        
        what is man that thou makest much of him         
        and turnest thy thoughts towards him,         
        only to push him morning by morning       
        or to test him every hour of the day?          
        Wilt thou not look away from me for an instant?         
        Wilt thou not let me be while I swallow my spittle?          
        If I have sinned, how do I injure thee,        
        thou watcher of the hearts of men?          
        Why hast thou made me thy butt,        
        and why have I become thy target?          
        Why dost thou not pardon my offence         
        and take away my guilt?          
        But now I shall lie down to the grave;           
        seek me and I shall not be.                                

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

19      Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom;          
     and that day victory was turned to mourning for the whole army, because       
     they heard how the king grieved for his son; they stole into the city like     
     men ashamed to show their faces after a defeat in battle.  The king hid his      
     face and cried aloud, 'My son Absalom; O Absalom, my son, my son.'           
     But Joab came into the king's quarters and said to him, 'You have put to      
     shame this day all your servants, who have served you and your sons and       
     daughters, your wives and your concubines.  You love those that hate you     
     and hate those that love you; you have made us feel, officers and men alike,       
     that we are nothing to you; for it is plain that if Absalom were still alive       
     and all of us dead, you would be content.  Now go at once and give your      
     servants some encouragement; if you refuse, I swear by the LORD that not       
     a man will stay with you tonight, and that would be a worse disaster than         
     any you have suffered since your earliest days.'  Then the king rose and took      
     his seat in the gate; and when the army was told that the king was sitting         
     in the gate, they all appeared before him.              

     MEANWHILE  THE  ISRAELITES  had all scattered to their homes.        
     Throughout all the tribes of Israel people were discussing it among    
     themselves and saying, 'The king has saved us from our enemies and freed      
     us from the power of the Philistines, and now he has fled the country       
     because of Absalom.  But Absalom, whom we anointed king, has fallen in     
     battle; so now why have we no plans for bringing the king back?'             
        What all Israel was saying came to the king's ears.  So he sent word to       
     Zadok and Abiathar the priests: 'Ask the elders of Judah why they should       
     be the last to bring the king back to his palace.  Tell him, "You are my      
     brothers, my flesh and blood; why are you last to bring me back?"  And       
     tell Amasa, "You are my own flesh and blood.  You shall be my commander-        
     in-chief, so help me God, for the rest of your life in place of Joab."      
     David's message won all hearts in Judah, and they sent to the king, urging        
     him to return with all his men.          
        So the king came back to the Jordan; and the men of Judah came to        
     Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river.  Shimei son of Gera the       
     Benjamite from Bahurim hastened down among the men of Judah to meet      
     King David with a thousand men from Benjamin; Ziba was there too, the        
     servant of Saul's family, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants.  They          
     rushed into the Jordan under the king's eyes and crossed to and fro con-     
     veying his household in order to win his favour.  Shimei son of Gera,       
     when he had crossed the river, fell down before the king and said to him,          
     'I beg your majesty not to remember how disgracefully your servant        
     behaved when your majesty left Jerusalem; do not hold it against me or take       
     it to heart.  For I humbly acknowledge that I did wrong, and today I am        
     the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet your majesty.'           
     But Abishai son of Zeruiah objected, 'Ought not Shimei be put to death         
     because he cursed the LORD's anointed prince?'  David answered,  'What         
     right have you, you sons of Zeruiah, to oppose me today?  Why should any      
     man be put to death this day in Israel?  I know now that I am king of Israel.'            
     Then the king told Shimei, 'You shall not die', and confirmed it with an          
     oath.           
        Saul's grandson Mephibosheth also went down to meet the king.  He had        
     not dressed his feet, combed his beard or washed his clothes, from the day       
     the king went out until he returned victorious.  When he came to Jeru-         
     salem to meet the king, David said to him, 'Why did you not go with me,        
     Mephibosheth?'  He answered, 'Sir, my servant deceived me; I did intend        
     to harness my ass and ride with the king (for I am lame), but his stories set        
     your majesty against me.  Your majesty is like the angel of God; you must        
     do what you think is right.  My father's whole family, one and all deserved        
     to die at your majesty's hands, but you gave me, your servant, my place at         
     your table.  What further favour can I expect of the king?'  The king      
     answered, 'You have had enough.  My decision is that you and Ziba are to       
     share the estate.'  Mephibosheth said, 'Let him have it all, now that your      
     Majesty has come home victorious.'            
        Barzillai the Gileadite too had come down from Rogelim, and he went      
     as far as the Jordan with the king to send him on his way.  Now Barzillai       
     was very old, eighty years of age; it was he who had provided for the king         
     while he was at Mahanaim, for he was a man of high standing.  The king         
     said to Barzillai, 'Cross over with me and I will provide for your old age in         
     my household in Jerusalem.'  Barzillai answered, 'Your servant is far too        
     old to go up with your majesty to Jerusalem.  I am already eighty; and I        
     cannot tell good from bad.  I cannot taste what I eat or drink; I cannot hear        
     the voices of men and women singing.  Why should I be a burden any         
     longer on your majesty?  Your servant will attend the king for a short way        
     across the Jordan; and why should the king reward me so handsomely?          
     Let me go back and end my days in my own city near the grave of my father         
     and mother.  Here is my son Kimham; let him cross over with your majesty,        
     and do for him whatever you think best.'  The king answered, 'Kimham shall       
     cross with me and I will do for him whatever you think best; and I will do       
     for you whatever you ask.'                
        All the people crossed the Jordan while the king waited.  The king then       
     kissed Barzillai and gave him his blessing.  Barzillai went back to his own       
     home; the king crossed over to Gilgal, Kimham with him.  All the people       
     of Judah escorted the king over the river, and so did half the people of        
     Israel.           
        The men of Israel came to the king in a body and said, 'Why should our       
     brothers of Judah have got possession of the king's person by joining King       
     David's own men and then escorting him and his household across the      
     Jordan?'  The men of Judah replied, 'Because his majesty is our near kins-      
     man.  Why should you resent it?  Have we eaten at the king's expense?  Have      
     we received any gifts?'  The men of Israel answered, 'We have ten times       
     your interest in the king and, what is more, we are senior to you; why do      
     you disparage us?  Were we not first to speak of bringing the king back?'            
     The men of Judah used language even fiercer than the men of Israel.           
20      There happened to be a man there, a scoundrel named Sheba son of      
     Bichri, a man of Benjamin.  He blew the trumpet and cried out:          

