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Giovedi, 28 marzo 2024 - San Castore di Tarso ( Letture di oggi)

Job 33


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1Therefore, O Job, hear my discourse, and hearken to all my words.2Behold, now I open my mouth; my tongue and my voice form words.3I will state directly what is in my mind, my lips shall utter knowledge sincerely;4For the spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.5If you are able, refute me; draw up your arguments and stand forth.6Behold I, like yourself, have been taken from the same clay by God.7Therefore no fear of me should dismay you, nor should my presence weigh heavily upon you.8But you have said in my hearing, as I listened to the sound of your words:9"I am clean and without transgression; I am innocent; there is no guilt in me.10Yet he invents pretexts against me and reckons me as his enemy.11He puts my feet in the stocks; he watches all my ways!"12In this you are not just, let me tell you; for God is greater than man.13Why, then, do you make complaint against him that he gives no account of his doings?14For God does speak, perhaps once, or even twice, though one perceive it not.15In a dream, in a vision of the night, (when deep sleep falls upon men) as they slumber in their beds,16It is then he opens the ears of men and as a warning to them, terrifies them;17By turning man from evil and keeping pride away from him,18He withholds his soul from the pit and his life from passing to the grave.19Or a man is chastened on his bed by pain and unceasing suffering within his frame,20So that to his appetite food becomes repulsive, and his senses reject the choicest nourishment.21His flesh is wasted so that it cannot be seen, and his bones, once invisible, appear;22His soul draws near to the pit, his life to the place of the dead.23If then there be for him an angel, one out of a thousand, a mediator, To show him what is right for him and bring the man back to justice,24He will take pity on him and say, "Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found him a ransom."25Then his flesh shall become soft as a boy's; he shall be again as in the days of his youth.26He shall pray and God will favor him; he shall see God's face with rejoicing.27He shall sing before men and say, "I sinned and did wrong, yet he has not punished me accordingly.28He delivered my soul from passing to the pit, and I behold the light of life."29Lo, all these things God does, twice, or thrice, for a man,30Bringing back his soul from the pit to the light, in the land of the living.31Be attentive, O Job; listen to me! Be silent and I will speak.32If you have aught to say, then answer me. Speak out! I should like to see you justified.33If not, then do you listen to me; be silent while I teach you wisdom.