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Do you know when mountain goats are born? Have you watched wild deer give birth?
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Do you know how long they carry their young? Do you know the time for their birth?
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Do you know when they will crouch down and bring their young into the world?
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In the wilds their young grow strong; they go away and don't come back.
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Who gave the wild donkeys their freedom? Who turned them loose and let them roam?
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I gave them the desert to be their home, and let them live on the salt plains.
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They keep far away from the noisy cities, and no one can tame them and make them work.
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The mountains are the pastures where they feed, where they search for anything green to eat.
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Will a wild ox work for you? Is he willing to spend the night in your stable?
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Can you hold one with a rope and make him plow? Or make him pull a harrow in your fields?
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Can you rely on his great strength and expect him to do your heavy work?
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Do you expect him to bring in your harvest and gather the grain from your threshing place?
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How fast the wings of an ostrich beat! But no ostrich can fly like a stork.
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The ostrich leaves her eggs on the ground for the heat in the soil to warm them.
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She is unaware that a foot may crush them or a wild animal break them.
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She acts as if the eggs were not hers, and is unconcerned that her efforts were wasted.
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It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom.
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But when she begins to run, she can laugh at any horse and rider.
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Was it you, Job, who made horses so strong and gave them their flowing manes?
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Did you make them leap like locusts and frighten people with their snorting?
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They eagerly paw the ground in the valley; they rush into battle with all their strength.
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They do not know the meaning of fear, and no sword can turn them back.
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The weapons which their riders carry rattle and flash in the sun.
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Trembling with excitement, the horses race ahead; when the trumpet blows, they can't stand still.
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At each blast of the trumpet they snort; they can smell a battle before they get near, and they hear the officers shouting commands.
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Does a hawk learn from you how to fly when it spreads its wings toward the south?
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Does an eagle wait for your command to build its nest high in the mountains?
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It makes its home on the highest rocks and makes the sharp peaks its fortress.
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From there it watches near and far for something to kill and eat.
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Around dead bodies the eagles gather, and the young eagles drink the blood.
1
Job, you challenged Almighty God; will you give up now, or will you answer?
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I spoke foolishly, LORD. What can I answer? I will not try to say anything else.
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I have already said more than I should.
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Then out of the storm the LORD spoke to Job once again.
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Now stand up straight and answer my questions.
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Are you trying to prove that I am unjust--- to put me in the wrong and yourself in the right?
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Are you as strong as I am? Can your voice thunder as loud as mine?
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If so, stand up in your honor and pride; clothe yourself with majesty and glory.
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Look at those who are proud; pour out your anger and humble them.
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Yes, look at them and bring them down; crush the wicked where they stand.
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Bury them all in the ground; bind them in the world of the dead.
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Then I will be the first to praise you and admit that you won the victory yourself.
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Look at the monster Behemoth; I created him and I created you. He eats grass like a cow,
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but what strength there is in his body, and what power there is in his muscles!
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His tail stands up like a cedar, and the muscles in his legs are strong.
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His bones are as strong as bronze, and his legs are like iron bars.
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The most amazing of all my creatures! Only his Creator can defeat him.
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Grass to feed him grows on the hills where wild beasts play.
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He lies down under the thorn bushes, and hides among the reeds in the swamp.
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The thorn bushes and the willows by the stream give him shelter in their shade.
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He is not afraid of a rushing river; he is calm when the Jordan dashes in his face.
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Who can blind his eyes and capture him? Or who can catch his snout in a trap?
1
I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.
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I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains---but if I have no love, I am nothing.
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I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ---but if I have no love, this does me no good.
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Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;
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love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;
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love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.
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Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
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Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass.
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For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;
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but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.
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When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways.
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What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete---as complete as God's knowledge of me.
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Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.
1
It is love, then, that you should strive for. Set your hearts on spiritual gifts, especially the gift of proclaiming God's message.
2
Those who speak in strange tongues do not speak to others but to God, because no one understands them. They are speaking secret truths by the power of the Spirit.