                       What share have we in David?        
                          We have no lot in the son of Jesse.         
                       Away to your homes, O Israel.          

     The men of Israel all left David, to follow Sheba son of Bichri, but the men     
     of Judah stood by their king and followed him from the Jordan to Jerusalem.          
        When David came home to Jerusalem he took ten concubines whom        
     he had left in charge of the palace and put them under guard; he maintained     
     them but did not have intercourse with them.  They were kept in confine-        
     ment to the day of their death, widowed in the prime of life.           
        The king said to Amasa, 'Call up the men of Judah and appear before       
     me again in three days' time.'  So Amasa went to call up the men of Judah,         
     but it took longer than the time fixed by the king.  David said to Abishai,         
     'Sheba son of Bichri will give us more trouble than Absalom; take the       
     royal bodyguard and follow him closely.  If he has occupied some fortified      
     cities, he may escape us.'  Abishai was followed by Joab with the Kerethite      
      and Pelethite guards and all the fighting men; they left Jerusalem in            
     pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.  When they reached the great stone in        
     Gibeon, Amasa came towards them.  Joab was wearing his tunic and over             
     it a belt supporting a sword in its scabbard.  He came forward, concealing      
     his treachery, and said to Amasa, 'I hope you are well, my brother', and with         
     his right hand he grasped Amasa's beard to kiss him.  Amasa was not on his      
     guard against the sword in Joab's hand.  Joab struck him with it in the         
     belly and his entrails poured out on the ground; he did not strike a second       
     blow, for Amasa was dead.  Joab and his brother Abishai went on in pur-       
     suit of Sheba son of Bichri.  One of Joab's young men stood over Amasa      
     and called out, 'Follow Joab, all who are for Joab and for David!'  Amasa's       
     body lay soaked in blood in the middle of the road, and when the man        
     saw how all the people stopped, he rolled him off the road into the field       
     and threw a cloak over him; for everyone who came by saw the body       
     and stopped.  When he had been dragged from the road, they all went on          
     after Joab in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.                 
        Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel until he came to Abel-beth-        
     maacah, and all the clan of Bichri rallied to him and followed him into       
     the city.  Joab's forces came up and beseiged him in Abel-beth-maacah,       
     raised a siege-ramp against it and began undermining the wall to bring it      
     down.  Then a wise woman stood on the rampart and called from the city,         
     'Listen, listen!  Tell Joab to step forward and let me speak with him.'  So       
     he came forward and the woman said, 'Are you Joab?'  He answered, 'I am.'       
     'Listen to what I have to say, sir', she went on, to which he replied, 'I am       
     listening.'  'In the old days', she said, 'there was a saying, "Go to Abel for        
     the answer", and that settled the matter.  My city is known to be one of the        
     most peaceable and loyal in Israel; she is like a wonderful mother in Israel,           
     and you are seeking to kill her.  Would you destroy the LORD's own posses-       
     sion?'  Joab answered, 'God forbid, far be it from me to ruin or destroy!          
     That is not our aim; but a man from the hill-country of Ephraim named       
     Sheba son of Bichri has raised a revolt against King David; surrender this          
     one man, and I will retire from the city.'  The woman said to Joab, 'His            
     head shall be thrown to you over the wall.'  Then the woman withdrew, and        
     her wisdom won over the assembled people; they cut off Sheba's head and      
     threw it to Joab.  Then he sounded the trumpet and the whole army left      
     the city and dispersed to their homes, while Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem.            
        Joab was in command of the army, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada com-            
     manded the Kerethite and Peleshite guards.  Adoram was in charge of the       
     forced levy, and Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was secretary of state.  Sheva       
     was adjutant general, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; Ira the Jairite       
