June 27

Today’s Reading is from Job Chapters 41 and 42, and Psalm 2 and 2.

Job Chapter 41

1 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook

    or press down his tongue with a cord?

2 Can you put a rope in his nose

    or pierce his jaw with a hook?

3 Will he make many pleas to you?

    Will he speak to you soft words?

4 Will he make a covenant with you

    to take him for your servant forever?

5 Will you play with him as with a bird,

    or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

6 Will traders bargain over him?

    Will they divide him up among the merchants?

7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons

    or his head with fishing spears?

8 Lay your hands on him;

    remember the battle—you will not do it again!

9  Behold, the hope of a man is false;

    he is laid low even at the sight of him.

10 No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up.

    Who then is he who can stand before me?

11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?

    Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs,

    or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame.

13 Who can strip off his outer garment?

    Who would come near him with a bridle?

14 Who can open the doors of his face?

    Around his teeth is terror.

15 His back is made of rows of shields,

    shut up closely as with a seal.

16 One is so near to another

    that no air can come between them.

17 They are joined one to another;

    they clasp each other and cannot be separated.

18 His sneezings flash forth light,

    and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.

19 Out of his mouth go flaming torches;

    sparks of fire leap forth.

20 Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke,

    as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

21 His breath kindles coals,

    and a flame comes forth from his mouth.

22 In his neck abides strength,

    and terror dances before him.

23 The folds of his flesh stick together,

    firmly cast on him and immovable.

24 His heart is hard as a stone,

    hard as the lower millstone.

25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;

    at the crashing they are beside themselves.

26 Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail,

    nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

27 He counts iron as straw,

    and bronze as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee;

    for him, sling stones are turned to stubble.

29 Clubs are counted as stubble;

    he laughs at the rattle of javelins.

30 His underparts are like sharp potsherds;

    he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire.

31 He makes the deep boil like a pot;

    he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 Behind him he leaves a shining wake;

    one would think the deep to be white-haired.

33 On earth there is not his like,

    a creature without fear.

34 He sees everything that is high;

    he is king over all the sons of pride.”

Job Chapter 42

1 Then Job answered the Lord and said:

2 “I know that you can do all things,

    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

4 ‘Hear, and I will speak;

    I will question you, and you make it known to me.’

5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

    but now my eye sees you;

6 therefore I despise myself,

    and repent in dust and ashes.”

7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. 8 Now therefore take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

12 And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. 15 And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.

The Book Of Psalms

Book One

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man

    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

    and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

    planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

    and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so,

    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

    but the way of the wicked will perish.

Psalm 2

1 Why do the nations rage

    and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves,

    and the rulers take counsel together,

    against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart

    and cast away their cords from us.”

4 He who sits in the heavens laughs;

    the Lord holds them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,

    and terrify them in his fury, saying,

6 “As for me, I have set my King

    on Zion, my holy hill.”

7 I will tell of the decree:

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;

    today I have begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,

    and the ends of the earth your possession.

9 You shall break[b] them with a rod of iron

    and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise;

    be warned, O rulers of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear,

    and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son,

    lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,

    for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.