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But those who proclaim God's message speak to people and give them help, encouragement, and comfort.
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Those who speak in strange tongues help only themselves, but those who proclaim God's message help the whole church.
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I would like for all of you to speak in strange tongues; but I would rather that you had the gift of proclaiming God's message. For the person who proclaims God's message is of greater value than the one who speaks in strange tongues---unless there is someone present who can explain what is said, so that the whole church may be helped.
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So when I come to you, my friends, what use will I be to you if I speak in strange tongues? Not a bit, unless I bring you some revelation from God or some knowledge or some inspired message or some teaching.
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Take such lifeless musical instruments as the flute or the harp---how will anyone know the tune that is being played unless the notes are sounded distinctly?
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And if the one who plays the bugle does not sound a clear call, who will prepare for battle?
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In the same way, how will anyone understand what you are talking about if your message given in strange tongues is not clear? Your words will vanish in the air!
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There are many different languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.
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But if I do not know the language being spoken, those who use it will be foreigners to me and I will be a foreigner to them.
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Since you are eager to have the gifts of the Spirit, you must try above everything else to make greater use of those which help to build up the church.
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The person who speaks in strange tongues, then, must pray for the gift to explain what is said.
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For if I pray in this way, my spirit prays indeed, but my mind has no part in it.
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What should I do, then? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray also with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will sing also with my mind.
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When you give thanks to God in spirit only, how can ordinary people taking part in the meeting say "Amen" to your prayer of thanksgiving? They have no way of knowing what you are saying.
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Even if your prayer of thanks to God is quite good, other people are not helped at all.
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I thank God that I speak in strange tongues much more than any of you.
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But in church worship I would rather speak five words that can be understood, in order to teach others, than speak thousands of words in strange tongues.
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Do not be like children in your thinking, my friends; be children so far as evil is concerned, but be grown up in your thinking.
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In the Scriptures it is written, "By means of people speaking strange languages I will speak to my people, says the Lord. I will speak through lips of foreigners, but even then my people will not listen to me."
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So then, the gift of speaking in strange tongues is proof for unbelievers, not for believers, while the gift of proclaiming God's message is proof for believers, not for unbelievers.
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If, then, the whole church meets together and everyone starts speaking in strange tongues---and if some ordinary people or unbelievers come in, won't they say that you are all crazy?
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But if everyone is proclaiming God's message when some unbelievers or ordinary people come in, they will be convinced of their sin by what they hear. They will be judged by all they hear,
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their secret thoughts will be brought into the open, and they will bow down and worship God, confessing, "Truly God is here among you!"
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This is what I mean, my friends. When you meet for worship, one person has a hymn, another a teaching, another a revelation from God, another a message in strange tongues, and still another the explanation of what is said. Everything must be of help to the church.
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If someone is going to speak in strange tongues, two or three at the most should speak, one after the other, and someone else must explain what is being said.
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But if no one is there who can explain, then the one who speaks in strange tongues must be quiet and speak only to himself and to God.
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Two or three who are given God's message should speak, while the others are to judge what they say.
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But if someone sitting in the meeting receives a message from God, the one who is speaking should stop.
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All of you may proclaim God's message, one by one, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged.
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The gift of proclaiming God's message should be under the speaker's control,
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because God does not want us to be in disorder but in harmony and peace. As in all the churches of God's people,
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the women should keep quiet in the meetings. They are not allowed to speak; as the Jewish Law says, they must not be in charge.
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If they want to find out about something, they should ask their husbands at home. It is a disgraceful thing for a woman to speak in a church meeting.
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Or could it be that the word of God came from you? Or are you the only ones to whom it came?
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If anyone supposes he is God's messenger or has a spiritual gift, he must realize that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.
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But if he does not pay attention to this, pay no attention to him.
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So then, my friends, set your heart on proclaiming God's message, but do not forbid the speaking in strange tongues.
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Everything must be done in a proper and orderly way.
