Beginning
17 My spirit is broken, my days are spent (snuffed out); the grave is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers and mockery around me, and my eye dwells on their obstinacy, insults, and resistance.
3 Give me a pledge with Yourself [acknowledge my innocence before my death]; who is there that will give security for me?
4 But their hearts [Lord] You have closed to understanding; therefore You will not let them triumph [by giving them a verdict against me].
5 He who denounces his friends [in order to make them] a prey and get a share, the eyes of his children shall fail [to find food].
6 But He has made me a byword among the people, and they spit before my face.
7 My eye has grown dim because of grief, and all my members are [wasted away] like a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonished and appalled at this, and the innocent shall stir himself up against the godless and polluted.
9 Yet shall the righteous (those upright and in right standing with God) hold to their ways, and he who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.(A)
10 But as for you, come on again, all of you, though I find not a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated; even the thoughts (desires and possessions) of my heart [are broken off].
12 These [thoughts] extend from the night into the day, [so that] the light is short because of darkness.
13 But if I look to Sheol (the unseen state) as my abode, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 If I say to the grave and corruption, You are my father, and to the worm [that feeds on decay], You are my mother and my sister [because I will soon be closest to you],
15 Where then is my hope? And if I have hope, who will see [its fulfillment]?
16 [My hope] shall go down to the bars of Sheol (the unseen state) when once there is rest in the dust.
18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
2 How long will you lay snares for words and have to hunt for your argument? Do some clear thinking, and then we will reply.
3 Why are we counted as beasts [as if we had no sense]? Why are we unclean in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?
5 Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the flame of his fire shall not shine.(B)
6 The light shall be dark in his dwelling, and his lamp beside him shall be put out.(C)
7 The steps of his strength shall be shortened, and his own counsel and the plans in which he trusted shall bring about his downfall.
8 For the wicked is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks upon a lattice-covered pit.
9 A trap will catch him by the heel, and a snare will lay hold on him.
10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side and shall chase him at his heels.
12 The strength [of the wicked] shall be hunger-bitten, and calamity is ready at his side [if he halts].
13 By disease his strength and his skin shall be devoured; the firstborn of death [the worst of diseases] shall consume his limbs.
14 He shall be rooted out of his dwelling place in which he trusted, and he shall be brought to the king of terrors [death].
15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his [family]; sulphur shall be scattered over his dwelling [to purify it after his going].
16 The roots [of the wicked] shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off and wither.
17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 He shall be thrust from light into darkness and driven out of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he sojourned.
20 They [of the west] that come after [the wicked man] shall be astonished and appalled at his day, as they [of the east] that went before were seized with horror.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, and such is the place of him who knows not (recognizes not and honors not) God.
19 Then Job answered:
2 How long will you vex and torment me and break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times you have reproached me; you are not ashamed that you make yourselves strange [harden yourselves against me and deal severely with me].
4 And if it were true that I have erred, my error would remain with me [I would be conscious of it].
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me and plead against me my reproach and humiliation,
6 Know that God has overthrown and put me in the wrong and has closed His net about me.
7 Behold, I cry out, Violence! but I am not heard; I cry aloud for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass, and He has set darkness upon my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope has He pulled up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His adversaries.
12 His troops come together and cast up their way and siege works against me and encamp round about my tent.
13 He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 Those who live temporarily in my house and my maids count me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer, though I beseech him with words.
17 I am repulsive to my wife and loathsome to the children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me; when I get up, they speak against me.
19 All the men of my council and my familiar friends abhor me; those whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me! Have pity on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you, as if you were God, pursue and persecute me? [Acting like wild beasts] why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh, that the words I now speak were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book [carved on a tablet of stone]!
24 That with an iron pen and [molten] lead they were graven in the rock forever!
25 For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth.(D)
26 And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,
27 Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me.
28 If you say, How we will pursue him! [and continue to persecute me with the claim] that the root [cause] of all these [afflictions] is found in me,
29 Then beware and be afraid of the sword [of divine vengeance], for wrathful are the punishments of that sword, that you may know there is a judgment.
20 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,
2 Therefore do my thoughts give me an answer, and I make haste [to offer it] for this reason.
3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame, but out of my understanding my spirit answers me.
4 Do you not know from of old, since the time that man was placed on the earth,
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless and defiled is but for a moment?(E)
6 Though his [proud] height mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches to the clouds,
7 Yet he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, Where is he?
8 He will fly away like a dream and will not be found; yes, he will be chased away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his [accustomed] place any more behold him.
10 The poor will oppress his children, and his hands will give back his [ill-gotten] wealth.
11 His bones are full of youthful energy, but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he is loath to let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,
14 Yet his food turns [to poison] in his stomach; it is the venom of asps within him.
15 He has swallowed down [his ill-gotten] riches, and he shall vomit them up again; God will cast them out of his belly.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps [which ill-gotten wealth contains]; the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
17 He shall not look upon the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter [to enjoy his wealth].
18 That which he labored for shall he give back and shall not swallow it down [to enjoy it]; according to his wealth shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice in it.
19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor; he has violently taken away a house which he did not build.
20 Because his desire and greed knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.
21 There was nothing left that he did not devour; therefore his prosperity will not endure.
22 In the fullness of his sufficiency [in the time of his great abundance] he shall be poor and in straits; every hand of everyone who is in misery shall come upon him [he is but a wretch on every side].
23 When he is about to fill his belly [as in the wilderness when God sent the quails], God will cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him and will rain it upon him while he is eating.(F)
24 He will flee from the iron weapon, but the bow of bronze shall strike him through.
25 [The arrow] is drawn forth and it comes out after passing through his body; yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors march in upon him;
26 Every misfortune is laid up for his treasures. A fire not blown by man shall devour him; it shall consume what is left in his tent [and it shall go ill with him who remains there].
27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The produce and increase of his house will go into exile [with the victors], dragged away in the day of [God’s] wrath.
29 This is the wicked man’s portion from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation