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Bildad Speaks Again

18 Bildad from Shuah replied, saying:

“When are you going to stop your word hunt?
    Think first, and then we can talk.
Why do you think we’re like dumb animals?
    Do you think we’re stupid?
You’re tearing yourself to pieces in your anger.
    Will the land be abandoned because of you,
        or the rock be moved from its place?”

The Wicked are Trapped

“Indeed, the light of the wicked is extinguished;
    the flame from his fire doesn’t shine.
Light in his tent is dark,
    and his lamp goes out above him.
His strong steps are restricted,
    and his own advice trips him up.

“For he has stumbled into a net with his own feet;
    he walked right into the network!
The trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare tightens its hold on him.
10 A rope lies hidden in the dirt;
    a trap lies[a] waiting for him where he is walking.”

The Wicked Perish without Descendants

11 “He is petrified by terror that surrounds him on all sides;
    they chase at his heels.
12 He is starved for strength;
    and is ripe for a fall.
13 Something gnaws on his skin;
    a deadly disease[b] consumes his limbs.
14 Torn from the security of his home,[c]
    he is brought before the king of terrors.

15 “There’s nothing in his tent that belongs to him;
    sulfur is scattered all over his dwelling place.
16 His roots wither underneath,
    while his branches above are being cut off.
17 No one remembers him anywhere in the land;
    no one names streets in his honor.
18 He is driven away from light to darkness,
    made to wander the landscape.
19 He has no children or descendants within his own people;
    and no survivors where he once lived.
20 People[d] who live west of him are appalled at his fate;[e]
    those who live east of him are seized with terror.
21 Indeed, the residences of the wicked are like this;
    and so are the homes of those who don’t know God.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 18:10 The Heb. lacks lies
  2. Job 18:13 Lit. a firstborn of death
  3. Job 18:14 Lit. tent
  4. Job 18:20 The Heb. lacks people
  5. Job 18:20 Lit. at his day

18 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.

14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.