Friday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 2Verse 2. “If one ventures a word with you, will you be wearied? Yet who can keep from speaking? 3Verse 3. Surely you have instructed many, and have strengthened their feeble hands. 4Verse 4. Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling. 5Verse 5. But now trouble has come upon you, and you are weary. It strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6Verse 6. Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope? 7Verse 7. Consider now, I plead: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Or where have the upright been destroyed? 8Verse 8. As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same. 9Verse 9. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed. 10Verse 10. The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken. 11Verse 11. The old lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered. 12Verse 12. Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it. 13Verse 13. In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14Verse 14. fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder. 15Verse 15. Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled. 16Verse 16. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice: 17Verse 17. ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker? 18Verse 18. If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, 19Verse 19. how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth! 20Verse 20. They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21Verse 21. Are not their tent cords pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’[’’]

22Verse 22. At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23Verse 23. Now, therefore, swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or descendants. Show to me and to the country in which you reside the same kindness that I have shown to you.” 24Verse 24. And Abraham replied, “I swear it.” 25Verse 25. But when Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26Verse 26. Abimelech replied, “I do not know who has done this. You did not tell me, so I have not heard about it until today.” 27Verse 27. So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28Verse 28. Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock, 29Verse 29. and Abimelech asked him, “Why have you set apart these seven ewe lambs?” 30Verse 30. He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from my hand as my witness that I dug this well.” 31Verse 31. So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath. 32Verse 32. After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army got up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33Verse 33. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. 34Verse 34. And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines for a long time.