Curse the day I was born! Forget the day my mother gave me birth!

May he be like those cities that the LORD destroyed without mercy. May he hear cries of pain in the morning and the battle alarm at noon,

Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?

Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.

(SEE 3:2)

Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.

make it a barren, joyless night.

Keep the morning star from shining; give that night no hope of dawn.

I wish I had died in my mother's womb or died the moment I was born.

If I had died then, I would be at rest now,

Then I would be sleeping like princes who filled their houses with gold and silver,

In the grave wicked people stop their evil, and tired workers find rest at last.

Everyone is there, the famous and the unknown, and slaves at last are free.

They wait for death, but it never comes; they prefer a grave to any treasure.

God keeps their future hidden and hems them in on every side.

Everything I fear and dread comes true.

I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

Listen, Jeremiah! Everyone in this land---the kings of Judah, the officials, the priests, and the people---will be against you. But today I am giving you the strength to resist them; you will be like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. They will not defeat you, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the LORD, have spoken."

(SEE 1:18)

LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long.

Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, "Violence! Destruction!" LORD, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message.

When Ahab saw him, he said, "So there you are---the worst troublemaker in Israel!"

"I'm not the troublemaker," Elijah answered. "You are---you and your father. You are disobeying the LORD's commands and worshiping the idols of Baal.

When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, "Have you caught up with me, my enemy?" "Yes, I have," Elijah answered. "You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight.

Ahab answered, "There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad." "You shouldn't say that!" Jehoshaphat replied.

Living among you is as bad as living in Meshech or among the people of Kedar.

I have lived too long with people who hate peace!

"But you, mortal man, must not be afraid of them or of anything they say. They will defy and despise you; it will be like living among scorpions. Still, don't be afraid of those rebels or of anything they say.

You will tell them whatever I tell you to say, whether they listen or not. Remember what rebels they are.

But none of the people of Israel will be willing to listen; they will not even listen to me. All of them are stubborn and defiant.

I will make you as firm as a rock, as hard as a diamond; don't be afraid of those rebels."

"People will hand over their own brothers to be put to death, and fathers will do the same to their children; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death.

When they persecute you in one town, run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

"Then you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and be put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me.

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, "This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against

They brought them before the Roman officials and said, "These men are Jews, and they are causing trouble in our city.

And the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. Then the officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be whipped.

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,

With these words they threw the crowd and the city authorities in an uproar.

Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly with the people, holding discussions with them and trying to convince them about the Kingdom of God.

But some of them were stubborn and would not believe, and before the whole group they said evil things about the Way of the Lord. So Paul left them and took the believers with him, and every day he held discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

So he called them all together with others whose work was like theirs and said to them, "Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this work.

There is the danger, then, that this business of ours will get a bad name. Not only that, but there is also the danger that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will come to mean nothing and that her greatness will be destroyed---the goddess worshiped by everyone in Asia and in all the world!"

But we would like to hear your ideas, because we know that everywhere people speak against this party to which you belong."

For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!

"If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and require him to pay interest.

"When you lend money or food or anything else to Israelites, do not charge them interest.

You may charge interest on what you lend to foreigners, but not on what you lend to Israelites. Obey this rule, and the LORD your God will bless everything you do in the land that you are going to occupy.

Some time later many of the people, both men and women, began to complain against the other Jews.

Others said, "We have had to mortgage our fields and vineyards and houses to get enough grain to keep us from starving."

We are of the same race as the other Jews. Aren't our children just as good as theirs? But we have to make slaves of our children. Some of our daughters have already been sold as slaves. We are helpless because our fields and vineyards have been taken away from us."

They make loans without charging interest and cannot be bribed to testify against the innocent. Whoever does these things will always be secure.

They may curse me, but you will bless me. May my persecutors be defeated, and may I, your servant, be glad.

Curses cannot hurt you unless you deserve them. They are like birds that fly by and never light.

But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

"Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that you are evil, all because of the Son of Man!