Verses about suffering and trials

And to Adam he said, “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; with toil you will eat from it all the days of your life. And thorns and thistles it will make sprout for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

For the eager expectation of the creation waits for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers birth pains together until now;

And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man sinned nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be revealed in him.

Now there were present at that very time some who were reporting to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And he answered and said to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were sinners more than all the other Galileans because they have suffered these things? No, I tell you; but unless you change your minds, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were debtors more than all the people who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you change your minds, you will all perish in the same way.”

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, because that is the end of every human being, and the living will lay it to his heart. Better is grief than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made better.

As for you, you planned evil against me; Elohim planned it for good, in order to bring about what is happening today: keeping alive many people.

Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground and bowed down. He said, “Naked I came out of the belly of my mother, and naked I will return there. YHWH gave, and YHWH took; may the name of YHWH be blessed.” In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge Elohim with impropriety.

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job answered and said: “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

Look, I go east, and he is not there; and west, and I do not perceive him; north, when he works, and I do not catch sight of him; he hides himself in the south, and I do not see him. For he knows the way that is with me; he has tested me: like gold I will come forth.

And YHWH answered Job from the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge? Gird up, please, your loins like a man; I will ask you, and you make known to me. Where were you when I founded the earth? Declare it, if you know understanding.

And Job answered YHWH and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no plan is beyond reach for you. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I declared what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, please, and I will speak; I will ask you, and you make known to me.’ By the hearing of the ear I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I despise what I said, and I repent on dust and ashes.”

For the director. A psalm of David. How long, YHWH? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I put counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart by day? How long will my enemy rise up over me? Look at me, answer me, YHWH my Elohim; give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

For the director. On The Doe of the Dawn. A psalm of David. My El, my El, why have you abandoned me? Far from my salvation are the words of my roaring. My Elohim, I call by day, and you do not answer; and by night, and there is no silence for me.

A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the director. On Mahalat Leanot. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. YHWH, Elohim of my salvation, by day I have cried out, by night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is sated with troubles, and my life has reached Sheol. I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength,

How long, YHWH, will I cry for help and you will not listen? I cry out to you, “Violence,” and you do not save. Why do you make me see wickedness, and you look on trouble? Devastation and violence are before me; and there is dispute, and strife rises up.

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely against me he turns back, he turns his hand all the day.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance have its complete work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.

And not only that, but we also boast in afflictions, knowing that affliction produces perseverance, and perseverance produces proven character, and proven character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

In this you rejoice greatly, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the testing of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus the Messiah;

And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations —therefore, so that I would not become conceited, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to beat me— so that I would not become conceited. About this three times I begged the Lord that it might depart from me. And he has said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for power is made complete in weakness.” So most gladly I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the power of the Messiah may dwell upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions and distresses, for the sake of the Messiah; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

and you have forgotten the encouragement that addresses you as sons: My son, do not think lightly of the discipline of the Lord, nor lose heart when you are rebuked by him; for the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves, and he flogs every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, in which all have become sharers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Besides, we had the fathers of our flesh as those who disciplined us, and we respected them; shall we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a few days as seemed best to them, but he does so for our good, so that we may share in his holiness. Now no discipline for the present seems to be a cause of joy, but of grief; but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

It is good for me that I was afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire among you, which comes upon you for a trial, as though something strange were happening to you, but insofar as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah, rejoice, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with great gladness.

Despised and rejected by men, a man of pains and acquainted with sickness; and like one from whom the face is hidden, despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our sicknesses he carried, and our pains he bore them; yet we considered him stricken, struck by Elohim and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the correction of our peace was upon him, and by his wound we were healed.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Let us draw near, then, with boldness to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

For to this you were called, because the Messiah also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth; who, when he was insulted, did not insult in return; when he suffered, did not threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly; who himself bore our sins in his body on the wooden beam, so that having died to sins we might live to righteousness; by whose wound you were healed.

And he takes Peter and James and John with him, and he began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he says to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” And going forward a little, he was falling on the ground and praying that if it is possible, the hour might pass from him. And he was saying, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you; take this cup away from me; yet not what I want, but what you want.”

to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings, being conformed to his death,

For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

Therefore we do not lose heart; but even if our outer person is wasting away, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us beyond all measure an eternal weight of glory, as we do not look at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made manifest in our body.

The word is trustworthy: For if we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Affliction, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written: For your sake we are being put to death all the day; we were counted as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in the Messiah Jesus our Lord.