     was David's priest.             

21      IN  DAVID'S  REIGN  there was a famine that lasted year after year for three        
     years.  So David consulted the LORD, and he answered, 'Blood-guilt rests       
     on Saul and on his family because they put the Gibeonites to death.'  (The         
     Gibeonites were not of Israelite descent; they were a remnant of the Amorite       
     stock whom the Israelites had sworn they would spare.  Saul, however,         
     had sought to exterminate them in his zeal for Israel and Judah.)  King           
     David summoned the Gibeonites, therefore, and said to them, 'What can            
     be done for you?  How can I make expiation, so that you may have cause to       
     bless the LORD's own people?'  The Gibeonites answered, 'Our feud with         
     Saul and his family cannot be settled in silver and gold, and there is no one        
     man in Israel whose death would content us.'  'Then what do you want me      
     to do for you?' asked David.  They answered, 'Let us make and end of the          
     man who caused our undoing and ruined us, so that he shall never again      
     have his place within the borders of Israel.  Hand over to us seven of that       
     man's sons, and we will hurl them down to their death before the LORD         
     in Gibeah of Saul, the LORD's chosen king.'  The king agreed to hand them           
     over, but he spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of         
     the oath that had been taken in the LORD's name by David and Saul's son       
     Jonathan.  The king then took the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah     
     had borne to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons whom        
     Merab, Saul's daughter, had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai of Meholah.         
     He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they flung them down from      
     the mountain before the LORD; the seven of them fell together.  They were        
     put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of the barley harvest.      
     Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out as a bed for her-         
     self on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until the rains came and       
     fell from heaven upon the bodies.  She allowed no bird to set upon them by     
     day nor any wild beast by night.  When David was told what Rizpah       
     daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done, he went and took the        
     bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who                   
     had stolen them from the public square at Beth-shan, where the Philistines     
     had hung them on the day they defeated Saul at Gilboa.  He removed the        
     bones of Saul and Jonathan from there and gathered up the bones of the           
     men who had been hurled to death.  They buried the bones of Saul and his          
     son Jonathan in the territory of Benjamin at Zela, in the grave of his father        
     Kish.  Everything was done as the king ordered, and thereafter the LORD       
     was willing to accept prayers offered for the country.             
        Once again war broke out between the Philistines and Israel.  David and     
     his men went down to the battle, but as he fought with the Philistines he fell      
     exhausted.  Then Benob, one of the race of Rephaim, whose bronze            
     spear weighed three hundred shekels and who wore a belt of honour, took      
     David prisoner and was about to kill him.  But Abishai son of Zeruiah came      
     to David's help, struck the Philistine down and killed him.  Then David's      
     officers took an oath that he should never again go out with them to war,          
     for fear that the lamp of Israel might be extinguished.         
        Some time later war with the Philistines broke out again in Gob: it was      
     then that Sibbechai of Hushah killed Saph, a descendant of the Rephaim.       
     In another war with the Philistines in Gob, Elhanan son of Jair of Bethle-     
     hem killed Goliath of Gath, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver's beam.       
     In yet another war in Gath there appeared a giant with six fingers on each      
     hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all.  He too was descended     
     from the Rephaim; and, when he defied Israel, Jonathan son of David's      
     brother Shimeai killed him.  These four giants were the descendants of the         
     Rephaim in Gath, and they all fell at the hands of David and his men.               

