Remain 2026

Job 17–19

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17:1   “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
    the graveyard is ready for me.
2   Surely there are mockers about me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.
3   “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
4   Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
5   He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the eyes of his children will fail.
6   “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
7   My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
8   The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9   Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10   But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11   My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
12   They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
13   If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
14   if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15   where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
16   Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2   “How long will you hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we will speak.
3   Why are we counted as cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?
4   You who tear yourself in your anger,
    shall the earth be forsaken for you,
    or the rock be removed out of its place?
5   “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6   The light is dark in his tent,
    and his lamp above him is put out.
7   His strong steps are shortened,
    and his own schemes throw him down.
8   For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
    and he walks on its mesh.
9   A trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of him.
10   A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
    a trap for him in the path.
11   Terrors frighten him on every side,
    and chase him at his heels.
12   His strength is famished,
    and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
13   It consumes the parts of his skin;
    the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14   He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
    and is brought to the king of terrors.
15   In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
    sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16   His roots dry up beneath,
    and his branches wither above.
17   His memory perishes from the earth,
    and he has no name in the street.
18   He is thrust from light into darkness,
    and driven out of the world.
19   He has no posterity or progeny among his people,
    and no survivor where he used to live.
20   They of the west are appalled at his day,
    and horror seizes them of the east.
21   Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
    such is the place of him who knows not God.”

Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives

19:1 Then Job answered and said:

2   “How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
3   These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4   And even if it be true that I have erred,
    my error remains with myself.
5   If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
    and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6   know then that God has put me in the wrong
    and closed his net about me.
7   Behold, I cry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
    I call for help, but there is no justice.
8   He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9   He has stripped from me my glory
    and taken the crown from my head.
10   He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
    and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
11   He has kindled his wrath against me
    and counts me as his adversary.
12   His troops come on together;
    they have cast up their siege ramp against me
    and encamp around my tent.
13   “He has put my brothers far from me,
    and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14   My relatives have failed me,
    my close friends have forgotten me.
15   The guests in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
    I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16   I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17   My breath is strange to my wife,
    and I am a stench to the children of my own mother.
18   Even young children despise me;
    when I rise they talk against me.
19   All my intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20   My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21   Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has touched me!
22   Why do you, like God, pursue me?
    Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23   “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24   Oh that with an iron pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
25   For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
26   And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
27   whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!
28   If you say, ‘How we will pursue him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
29   be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    that you may know there is a judgment.”

1 Corinthians 6–7:16

Lawsuits Against Believers

6:1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Sexual Immorality

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Principles for Marriage

7:1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Psalm 104:8–16

8   The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
    to the place that you appointed for them.
9   You set a boundary that they may not pass,
    so that they might not again cover the earth.
10   You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills;
11   they give drink to every beast of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12   Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
    they sing among the branches.
13   From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14   You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
    and plants for man to cultivate,
  that he may bring forth food from the earth
15     and wine to gladden the heart of man,
  oil to make his face shine
    and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
16   The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

Proverbs 21:29–31

29   A wicked man puts on a bold face,
    but the upright gives thought to his ways.
30   No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel
    can avail against the LORD.
31   The horse is made ready for the day of battle,
    but the victory belongs to the LORD.