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Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.
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What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.
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Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,
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no wicked people have been happy for long.
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They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,
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but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.
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They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.
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The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;
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and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.
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Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.
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Evil tastes so good to them that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.
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But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.
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The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.
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What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.
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They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.
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They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,
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because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.
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Their greed is never satisfied.
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When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.
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At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.
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Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.
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When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.
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Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.
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Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.
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Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.
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All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.
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This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.
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Then Jesus went back to the synagogue, where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand.
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Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong; so they watched him closely to see whether he would cure the man on the Sabbath.
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Jesus said to the man, "Come up here to the front."
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Then he asked the people, "What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or to destroy it?" But they did not say a thing.
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Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and it became well again.
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So the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of Herod's party, and they made plans to kill Jesus.
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Jesus and his disciples went away to Lake Galilee, and a large crowd followed him. They had come from Galilee, from Judea,
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from Jerusalem, from the territory of Idumea, from the territory on the east side of the Jordan, and from the region around the cities of Tyre and Sidon. All these people came to Jesus because they had heard of the things he was doing.
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The crowd was so large that Jesus told his disciples to get a boat ready for him, so that the people would not crush him.
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He had healed many people, and all the sick kept pushing their way to him in order to touch him.
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And whenever the people who had evil spirits in them saw him, they would fall down before him and scream, "You are the Son of God!"
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Jesus sternly ordered the evil spirits not to tell anyone who he was.
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Then Jesus went up a hill and called to himself the men he wanted. They came to him,
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and he chose twelve, whom he named apostles. "I have chosen you to be with me," he told them. "I will also send you out to preach,
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and you will have authority to drive out demons."
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These are the twelve he chose: Simon (Jesus gave him the name Peter);
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James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee (Jesus gave them the name Boanerges, which means "Men of Thunder");
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Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Patriot,
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and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
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Then Jesus went home. Again such a large crowd gathered that Jesus and his disciples had no time to eat.
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When his family heard about it, they set out to take charge of him, because people were saying, "He's gone mad!"
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Some teachers of the Law who had come from Jerusalem were saying, "He has Beelzebul in him! It is the chief of the demons who gives him the power to drive them out."
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So Jesus called them to him and spoke to them in parables: "How can Satan drive out Satan?
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If a country divides itself into groups which fight each other, that country will fall apart.
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If a family divides itself into groups which fight each other, that family will fall apart.
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So if Satan's kingdom divides into groups, it cannot last, but will fall apart and come to an end.
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"No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.
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"I assure you that people can be forgiven all their sins and all the evil things they may say.
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But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, because he has committed an eternal sin."
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(Jesus said this because some people were saying, "He has an evil spirit in him.")
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Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. They stood outside the house and sent in a message, asking for him.
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A crowd was sitting around Jesus, and they said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, and they want you."
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Jesus answered, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"
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He looked at the people sitting around him and said, "Look! Here are my mother and my brothers!
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Whoever does what God wants is my brother, my sister, my mother."
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Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it. The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water's edge.
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He used parables to teach them many things, saying to them:
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"Listen! Once there was a man who went out to sow grain.
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As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
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Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn't deep.
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Then, when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up.
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Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants, and they didn't bear grain.
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But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants sprouted, grew, and bore grain: some had thirty grains, others sixty, and others one hundred."
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And Jesus concluded, "Listen, then, if you have ears!"
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When Jesus was alone, some of those who had heard him came to him with the twelve disciples and asked him to explain the parables.
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"You have been given the secret of the Kingdom of God," Jesus answered. "But the others, who are on the outside, hear all things by means of parables,
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so that, 'They may look and look, yet not see; they may listen and listen, yet not understand. For if they did, they would turn to God, and he would forgive them.' "
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Then Jesus asked them, "Don't you understand this parable? How, then, will you ever understand any parable?
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The sower sows God's message.
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Some people are like the seeds that fall along the path; as soon as they hear the message, Satan comes and takes it away.
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Other people are like the seeds that fall on rocky ground. As soon as they hear the message, they receive it gladly.
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But it does not sink deep into them, and they don't last long. So when trouble or persecution comes because of the message, they give up at once.
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Other people are like the seeds sown among the thorn bushes. These are the ones who hear the message,
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but the worries about this life, the love for riches, and all other kinds of desires crowd in and choke the message, and they don't bear fruit.
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But other people are like seeds sown in good soil. They hear the message, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred."
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Jesus continued, "Does anyone ever bring in a lamp and put it under a bowl or under the bed? Isn't it put on the lampstand?
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Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open, and whatever is covered up will be uncovered.
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Listen, then, if you have ears!"
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He also said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear! The same rules you use to judge others will be used by God to judge you---but with even greater severity.
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Those who have something will be given more, and those who have nothing will have taken away from them even the little they have."
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Jesus went on to say, "The Kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed in his field.
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He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet he does not know how it happens.
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The soil itself makes the plants grow and bear fruit; first the tender stalk appears, then the head, and finally the head full of grain.
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When the grain is ripe, the man starts cutting it with his sickle, because harvest time has come.
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"What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?" asked Jesus. "What parable shall we use to explain it?
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It is like this. A man takes a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, and plants it in the ground.
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After a while it grows up and becomes the biggest of all plants. It puts out such large branches that the birds come and make their nests in its shade."
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Jesus preached his message to the people, using many other parables like these; he told them as much as they could understand.
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He would not speak to them without using parables, but when he was alone with his disciples, he would explain everything to them.
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On the evening of that same day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go across to the other side of the lake."
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So they left the crowd; the disciples got into the boat in which Jesus was already sitting, and they took him with them. Other boats were there too.
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Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water.
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Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, "Teacher, don't you care that we are about to die?"
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Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, "Be quiet!" and he said to the waves, "Be still!" The wind died down, and there was a great calm.
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Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?"
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But they were terribly afraid and began to say to one another, "Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