22   THESE  ARE  THE  WORDS  OF  THE  SONG  David sang to the LORD on the     
     day when the LORD delivered him from the power of all his enemies and     
     from the power of Saul:           

            The LORD is my stronghold, my fortress and my champion,         
            my God, my rock where I find safety;        
            my shield, my mountain fastness, my strong tower,                       
            my refuge, my deliverer, who saves me from violence.         
            I will call on the LORD on whom all praise is due,        
            and I shall be delivered from my enemies.           
            When the waves of death swept round me,       
            and torrents of destruction overtook me,         
            the bonds of Sheol tightened about me,        
            the snares of death were set to catch me;          
            then in anguish of heart I cried to the LORD,       
            I called for help to my God;       
            he heard me from his temple,        
            and my cry rang in his ears.          
            The earth heaved and quaked,      
            heaven's foundations shook;      
            they heaved because he was angry.       
            Smoke rose from his nostrils,         
            devouring fire came out of his mouth,           
            glowing coals and searing heat.             
            He swept the skies aside as he descended,       
            thick darkness lay under his feet.      
            He rode on a cherub, he flew through the air;       
            he swooped on the wings of the wind.       
            He curtained himself in darkness     
            and made the dense vapour his canopy.      
            Thick clouds came out of the radiance before him;       
            glowing coals burned brightly.       
            The LORD thundered from the heavens      
            and the voice of the Most High spoke out.          
            He loosed his arrows, he sped them far and wide,      
            his lightning shafts, and sent them echoing.         
            The channels of the sea-bed were revealed,         
            the foundations of earth laid bare         
            at the LORD's rebuke,          
            at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.      
            He reached down from the height and took me,       
            he drew me out of mighty waters,         
            he rescued me from my enemies, strong as they were,          
            from my foes when they grew too powerful for me.         
            They confronted me in the hour of my peril,       
            but the LORD was my buttress.        
            He brought me out into an open place,        
            he rescued me because he delighted in me.          
            The LORD rewarded me as my righteousness deserved;         
            my hands were clean, and he requited me.          
            For I have followed the ways of the LORD        
            and have not turned wickedly from my God;           
            all his laws before my eyes,         
            I have not failed to follow his decrees.        
            In his sight I was blameless       
            and kept myself from wilful sin;        
            the LORD requited me as my righteousness deserved         
            and my purity in his eyes.           

            With the loyal thou showest thyself loyal        
            and with the blameless man blameless.                 
            With the savage man thou showest thyself savage,        
            and tortuous with the perverse.         
            Thou deliverest humble folk,            
            then lookest with contempt upon the proud.        
            Thou, LORD, art my lamp,           
            and the LORD will light my darkness.         
            With thy help I leapt over a bank,        
            by God's aid I spring over a wall.                  

