Daily Reading for Friday, October 4th, 2024

Reading 1, Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

¹ Then from the heart of the tempest Yahweh gave Job his answer. He said:

¹² Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post,

¹³ to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴ She turns it as red as a clay seal, she tints it as though it were a dress,

¹⁵ stealing the light from evil-doers and breaking the arm raised to strike.

¹⁶ Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss?

¹⁷ Have you been shown the gates of Death, have you seen the janitors of the Shadow dark as death?

¹⁸ Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth? Tell me all about it if you have!

¹⁹ Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live? -

²⁰ You could then show them the way to their proper places, you could put them on the path home again!

²¹ If you do know, you must have been born when they were, you must be very old by now!

³ Job replied to Yahweh:

⁴ My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my hand over my mouth.

⁵ I have spoken once, I shall not speak again; I have spoken twice, I have nothing more to say.

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14

¹ [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] Yahweh, you examine me and know me,

² you know when I sit, when I rise, you understand my thoughts from afar.

³ You watch when I walk or lie down, you know every detail of my conduct.

⁷ Where shall I go to escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I scale the heavens you are there, if I lie flat in Sheol, there you are.

⁹ If I speed away on the wings of the dawn, if I dwell beyond the ocean,

¹⁰ even there your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast.

¹³ You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders. You knew me through and through,