Job 33:1–33 (NIV84)

¹ “But now, Job, listen to my words; pay attention to everything I say. ² I am about to open my mouth; my words are on the tip of my tongue. ³ My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know. ⁴ The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. ⁵ Answer me then, if you can; prepare yourself and confront me. ⁶I am just like you before God; I too have been taken from clay. ⁷ No fear of me should alarm you, nor should my hand be heavy upon you. ⁸ “But you have said in my hearing— I heard the very words— ⁹ ‘I am pure and without sin; I am clean and free from guilt. ¹⁰ Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy. ¹¹ He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.’ ¹² “But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man. ¹³ Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man’s words? ¹⁴ For God does speak—now one way, now another— though man may not perceive it. ¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, ¹⁶he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, ¹⁷ to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, ¹⁸ to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. ¹⁹ Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in his bones, ²⁰ so that his very being finds food repulsive and his soul loathes the choicest meal. ²¹ His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out. ²² His soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death. ²³ “Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him, ²⁴ to be gracious to him and say, ‘Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him’— ²⁵ then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth. ²⁶ He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state. ²⁷ Then he comes to men and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved. ²⁸ He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.’ ²⁹ “God does all these things to a man— twice, even three times— ³⁰ to turn back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him. ³¹ “Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak. ³² If you have anything to say, answer me; speak up, for I want you to be cleared. ³³ But if not, then listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

Matthew 12:1–8 (NIV84)

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” ³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. ⁷ If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”