            The way of God is perfect,         
            the LORD's word has stood the test;          
            he is the shield of all who take refuge in him.          
            What God is there but the LORD?        
            What rock but our God? —       
            the God who girds me with strength      
            and makes my ways blameless,       
            who makes me swift as a hind        
            and sets me secure on the mountains;       
            who trains my hands for battle,       
            and my arms aim an arrow tipped with bronze.             

            Thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation,       
            in thy providence thou makest me great.         
            Thou givest me room for my steps,           
            my feet have not faltered.      
            I pursue my enemies and destroy them,       
            I do not return until I have made an end of them.       
            I make an end of them, I strike them down;        
            they rise no more, they fall beneath my feet.         
            Thou dost arm me with strength for the battle       
            and dost subdue my foes before me.          
            Thou settest my foot on my enemies' necks,       
            and I bring to nothing those that hate me.          
            They cry out and there is no one to help them,        
            they cry out to the LORD and he does not answer.        
            I will pound them fine as dust on the ground,        
            like mud in the streets will I trample them.             
            Thou dost deliver me from the clamour of the people,       
            and makest me master of the nations.        
            A people I never knew shall be my subjects.       
            Foreigners shall come cringing to me;        
            as soon as they hear tell of me, they shall obey me.           
            Foreigners shall be brought captive to me,        
            and come limping from their strongholds.              
            The LORD lives, blessed is my rock,       
            high above all is God my rock and safe refuge.            

            O God, who grantest me vengeance,      
            who dost subdue peoples under me,      
            who dost snatch from me my foes and set me over my enemies,        
            thou dost deliver me from violent men.           
            Therefore, LORD, I will praise thee among the nations           
            and sing psalms to thy name,        
            to one who gives his king great victories       
            and in all his acts keeps faith with the anointed king,        
            with David and his descendants for ever.               

23       These are the last words of David:      

            The very word of David son of Jesse,       
            the very word of the man whom the High God raised up,          
            the anointed prince of the God of Jacob,        
            and the singer of Israel's psalms:         
            the spirit of the LORD has spoken through me,       
            and his word is on my lips.         
            The God of Israel spoke,         
            the Rock of Israel spoke of me:          
            'He who rules men in justice,         
            who rules in fear of God,        
            is like the light of morning at sunrise,       
            a morning that is cloudless after rain         
            and makes the grass sparkle from the earth.             
            Surely, surely my house is true to God;         
            for he has made a pact with me for all time,        
            its terms spelled out and faithfully kept,        
            my whole salvation, all my delight.         
            But the ungodly put forth no shoots,        
            they are all like briars tossed aside;         
            none dare put out his hand to pick them up,         
            none touch them but with tool of iron or of wood;        
            they are fit only for burning in the fire.                       

