Remain 2026

Job 8–10

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2   “How long will you say these things,
    and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3   Does God pervert justice?
    Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4   If your children have sinned against him,
    he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
5   If you will seek God
    and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
6   if you are pure and upright,
    surely then he will rouse himself for you
    and restore your rightful habitation.
7   And though your beginning was small,
    your latter days will be very great.
8   “For inquire, please, of bygone ages,
    and consider what the fathers have searched out.
9   For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
    for our days on earth are a shadow.
10   Will they not teach you and tell you
    and utter words out of their understanding?
11   “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
    Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12   While yet in flower and not cut down,
    they wither before any other plant.
13   Such are the paths of all who forget God;
    the hope of the godless shall perish.
14   His confidence is severed,
    and his trust is a spider’s web.
15   He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
    he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
16   He is a lush plant before the sun,
    and his shoots spread over his garden.
17   His roots entwine the stone heap;
    he looks upon a house of stones.
18   If he is destroyed from his place,
    then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19   Behold, this is the joy of his way,
    and out of the soil others will spring.
20   “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
    nor take the hand of evildoers.
21   He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
    and your lips with shouting.
22   Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
    and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

Job Replies: There Is No Arbiter

9:1 Then Job answered and said:

2   “Truly I know that it is so:
    But how can a man be in the right before God?
3   If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
4   He is wise in heart and mighty in strength—
    who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
5   he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
    when he overturns them in his anger,
6   who shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;
7   who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    who seals up the stars;
8   who alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the sea;
9   who made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10   who does great things beyond searching out,
    and marvelous things beyond number.
11   Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
12   Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13   “God will not turn back his anger;
    beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
14   How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?
15   Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
16   If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17   For he crushes me with a tempest
    and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18   he will not let me get my breath,
    but fills me with bitterness.
19   If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
    If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
20   Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
    though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
21   I am blameless; I regard not myself;
    I loathe my life.
22   It is all one; therefore I say,
    ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
23   When disaster brings sudden death,
    he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24   The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
    he covers the faces of its judges—
    if it is not he, who then is it?
25   “My days are swifter than a runner;
    they flee away; they see no good.
26   They go by like skiffs of reed,
    like an eagle swooping on the prey.
27   If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
    I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
28   I become afraid of all my suffering,
    for I know you will not hold me innocent.
29   I shall be condemned;
    why then do I labor in vain?
30   If I wash myself with snow
    and cleanse my hands with lye,
31   yet you will plunge me into a pit,
    and my own clothes will abhor me.
32   For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
33   There is no arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
34   Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.
35   Then I would speak without fear of him,
    for I am not so in myself.

Job Continues: A Plea to God

10:1   “I loathe my life;
  I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2   I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.
3   Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the designs of the wicked?
4   Have you eyes of flesh?
    Do you see as man sees?
5   Are your days as the days of man,
    or your years as a man’s years,
6   that you seek out my iniquity
    and search for my sin,
7   although you know that I am not guilty,
    and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
8   Your hands fashioned and made me,
    and now you have destroyed me altogether.
9   Remember that you have made me like clay;
    and will you return me to the dust?
10   Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese?
11   You clothed me with skin and flesh,
    and knit me together with bones and sinews.
12   You have granted me life and steadfast love,
    and your care has preserved my spirit.
13   Yet these things you hid in your heart;
    I know that this was your purpose.
14   If I sin, you watch me
    and do not acquit me of my iniquity.
15   If I am guilty, woe to me!
    If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head,
  for I am filled with disgrace
    and look on my affliction.
16   And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion
    and again work wonders against me.
17   You renew your witnesses against me
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.
18   “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19   and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.
20   Are not my days few?
    Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21   before I go—and I shall not return—
    to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22   the land of gloom like thick darkness,
    like deep shadow without any order,
    where light is as thick darkness.”

1 Corinthians 1

Greeting

1:1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

  “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Psalm 103:1–9

Bless the Lord, O My Soul

Of David.

103:1   Bless the LORD, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
2   Bless the LORD, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
3   who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
4   who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5   who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6   The LORD works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
7   He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
8   The LORD is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9   He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.

Proverbs 21:19–21

19   It is better to live in a desert land
    than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.
20   Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling,
    but a foolish man devours it.
21   Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
    will find life, righteousness, and honor.