Remain 2026

Job 22–26

Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great

22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

2   “Can a man be profitable to God?
    Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
3   Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
    or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
4   Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you
    and enters into judgment with you?
5   Is not your evil abundant?
    There is no end to your iniquities.
6   For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing
    and stripped the naked of their clothing.
7   You have given no water to the weary to drink,
    and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
8   The man with power possessed the land,
    and the favored man lived in it.
9   You have sent widows away empty,
    and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.
10   Therefore snares are all around you,
    and sudden terror overwhelms you,
11   or darkness, so that you cannot see,
    and a flood of water covers you.
12   “Is not God high in the heavens?
    See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
13   But you say, ‘What does God know?
    Can he judge through the deep darkness?
14   Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see,
    and he walks on the vault of heaven.’
15   Will you keep to the old way
    that wicked men have trod?
16   They were snatched away before their time;
    their foundation was washed away.
17   They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’
    and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
18   Yet he filled their houses with good things—
    but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
19   The righteous see it and are glad;
    the innocent one mocks at them,
20   saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
    and what they left the fire has consumed.’
21   “Agree with God, and be at peace;
    thereby good will come to you.
22   Receive instruction from his mouth,
    and lay up his words in your heart.
23   If you return to the Almighty you will be built up;
    if you remove injustice far from your tents,
24   if you lay gold in the dust,
    and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,
25   then the Almighty will be your gold
    and your precious silver.
26   For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty
    and lift up your face to God.
27   You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you,
    and you will pay your vows.
28   You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
    and light will shine on your ways.
29   For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’;
    but he saves the lowly.
30   He delivers even the one who is not innocent,
    who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

Job Replies: Where Is God?

23:1 Then Job answered and said:

2   “Today also my complaint is bitter;
    my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3   Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
    that I might come even to his seat!
4   I would lay my case before him
    and fill my mouth with arguments.
5   I would know what he would answer me
    and understand what he would say to me.
6   Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
    No; he would pay attention to me.
7   There an upright man could argue with him,
    and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8   “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there,
    and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9   on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
    he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10   But he knows the way that I take;
    when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
11   My foot has held fast to his steps;
    I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
12   I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
    I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
13   But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?
    What he desires, that he does.
14   For he will complete what he appoints for me,
    and many such things are in his mind.
15   Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
    when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16   God has made my heart faint;
    the Almighty has terrified me;
17   yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,
    nor because thick darkness covers my face.
24:1   “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty,
    and why do those who know him never see his days?
2   Some move landmarks;
    they seize flocks and pasture them.
3   They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;
    they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4   They thrust the poor off the road;
    the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5   Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert
    the poor go out to their toil, seeking game;
    the wasteland yields food for their children.
6   They gather their fodder in the field,
    and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.
7   They lie all night naked, without clothing,
    and have no covering in the cold.
8   They are wet with the rain of the mountains
    and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.
9   (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,
    and they take a pledge against the poor.)
10   They go about naked, without clothing;
    hungry, they carry the sheaves;
11   among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil;
    they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
12   From out of the city the dying groan,
    and the soul of the wounded cries for help;
    yet God charges no one with wrong.
13   “There are those who rebel against the light,
    who are not acquainted with its ways,
    and do not stay in its paths.
14   The murderer rises before it is light,
    that he may kill the poor and needy,
    and in the night he is like a thief.
15   The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
    saying, ‘No eye will see me’;
    and he veils his face.
16   In the dark they dig through houses;
    by day they shut themselves up;
    they do not know the light.
17   For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
    for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
18   “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters;
    their portion is cursed in the land;
    no treader turns toward their vineyards.
19   Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
    so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20   The womb forgets them;
    the worm finds them sweet;
  they are no longer remembered,
    so wickedness is broken like a tree.’
21   “They wrong the barren, childless woman,
    and do no good to the widow.
22   Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
    they rise up when they despair of life.
23   He gives them security, and they are supported,
    and his eyes are upon their ways.
24   They are exalted a little while, and then are gone;
    they are brought low and gathered up like all others;
    they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25   If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
    and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

Bildad Speaks: Man Cannot Be Righteous

25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2   “Dominion and fear are with God;
    he makes peace in his high heaven.
3   Is there any number to his armies?
    Upon whom does his light not arise?
4   How then can man be in the right before God?
    How can he who is born of woman be pure?
5   Behold, even the moon is not bright,
    and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
6   how much less man, who is a maggot,
    and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job Replies: God’s Majesty Is Unsearchable

26:1 Then Job answered and said:

2   “How you have helped him who has no power!
    How you have saved the arm that has no strength!
3   How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,
    and plentifully declared sound knowledge!
4   With whose help have you uttered words,
    and whose breath has come out from you?
5   The dead tremble
    under the waters and their inhabitants.
6   Sheol is naked before God,
    and Abaddon has no covering.
7   He stretches out the north over the void
    and hangs the earth on nothing.
8   He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
    and the cloud is not split open under them.
9   He covers the face of the full moon
    and spreads over it his cloud.
10   He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters
    at the boundary between light and darkness.
11   The pillars of heaven tremble
    and are astounded at his rebuke.
12   By his power he stilled the sea;
    by his understanding he shattered Rahab.
13   By his wind the heavens were made fair;
    his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14   Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
    and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
    But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

1 Corinthians 9

Paul Surrenders His Rights

9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Psalm 104:25–35

25   Here is the sea, great and wide,
    which teems with creatures innumerable,
    living things both small and great.
26   There go the ships,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
27   These all look to you,
    to give them their food in due season.
28   When you give it to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29   When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
30   When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.
31   May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
    may the LORD rejoice in his works,
32   who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33   I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34   May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the LORD.
35   Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
    and let the wicked be no more!
  Bless the LORD, O my soul!
  Praise the LORD!

Proverbs 22:5–8

5   Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;
    whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.
6   Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it.
7   The rich rules over the poor,
    and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
8   Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,
    and the rod of his fury will fail.