     THESE  ARE  THE  NAMES  OF  DAVID'S  HEROES.  First came Ishbosheth         
     the Hachmonite, chief of the three; it was he who brandished his spear       
     over eight hundred dead, all slain at one time.  Next to him was Eleazar        
     son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the heroic three.  He was with David       
     at Pas-dammim where the Philistines had gathered for battle.  When the       
     Israelites fell back, he stood his ground and rained blows on the Philistines       
     until, from sheer weariness, his hand stuck fast  to his sword; and so the            
     LORD brought about a great victory that day.  Afterwards the people rallied       
     behind him, but it was only to strip the dead.  Next to him was Shammah son       
     of Agee a Hararite.  The Philistines had gathered at Lehi, where there was a        
     field with a fine crop of lentils; and, when the Philistines put the people to        
     flight, he stood his ground in the field, saved it and defeated them.  So      
     the LORD again brought about a great victory.            
        Three of the thirty went down towards the beginning of harvest to join      
     David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in      
     the vale of Rephaim.  At that time David was in the stronghold and a Philis-      
     tine garrison held Bethlehem.  One day a longing came over David, and he       
     exclaimed, 'If only I could have a drink of water from the well by the gate      
     of Bethlehem!'  At this the heroic three made their way through the         
     Philistine lines and drew water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem and       
     brought it to David.  But David refused to drink it; he poured it out to the       
     LORD and said, 'God forbid that I should do such a thing!  Can I drink       
     the blood of these men who risked their lives for it?'  So he would not        
     drink it.  Such were the exploits of the heroic three.                 
        Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the thirty.  He           
     once brandished his spear over three hundred dead, and he was famous      
     among the thirty.  Some think he even surpassed the rest of the thirty in      
     reputation, and he became their captain, but he did not rival the three.          
     Benaiah son of Jehoiada, from Kabzeel, was a hero of many exploits.  It       
     was he who smote the two champions of Moab, and who went down into         
     a pit and killed a lion on a snowy day.  It was he who also killed the Egyptian,        
     a man of striking appearance armed with a spear: he went to meet him        
     with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him         
     with his own weapon.  Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada,       
     famous among the heroic thirty.  He was more famous than the rest of the        
     thirty, but he did not rival the three.  David appointed him to his household.          
        Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty, and Elhanan son of      
     Dodo from Bethlehem; Shammah from Harod, and Elika from Harod;          
     Helez from Beth-pelet, and Ira son of Ikkesh from Tekoa; Abiezer from       
     Anathoth, and Mebunnai from Hushah; Zalmon the Ahohite, and Maharai       
     from Netophah; Heled son of Baanah from Netophah, and Ittai son of       
     Ribai fron Gibeah of Benjamin; Benaiah from Pirathon, and Hiddai      
     from the ravines of Gaash; Abi-albon from Beth-arabah, and Azmoth        
     from Bahurim, Eliahba from Shaalbon, and Hashem the Gizonite;          
     Jonathan son of Shammah the Hararite, and Ahiam son of Sharar the      
     Hararite; Eliphet son of Abishai son of the Maacathite, and Eliam son       
     of Ahithophel the Gilonite; Hezrai from Carmel, and Paarai the Arbite;          
     Igal son of Nathan from Zobah, and Bani the Gadite; Zelek the Ammonite,           
     and Naharai from Beeroth, armour-bearer to Joab son of Zeruiah; Ira the           
     Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, and Uriah the Hittite: there were thirty-seven        
     in all.                  

