Monday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 2Verse 2. “How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind. 3Verse 3. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 4Verse 4. When your children sinned against Him, He gave them over to their rebellion. 5Verse 5. But if you would earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, 6Verse 6. if you are pure and upright, even now He will rouse Himself on your behalf and restore your righteous estate. 7Verse 7. Though your beginnings were modest, your latter days will flourish. 8Verse 8. Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers. 9Verse 9. For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow. 10Verse 10. Will they not teach you and tell you, and speak from their understanding? 11Verse 11. Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water? 12Verse 12. While the shoots are still uncut, they dry up more quickly than grass. 13Verse 13. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so the hope of the godless will perish. 14Verse 14. His confidence is fragile; his security is in a spider’s web. 15Verse 15. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he holds fast, but it does not endure. 16Verse 16. He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden. 17Verse 17. His roots wrap around the rock heap; he looks for a home among the stones. 18Verse 18. If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘ I never saw you.’ 19Verse 19. Surely this is the joy of his way; yet others will spring from the dust. 20Verse 20. Behold, God does not reject the blameless, nor will He strengthen the hand of evildoers. 21Verse 21. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with a shout of joy. 22Verse 22. Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

13Verse 13. Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, 14Verse 14. and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.” 15Verse 15. Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring the proof of her virginity to the city elders at the gate 16Verse 16. and say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he has come to hate her. 17Verse 17. And now he has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.’ But here is the proof of her virginity.” And they shall spread out the cloth before the city elders. 18Verse 18. Then the elders of that city shall take the man and punish him. 19Verse 19. They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall remain his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. 20Verse 20. If, however, this accusation is true, and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21Verse 21. she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you. 22Verse 22. If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 23Verse 23. If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, 24Verse 24. you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death— the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you. 25Verse 25. But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die. 26Verse 26. Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. 27Verse 27. When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. 28Verse 28. If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29Verse 29. then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives. 30Verse 30. A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.