One Year Bible.

The Capture of Rabbah

¹In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.

²Then David took the crown from the head of their king. It was found to weigh a talent of gold and was set with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. And David took a great amount of plunder from the city.

³David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. And he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.

Battles against the Philistines

⁴Some time later, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, a descendant of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued.

⁵Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

⁶And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot— twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ⁷and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him.

⁸So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

The Day of Trouble

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

²May He send you help from the sanctuary

and sustain you from Zion.

³May He remember all your gifts

and look favorably on your burnt offerings.

Selah

⁴May He give you the desires of your heart

and make all your plans succeed.

⁵May we shout for joy at your victory

and raise a banner in the name of our God.

May the LORD grant all your petitions.

⁶Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;

He answers him from His holy heaven

with the saving power of His right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

⁸They collapse and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

⁹O LORD, save the king.

Answer us on the day we call.

Elihu Proclaims God’s Majesty

¹“At this my heart also pounds

and leaps from its place.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice

and the rumbling that comes from His mouth.

³He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky

and sends it to the ends of the earth.

⁴Then there comes a roaring sound;

He thunders with His majestic voice.

He does not restrain the lightning

when His voice resounds.

⁵God thunders wondrously with His voice;

He does great things we cannot comprehend.

⁶For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’

and to the gentle rain, ‘Pour out a mighty downpour.’

⁷He seals up the hand of every man,

so that all men may know His work.

⁸The wild animals enter their lairs;

they settle down in their dens.

⁹The tempest comes from its chamber,

and the cold from the driving north winds.

¹⁰By the breath of God the ice is formed

and the watery expanses are frozen.

¹¹He loads the clouds with moisture;

He scatters His lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about,

whirling at His direction,

accomplishing all that He commands

over the face of all the earth.

¹³Whether for punishment or for His land,

He accomplishes this in His loving devotion.

¹⁴Listen to this, O Job;

stand still and consider the wonders of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God dispatches the clouds

or makes the lightning flash?

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float,

those wonders of Him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothes get hot

when the land lies hushed under the south wind,

¹⁸can you, like Him, spread out the skies,

as strong as a mirror of bronze?

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to Him;

we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness.

²⁰Should He be told that I want to speak?

Would a man ask to be swallowed up?

²¹Now no one can gaze at the sun

when it is bright in the skies

after the wind has swept them clean.

²²Out of the north He comes in golden splendor;

awesome majesty surrounds Him.

²³The Almighty is beyond our reach;

He is exalted in power!

In His justice and great righteousness

He does not oppress.

²⁴Therefore, men fear Him,

for He is not partial to the wise in heart.”

The LORD Challenges Job

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

²“Who is this who obscures My counsel

by words without knowledge?

³Now brace yourself like a man;

I will question you, and you shall inform Me.

⁴Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know!

Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶On what were its foundations set,

or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷while the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors

when it burst forth from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment

and thick darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I fixed its boundaries

and set in place its bars and doors,

¹¹and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther;

here your proud waves must stop’?

¹²In your days, have you commanded the morning

or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³that it might spread to the ends of the earth

and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;

its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked,

and their upraised arm is broken.

¹⁶Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea

or walked in the trenches of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you surveyed the extent of the earth?

Tell Me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the way to the home of light?

Do you know where darkness resides,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border?

Do you know the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were already born!

And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the storehouses of snow

or observed the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,

for the day of war and battle?

²⁴In which direction is the lightning dispersed,

or the east wind scattered over the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flood

or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a barren land,

on a desert where no man lives,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland

and make it sprout with tender grass?

²⁸Does the rain have a father?

Who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb does the ice emerge?

Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

³⁰when the waters become hard as stone

and the surface of the deep is frozen?

³¹Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades

or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons

or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set their dominion over the earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds

so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the heart

or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?

Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

³⁸when the dust hardens into a mass

and the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt the prey for a lioness

or satisfy the hunger of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens

and lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides food for the raven

when its young cry out to God

as they wander about for lack of food?[’’]