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Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

“How long will you hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we shall speak.
Why are we counted as cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?(A)
You who tear yourself in your anger—
    shall the earth be forsaken because of you
    or the rock be removed out of its place?(B)

“Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of their fire does not shine.(C)
The light is dark in their tent,
    and the lamp above them is put out.
Their strong steps are shortened,
    and their own schemes throw them down.(D)
For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
    and they walk into a pitfall.(E)
A trap seizes them by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of them.(F)
10 A rope is hid for them in the ground,
    a trap for them in the path.(G)
11 Terrors frighten them on every side
    and chase them at their heels.(H)
12 Their strength is consumed by hunger,[a]
    and calamity is ready for their stumbling.(I)
13 By disease their skin is consumed;[b]
    the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
14 They are torn from the tent in which they trusted
    and are brought to the king of terrors.(J)
15 In their tents nothing remains;
    sulfur is scattered upon their habitations.(K)
16 Their roots dry up beneath,
    and their branches wither above.(L)
17 Their memory perishes from the earth,
    and they have no name in the street.(M)
18 They are thrust from light into darkness
    and driven out of the world.
19 They have no offspring or descendant among their people
    and no survivor where they used to live.(N)
20 They of the west are appalled at their fate,
    and horror seizes those of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly;
    such is the place of those who do not know God.”(O)

Job Replies: I Know That My Vindicator Lives

19 Then Job answered:

“How long will you torment me
    and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
    are you not ashamed to wrong me?
And even if it is true that I have erred,
    my error remains with me.(P)
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
    and make my humiliation an argument against me,(Q)
know then that God has put me in the wrong
    and closed his net around me.(R)
Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
    I call aloud, but there is no justice.(S)
He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
    and he has set darkness upon my paths.(T)
He has stripped my glory from me
    and taken the crown from my head.(U)
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
    he has uprooted my hope like a tree.(V)
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
    and counts me as his adversary.(W)
12 His troops come on together;
    they have thrown up siegeworks[c] against me
    and encamp around my tent.(X)

13 “He has put my family far from me,
    and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
15     the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
    I have become an alien in their eyes.(Y)
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
    I must myself plead with him.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
    I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me;
    when I rise, they talk against me.(Z)
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
    and those whom I love have turned against me.(AA)
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
    and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.(AB)
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
    for the hand of God has touched me!(AC)
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
    never satisfied with my flesh?(AD)

23 “O that my words were written down!
    O that they were inscribed in a book!(AE)
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead
    they were engraved on a rock forever!(AF)
25 For I know that my vindicator[d] lives
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;(AG)
26 and after my skin has been destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,(AH)
27 whom I shall see on my side,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!(AI)
28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
    and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’(AJ)
29 be afraid of the sword,
    for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
    so that you may know there is a judgment.”(AK)

Footnotes

  1. 18.12 Or Disaster is hungry for them
  2. 18.13 Cn: Heb It consumes the limbs of his skin
  3. 19.12 Cn: Heb their way
  4. 19.25 Or redeemer