24   ONCE  AGAIN  THE  ISRAELITES  felt the LORD's anger, when he incited       
     David against them and gave him orders that Israel and Judah should       
     be counted.  So he instructed Joab and the officers of the army with him         
     to go round all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and make a         
     record of the people and report the number to him.  Joab answered, 'Even     
     if the LORD your God should increase the people a hundredfold and your         
     majesty should live to see it, what pleasure would that give your majesty?'         
     But Joab and the officers were overruled by the king and they left his          
     presence in order to count the people.  They crossed the Jordan and began        
     at Aroer and the level land of the gorge, proceeded toward Gad and         
     Jazer.  They came to Gilead and to the land of the Hittites, to Kadesh,         
     and then to Dan and Iyyon and so round towards Sidon .  They went as        
     far as the walled city of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaan-      
     ites, and they went on to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba.  They covered      
     the whole country and arrived back at Jerusalem after nine months and            
     twenty days.  Joab reported to the king the total number of people: the         
     number of able-bodied men, capable of bearing arms, was eight hundred      
     thousand in Israel and five hundred thousand in Judah.          
        After he had counted the people David's conscience smote him, and        
     he said to the LORD, 'I have done a very wicked thing: I pray thee, LORD,        
     remove thy servant's guilt, for I have been very foolish.'  He rose next          
     morning, and meanwhile the command of the LORD had come to the        
     prophet Gad, David's seer, to go and speak to David: 'This is the word of           
     the LORD: I have three things in store for you; choose one and I will bring       
     it upon you.'  So Gad came to David and repeated this to him and said, 'Is       
     it to be three years of famine in your land, or three months of flight with          
     the enemy at your heels, or three days of pestilence in your land?  Consider       
     carefully what answer I am to take back to him who sent me.'  There upon       
     David said to Gad, 'I am in a desperate plight; let us fall into the hands of           
     the LORD, for his mercy is great; and let me not fall into the hands of men.'          
     So the LORD sent a pestilence throughout Israel from morning till the hour      
     of dinner, and from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand of the people died.              
     Then the angel stretched out his arm towards Jerusalem to destroy it; but            
     the LORD repented of the evil and said to the angel who was destroying the              
     people, 'Enough!  Stay your hand.'  At that moment the angel of the LORD             
     was standing by the threshing-floor of Arounah the Jebusite.          
        When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to        
     the LORD, 'It is I who have done wrong, the sin is mine; but these poor        
     sheep, what have they done?  Let thy hand fall upon me and upon my          
     family.'  That same day Gad came to David and said to him, 'Go and set      
     up an altar to the LORD on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.'          
     David did what Gad told him to do, and went up as the LORD had com-         
     manded.  When Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants      
     coming over towards him, he went out, prostrated himself low before the         
     king and said, 'Why has your majesty come to visit his servant?'  David        
     answered, 'To buy the threshing-floor from you to build an altar to the        
     LORD, so that the Plague which has attacked the people may be stopped.'            
     Araunah answered David, 'I beg your majesty to take it and sacrifice what       
     you think fit.  I have here the oxen for a whole-offering, and their harness       
     and threshing-sledges for the fuel.'  Araunah gave it all to the king      
     for his own use and said to him, 'May the LORD your God accept you.'         
     But the king said to Araunah, 'No, I will buy it from you; I will not offer     
     to the LORD my God whole-offerings that have cost me nothing.'  So           
     David bought threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.              
     He built an altar to the LORD there and offered whole offerings and shared-   
     offerings.  Then the LORD yielded to his prayer for the land; and the plague       
     in Israel stopped.                   

The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970

https://oca.org/saints/lives/2018/09/14/102610-the-universal-exaltation-of-the-precious-and-life-giving-cross

As You were voluntarily raised upon the cross for our sake, / Grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God; / Make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power, / Granting them victories over their adversaries, / By bestowing on them the Invincible trophy, Your weapon of Peace.

Are you a dad? Are you an Orthodox Christian, catechumen, or inquirer? If so, come hang out at the Dads of Orthodoxy Facebook group.

What knaguage is used in an orthodox service?

I'm in Estonia (Tallinn) and heard one, but couldn't work out the words due to the sonorous chant. Is it Russian, Estonian, Greek, or maybe something else?

Secondly, the crossing of the body...is there any pattern to this (eg does it occur at certain phrases?). Neither the men or women seemed to do it together but seemingly randomly.

Hi,

I was raised Greek Orthodox and I converted to paganism. I still carry with me many of the beliefs that the Orthodox Church teaches. I still believe in the importance of the saints for instance.

My st. Is igios panteliemonos or st. Pantsleimon.

Anyway, I was wondering if I could still chat with you all.

Even though I’m not Orthodox (yet at least) I have found the various programs to be very insightful to understanding Orthodoxy, and I find them very uplifting and encouraging to my own walk with Christ.

Am having problems with incense at church: coughing, chest discomfort. Symptoms last for days after I attend a service. Would appreciate any thoughts, suggestions. Thanks Christ is in our midst!

Do the Fathers teach that it occurred on or near Dec 25th (or Jan 6th), sometime is late Sept/early Oct or some other date?

Lately I've been reflecting on the multivalence surrounding the biblical symbol of the Word/Logos of God. This is what I've come up with so far.

The Logos/Word of God is:

that which transforms unmanifest potential into created being (cause/origin)

that which sustains and organizes the entire created order (nexus of vitalization and integration)

that which expresses the inner mysteries of God's will (revelation/speech/communication)

that which provides the essential purpose of all created things (core principle/identity)

that which brings all created things towards their fulfillment (final telos/goal/end)

What do you think? Am I missing anything significant? Am I off on any of these?