Beginning
Job continues to speak
17 I am very weak and I will soon die.
Then my friends will bury me in my grave.
2 All around me, people are laughing at me.
I have to watch them as they insult me.
3 God, please help me to become free again.
Nobody else will pay the price to do that for me.
4 You have stopped my friends from thinking properly.
So do not allow them to win the argument.
5 People may turn against their friends
to get things for themselves.
If they do that, their children should become blind.
6 You have caused people to insult me,
like that proverb says.
People even spit at my face.
7 I have cried so much that my eyes have become weak.
My body is so thin that I am like a shadow.
8 Good people are upset,
when they see what is happening to me.
They are angry with those who turn away from you.
9 Righteous people continue to do things that are right.
People who do good things become stronger.
10 But you, my friends, come here!
Try again to help me, all of you!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 I will not live for many more days.
I will never do the things that I wanted to do.
12 My friends say, “It is day”,
when it is still night.
They do not know the difference between light and dark.
13 The only home that I hope to go to is my grave.
I will lie down to sleep there in the dark.
14 I will say to the grave,
“You are my father.”
I will say to the worms that eat me,
“Hello, my mother. Hello, my sister.”
15 I can hope for nothing that is better than that.
No one can find anything better for me.
16 When I go to the world of dead people,
all my hope will have finished.
Everything that I had hoped for will lie with me in the dust.’
Bildad speaks to Job again[a]
18 Then Bildad, the man from Shuah, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘You should not continue to talk like that!
Stop and think carefully. Then we can talk.
3 You should not think that we are as foolish as cows.
4 You are so angry that you are hurting yourself.
You will never change the way that things happen in the world.
Your anger will not cause the earth to shake,
or any rocks to move from their places.
What happens to wicked people
5 The light of a wicked person's life will stop shining.
His fire will no longer burn brightly.
6 His tent will be dark.
The lamp that gives him light will stop burning.
7 Once he was strong
but now his legs are weak.
His own ideas cause him to fall down.
8 He does not know where he is going
and he walks into a dangerous trap.
9 A trap catches his foot
and he cannot move.
10 Someone has hidden a rope on the ground.
It catches him as he walks along.
11 Everywhere a wicked person goes,
things frighten him.
He cannot escape from them.
12 Now he is hungry
and his strength has disappeared.
Terrible trouble is ready to take hold of him
whenever it has the chance.
13 A bad disease eats his skin.
It causes his arms and his legs to become useless
and he dies.
14 Then he has to leave his tent
where he had lived safely.
He will have to meet the terrible king of death.
15 Other people will live in his tent.
They have used sulphur to burn all his things.[b]
16 He is like a tree whose roots have become dry,
and its branches have fallen off.
17 Nobody remembers that he ever lived.
They have forgotten his name.
18 The wicked person has had to leave this world.
He has gone from a place where there is light
to a place where it is dark.
19 He has no children or grandchildren.
He has no family to live in his home.
20 All people are very upset
when they see what has happened to him.
Wherever they live,
they are very upset.
21 I know that this is what happens to the homes of evil people.
It happens to people who turn away from God.’
Job replies to Bildad[c]
19 Then Job replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘Please stop speaking to me like that!
Your words continue to make me suffer.
3 You have insulted me many, many times.
You should be ashamed to attack me like that.
4 I might have done things that are wrong.
But even if that might be true,
those wrong things have not hurt you.
5 You think that you are better people than I am.
Because I have all these troubles,
you say that I must be guilty.
6 But you should realize that God has caused all my troubles.
He is the one who has caught me in his trap.
7 If I shout, “Help me, I am in trouble!”
nobody answers me.
I shout to get help,
but nobody comes to give me justice.
8 God has stopped me
so that I cannot move forward.
He has made my path dark
so that I cannot see the way to go.
9 He has taken away my honour
so that nobody respects me.
10 Everywhere that I go, God is there to attack me.
He is ready to destroy me.
He has taken away my hope,
as if he has dug a tree out of the ground.
11 He is very angry against me.
He attacks me as if I am his enemy.
