41.

1 "Can you catch Leviathan with a hook or put a noose around its jaw?

2 Can you tie it with a rope through the nose or pierce its jaw with a spike?

3 Will it beg you for mercy or implore you for pity?

4 Will it agree to work for you, to be your slave for life?

5 Can you make it a pet like a bird, or give it to your little girls to play with?

6 Will merchants try to buy it to sell it in their shops?

7 Will its hide be hurt by spears or its head by a harpoon?

8 If you lay a hand on it, you will certainly remember the battle that follows.You won't try that again!

9 No, it is useless to try to capture it.The hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.

10 And since no one dares to disturb it, who then can stand up to me?

11 Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.

12 "I want to emphasize Leviathan's limbs and its enormous strength and graceful form.

13 Who can strip off its hide, and who can penetrate its double layer of armor?

14 Who could pry open its jaws? For its teeth are terrible!

15 Its scales are like rows of shields tightly sealed together.

16 They are so close together that no air can get between them.

17 Each scale sticks tight to the next.They interlock and cannot be penetrated.

18 "When it sneezes, it flashes light! Its eyes are like the red of dawn.

19 Lightning leaps from its mouth; flames of fire flash out.

20 Smoke streams from its nostrils like steam from a pot heated over burning rushes.

21 Its breath would kindle coals, for flames shoot from its mouth.

22 "The tremendous strength in Leviathan's neck strikes terror wherever it goes.

23 Its flesh is hard and firm and cannot be penetrated.

24 Its heart is hard as rock, hard as a millstone.

25 When it rises, the mighty are afraid, gripped by terror.

26 No sword can stop it, no spear, dart, or javelin.

27 Iron is nothing but straw to that creature, and bronze is like rotten wood.

28 Arrows cannot make it flee.Stones shot from a sling are like bits of grass.

29 Clubs are like a blade of grass, and it laughs at the swish of javelins.

30 Its belly is covered with scales as sharp as glass.It plows up the ground as it drags through the mud.

31 "Leviathan makes the water boil with its commotion.It stirs the depths like a pot of ointment.

32 The water glistens in its wake, making the sea look white.

33 Nothing on earth is its equal, no other creature so fearless.

34 Of all the creatures, it is the proudest.It is the king of beasts."

42.

1 Then Job replied to the LORD.

2 "I know that you can do anything, and no one can stop you.

3 You asked, 'Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?' It is I - and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.

4 You said, 'Listen and I will speak! I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.'

5 I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.

6 I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance."

7 After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite： "I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.

8 So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has."

9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the LORD commanded them, and the LORD accepted Job's prayer.

10 When Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes. In fact, the LORD gave him twice as much as before!

11 Then all his brothers, sisters, and former friends came and feasted with him in his home. And they consoled him and comforted him because of all the trials the LORD had brought against him. And each of them brought him a gift of money and a gold ring.

12 So the LORD blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

13 He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.

14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch.

15 In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers.

16 Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren.

17 Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.

HOSEA

1.

1 The Lord gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

2 When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, "Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods."

3 So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son. 

4 And the Lord said, "Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu's dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel's independence. 

5 I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley."

6 Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, "Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah - 'Not loved' - for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. 

7 But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies - not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God."

8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. 

9 And the Lord said, "Name him Lo-ammi - 'Not my people' - for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

10 "Yet the time will come when Israel's people will be like the sands of the seashore - too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' it will be said, 'You are children of the living God.'

11 Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be - the day of Jezreel - when God will again plant his people in his land.

1 "In that day you will call your brothers Ammi - 'My people.' And you will call your sisters Ruhamah - 'The ones I love.'

2 "But now bring charges against Israel - your mother - for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitute's makeup from her face and the clothing that exposes her breasts.

3 Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness.

4 And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution.

5 Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, 'I'll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.'

6 "For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes. I will block her path with a wall to make her lose her way.

7 When she runs after her lovers, she won't be able to catch them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, 'I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.'

8 She doesn't realize it was I who gave her everything she has - the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold. But she gave all my gifts to Baal.

9 "But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine I generously provided each harvest season. I will take away the wool and linen clothing I gave her to cover her nakedness.

10 I will strip her naked in public, while all her lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue her from my hands.

11 I will put an end to her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days - all her appointed festivals.

12 I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees, things she claims her lovers gave her. I will let them grow into tangled thickets, where only wild animals will eat the fruit.

13 I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me," says the Lord.

14 "But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there.

15 I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.

16 When that day comes," says the Lord, "you will call me 'my husband' instead of 'my master.'

17 O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again.

18 On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety.

19 I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.

20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.

21 "In that day, I will answer," says the Lord. "I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain.

22 Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, 'Jezreel' - 'God plants!'

23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called 'Not loved.' And to those I called 'Not my people,' I will say, 'Now you are my people.' And they will reply, 'You are our God!'"

1 Then the Lord said to me, "Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them."

2 So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

3 Then I said to her, "You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me."

4 This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols!

5 But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David's descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.