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Everything you say, I have heard before. I understand it all; I know as much as you do. I'm not your inferior.
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But my dispute is with God, not you; I want to argue my case with him.
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You cover up your ignorance with lies; you are like doctors who can't heal anyone.
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Say nothing, and someone may think you are wise!
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Listen while I state my case.
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Why are you lying? Do you think your lies will benefit God?
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Are you trying to defend him? Are you going to argue his case in court?
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If God looks at you closely, will he find anything good? Do you think you can fool God the way you fool others?
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Even though your prejudice is hidden, he will reprimand you,
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and his power will fill you with terror.
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Your proverbs are as useless as ashes; your arguments are as weak as clay.
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Be quiet and give me a chance to speak, and let the results be what they will.
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I am ready to risk my life.
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I've lost all hope, so what if God kills me? I am going to state my case to him.
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It may even be that my boldness will save me, since no wicked person would dare to face God.
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Now listen to my words of explanation.
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I am ready to state my case, because I know I am in the right.
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Are you coming to accuse me, God? If you do, I am ready to be silent and die.
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Let me ask for two things; agree to them, and I will not try to hide from you:
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stop punishing me, and don't crush me with terror.
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Speak first, O God, and I will answer. Or let me speak, and you answer me.
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What are my sins? What wrongs have I done? What crimes am I charged with?
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Why do you avoid me? Why do you treat me like an enemy?
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Are you trying to frighten me? I'm nothing but a leaf; you are attacking a piece of dry straw.
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You bring bitter charges against me, even for what I did when I was young.
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You bind chains on my feet; you watch every step I take, and even examine my footprints.
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As a result, I crumble like rotten wood, like a moth-eaten coat.
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We are all born weak and helpless. All lead the same short, troubled life.
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We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows.
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Will you even look at me, God, or put me on trial and judge me?
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Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.
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The length of our lives is decided beforehand--- the number of months we will live. You have settled it, and it can't be changed.
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Look away from us and leave us alone; let us enjoy our hard life---if we can.
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There is hope for a tree that has been cut down; it can come back to life and sprout.
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Even though its roots grow old, and its stump dies in the ground,
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with water it will sprout like a young plant.
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But we die, and that is the end of us; we die, and where are we then?
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Like rivers that stop running, and lakes that go dry,
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people die, never to rise. They will never wake up while the sky endures; they will never stir from their sleep.
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I wish you would hide me in the world of the dead; let me be hidden until your anger is over, and then set a time to remember me.
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If a man dies, can he come back to life? But I will wait for better times, wait till this time of trouble is ended.
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Then you will call, and I will answer, and you will be pleased with me, your creature.
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Then you will watch every step I take, but you will not keep track of my sins.
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You will forgive them and put them away; you will wipe out all the wrongs I have done.
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There comes a time when mountains fall and solid cliffs are moved away.
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Water will wear down rocks, and heavy rain will wash away the soil; so you destroy our hope for life.
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You overpower us and send us away forever; our faces are twisted in death.
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Our children win honor, but we never know it, nor are we told when they are disgraced.
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We feel only the pain of our own bodies and the grief of our own minds.
1
Paul and Silas traveled on through Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue.
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According to his usual habit Paul went to the synagogue. There during three Sabbaths he held discussions with the people, quoting
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and explaining the Scriptures, and proving from them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from death. "This Jesus whom I announce to you," Paul said, "is the Messiah."
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Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so did many of the leading women and a large group of Greeks who worshiped God.
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But some Jews were jealous and gathered worthless loafers from the streets and formed a mob. They set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the home of a man named Jason, in an attempt to find Paul and Silas and bring them out to the people.
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But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city authorities and shouted, "These men have caused trouble everywhere! Now they have come to our city,
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and Jason has kept them in his house. They are all breaking the laws of the Emperor, saying that there is another king, whose name is Jesus."
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With these words they threw the crowd and the city authorities in an uproar.
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The authorities made Jason and the others pay the required amount of money to be released, and then let them go.
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As soon as night came, the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived, they went to the synagogue.
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The people there were more open-minded than the people in Thessalonica. They listened to the message with great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was really true.
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Many of them believed; and many Greek women of high social standing and many Greek men also believed.