12 His whole army is coming to attack me!
They build a road so that they can reach me.
They are all around me.
13 God has caused my brothers to stay away from me.
My friends do not want to meet me.
14 My relatives have left me.
My best friends have forgotten me.
15 Visitors who stayed in my house
now think that I am a stranger.
Even my servants think that I am a foreigner.
16 I tell my servant to come to me
but he does not come.
I ask him to help me,
but he does nothing.
17 My wife moves away from the smell of my breath.
My brothers stay away from me.
18 Even young children insult me.
When I stand up, they laugh at me.
19 My best friends hate me.
People that I love have turned against me.
20 My body is now only skin and bones.
I still breathe but I am only just alive.
21 Please be kind to me, my friends.
God has caused me to suffer,
so please be kind to me.
22 Do not punish me as God is punishing me.
You have already caused me to suffer enough.
23 Someone should write down the words that I speak.
My words should be written on a scroll.
24 If someone uses an iron tool to write them on a rock,
that would be good.
Then they would never disappear.
25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.[d]
I know that, in the end, he will stand on the earth.
26 Illness may completely destroy my skin.
But after that happens,
I know that in this body I will see God.
27 I will see him for myself,
with my own eyes.
It makes me feel weak inside as I think about it!
28 My friends, you should not think of ways to make me suffer even more.
You say that I have caused my own trouble.
29 Instead, you yourselves should be afraid of punishment!
When God is angry with someone,
he punishes that person.
Then you will know that he is the one who judges people.’
Zophar speaks to Job again[e]
20 Then Zophar replied to Job. This is what he said:
2 ‘I am very upset by the things that you have said.
So I must say more to answer you.
3 You have said things that insult me.
But now I know how to reply to you.
4 I am sure that you know this fact.
It has been true from long ago,
since people first lived on the earth.
5 You know that a wicked person is only happy for a short time.
His joy continues only for a moment.
6 He may think that he is more important than other people.
He may be proud of the honour that he receives.
7 But he will disappear for ever,
like dung that people throw away.
His friends will ask, “Where is he?”
8 He will disappear like a dream that quickly goes away.
Nobody can find him any more.
9 People who knew him will never see him again.
His family will no longer recognize him.
10 His children will have to give things back to poor people.
Those are the valuable things that he took from them.
11 He still had the strength of a young man.
But his strength will die with him when he lies in his grave.
12 He enjoys the wicked things that he does.
They are like something sweet in his mouth.
13 He continues to enjoy wicked things,
like the taste of sweet food that he keeps in his mouth.
14 But those things will become poison that hurts him.
Like bitter food that goes into his stomach.
15 Like a person who is sick and loses the food from his stomach,
God will cause the wicked person to lose all his riches.
16 He will drink the poison of snakes.
A dangerous snake will bite him and it will kill him.
17 He will never enjoy the good things that the earth provides.
He will not enjoy the honey and milk which pours out like rivers of water.
18 He will have to give back everything that he owned.
He will not enjoy the things that he has worked for.
19 This will happen because he has been cruel to poor people.
He has refused to help them.
He has taken houses for himself that do not belong to him.
20 He will always want to have more things for himself.
He takes anything that he wants to have.
21 Now nothing remains for him to take.
So his riches will come to an end.
22 When he has everything that he wants,
trouble suddenly comes to him.
23 When he is filling himself with good food,
God will punish him.
God will be very angry with him.
God will attack the wicked person so that he suffers.
24 He may escape from a soldier who has an iron sword.
But then a soldier will shoot a bronze arrow into him.
25 He pulls the arrow out of his back.
His blood makes its sharp point shine brightly.
He is very afraid.
26 All his riches disappear in the dark.
God will send a fire to destroy him.
It will destroy all his things that remain.
27 The heavens will show that he is guilty.
People on earth will speak against him.
28 A flood will destroy his house
and everything that he has.
That will happen on the day when God punishes people
because he is angry with them.
29 That is how God punishes wicked people.
God has decided to punish them as they deserve.’
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