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But when the Jews in Thessalonica heard that Paul had preached the word of God in Berea also, they came there and started exciting and stirring up the mobs.
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At once the believers sent Paul away to the coast; but both Silas and Timothy stayed in Berea.
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The men who were taking Paul went with him as far as Athens and then returned to Berea with instructions from Paul that Silas and Timothy should join him as soon as possible.
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While Paul was waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy, he was greatly upset when he noticed how full of idols the city was.
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So he held discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentiles who worshiped God, and also in the public square every day with the people who happened to come by.
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Certain Epicurean and Stoic teachers also debated with him. Some of them asked, "What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?" Others answered, "He seems to be talking about foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection.
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So they took Paul, brought him before the city council, the Areopagus, and said, "We would like to know what this new teaching is that you are talking about.
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Some of the things we hear you say sound strange to us, and we would like to know what they mean."
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(For all the citizens of Athens and the foreigners who lived there liked to spend all their time telling and hearing the latest new thing.)
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Paul stood up in front of the city council and said, "I see that in every way you Athenians are very religious.
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For as I walked through your city and looked at the places where you worship, I found an altar on which is written, 'To an Unknown God.' That which you worship, then, even though you do not know it, is what I now proclaim to you.
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God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands.
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Nor does he need anything that we can supply by working for him, since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything else to everyone.
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From one human being he created all races of people and made them live throughout the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live.
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He did this so that they would look for him, and perhaps find him as they felt around for him. Yet God is actually not far from any one of us;
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as someone has said, 'In him we live and move and exist.' It is as some of your poets have said, 'We too are his children.'
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Since we are God's children, we should not suppose that his nature is anything like an image of gold or silver or stone, shaped by human art and skill.
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God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.
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For he has fixed a day in which he will judge the whole world with justice by means of a man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising that man from death!"
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When they heard Paul speak about a raising from death, some of them made fun of him, but others said, "We want to hear you speak about this again."
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And so Paul left the meeting.
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Some men joined him and believed, among whom was Dionysius, a member of the council; there was also a woman named Damaris, and some other people.
1
After this, Paul left Athens and went on to Corinth.
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There he met a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, for Emperor Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
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and stayed and worked with them, because he earned his living by making tents, just as they did.
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He held discussions in the synagogue every Sabbath, trying to convince both Jews and Greeks.
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When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul gave his whole time to preaching the message, testifying to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.
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When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
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So he left them and went to live in the house of a Gentile named Titius Justus, who worshiped God; his house was next to the synagogue.
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Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his family; and many other people in Corinth heard the message, believed, and were baptized.
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One night Paul had a vision in which the Lord said to him, "Do not be afraid, but keep on speaking and do not give up,
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for I am with you. No one will be able to harm you, for many in this city are my people."
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So Paul stayed there for a year and a half, teaching the people the word of God.
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When Gallio was made the Roman governor of Achaia, Jews there got together, seized Paul, and took him into court.
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"This man," they said, "is trying to persuade people to worship God in a way that is against the law!"
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Paul was about to speak when Gallio said to the Jews, "If this were a matter of some evil crime or wrong that has been committed, it would be reasonable for me to be patient with you Jews.
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But since it is an argument about words and names and your own law, you yourselves must settle it. I will not be the judge of such things!"
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And he drove them out of the court.
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They all grabbed Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the court. But that did not bother Gallio a bit.
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Paul stayed on with the believers in Corinth for many days, then left them and sailed off with Priscilla and Aquila for Syria. Before sailing from Cenchreae he had his head shaved because of a vow he had taken.
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They arrived in Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He went into the synagogue and held discussions with the Jews.
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The people asked him to stay longer, but he would not consent.
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Instead, he told them as he left, "If it is the will of God, I will come back to you." And so he sailed from Ephesus.
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When he arrived at Caesarea, he went to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and then went to Antioch.
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After spending some time there, he left and went through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the believers.
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At that time a Jew named Apollos, who had been born in Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker and had a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.
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He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he proclaimed and taught correctly the facts about Jesus. However, he knew only the baptism of John.
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He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home with them and explained to him more correctly the Way of God.
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Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia, urging them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who through God's grace had become believers.
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For with his strong arguments he defeated the Jews in public debates by proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.
