Beginning

17 ¶ My breath is corrupt, my days are cut off, and the grave is ready for me.

² Now there are only mockers with me, upon whose bitterness my eye continues to gaze.

³ Put up now, give me surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

⁴ For with these, thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore, thou shalt not exalt them.

⁵ He that speaks flattery to his neighbour, even the eyes of his sons shall fail.

⁶ He has made me a byword of the peoples; and before them I have been as a tambourine.

⁷ My eyes are dim by reason of sorrow, and all my thoughts are as a shadow.

⁸ Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

⁹ The righteous shall hold on to his way, and he that has clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ ¶ But return all of you, and come now; for I shall not find one that is wise among you.

¹¹ My days are past, my thoughts were broken off, even the purposes of my heart.

¹² They changed the night into day; the light is short because of the darkness.

¹³ If I wait, Sheol is my house; I have made my bed in the darkness.

¹⁴ I have said to the pit, Thou art my father; to the worms, my mother, and my sister.

¹⁵ And where shall my hope be now? As for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of Sheol, and together they shall rest in the dust.

18 ¶ Then Bildad, the Shuhite, answered and said,

² How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? Understand, and afterwards we will speak.

³ Why are we counted as beasts? Are we vile in your sight?

⁴ O thou that dost tear thy soul in thine anger; shall the earth be forsaken because of thee and shall the rocks be removed out of their place?

⁵ ¶ The light of the wicked shall certainly be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

⁶ The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his lamp shall be put out with him.

⁷ The steps of his strength shall be cut down, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

⁸ For a net shall be cast at his feet, and he shall walk upon a network.

⁹ The snare shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

¹⁰ The cord is hidden in the ground and a trap for him in the way.

¹¹ ¶ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and his own feet shall drive him away.

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

¹³ They shall devour the protection of his skin; the firstborn of death shall devour his members.

¹⁴ His confidence shall be rooted out of his tent, and he shall be brought to the king of terrors.

¹⁵ He shall dwell in his tent, as if it were not his; brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

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

¹⁷ His memory shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the streets.

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

¹⁹ He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any to succeed him in his dwellings.

²⁰ Those that come after him shall be dismayed at his day, as those that went before were overcome with fear.

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

19 ¶ And Job replied and said,

² How long will ye anguish my soul and break me in pieces with words?

³ These ten times ye have reproached me; are ye not ashamed to make yourselves strange to me?

⁴ And if indeed I have erred, my error shall remain with me.

⁵ If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me and reprove me of my reproach,

⁶ know now that God has overthrown me and has compassed me with his net.

⁷ Behold, I shall cry out that I have been wronged, and I shall not be heard; I shall cry aloud, and there shall be no judgment.

⁸ ¶ He has walled off my way and I shall not pass, and he has set darkness in my paths.

⁹ He has stripped me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰ He has pulled me up on every side, and I am dried up; he has caused my hope to pass like an uprooted tree.

¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me, and he counted me unto him as one of his enemies.

¹² His troops came together and raised up their way over me and encamp round about my tent.

¹³ He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances are verily estranged from me.

¹⁴ My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵ Those that dwell in my house and my maids have counted me for a stranger; I was an alien in their sight.

¹⁶ I called my slave, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

¹⁷ My spirit came to be strange to my wife, although I intreated her for the sons of my own body.

¹⁸ Even the young children despised me; as I arose, they spoke against me.

¹⁹ All my intimate friends abhorred me; and those whom I loved are turned against me.

²⁰ My bones cleave to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

²² Why do ye persecute me as God and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³ ¶ Oh, that my words were now written! Oh, that they were printed in a book!

²⁴ That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

²⁵ For I know that my redeemer lives and that he shall rise at the latter day over the dust;

²⁶ and afterward from this, my stricken skin and from my own flesh, I must see God:

²⁷ whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my kidneys be consumed within me.

²⁸ But ye should say, Why should we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in me?

²⁹ Be ye afraid of the sword; for the wrath of the sword comes because of the iniquities, that ye may know there is a judgment.

20 ¶ Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered and said,

² My thoughts certainly cause me to answer, and therefore, I make haste.

³ I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my intelligence causes me to answer.

⁴ Dost thou not know this that always was, since man was placed upon earth,

⁵ that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

⁶ Though his excellency mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches unto the clouds,

⁷ yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him shall say, What is become of him?

⁸ He shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found: yea, he shall flee away as a vision of the night.

⁹ The eye which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place behold him any more.

¹⁰ ¶ His poor sons shall go forth begging, and their hands shall restore that which he stole.

¹¹ His bones are full of the sins of his youth, which shall be buried with him in the dust.

¹² If wickedness was sweet in his mouth, if he hid it under his tongue,

¹³ if it seemed good unto him, and he did not forsake it, but savored it within his mouth,

¹⁴ his food shall be changed in his bowels, it shall be the gall of asps within him.

¹⁵ He has swallowed down riches, but he shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶ He shall suck the poison of asps; the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

¹⁷ He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

¹⁸ He shall restore the work that was not his; according to the substance that he took; neither shall he devour, nor rejoice.

¹⁹ Because he oppressed and forsook the poor; because he has violently taken away houses which he did not build,

²⁰ therefore, he shall not feel quietness in his belly; he shall not escape with that which he desired.

²¹ Nothing is left that he did not eat; therefore, his goods shall not last.

²² In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall come into anguish; the hands of all the wicked shall come upon him.

²³ ¶ When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him and shall rain it upon him and upon his food.

²⁴ He shall flee from the weapons of iron, and the bow of bronze shall strike him through.

²⁵ He shall draw forth an arrow from his quiver, and like lightning it shall strike through his gall; terrors shall come upon him.

²⁶ All darkness is kept for his secrets; a fire not blown shall consume him; his successor shall be broken in his tent.

²⁷ The heavens shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸ The increase of his house shall be taken captive; they shall be scattered in the day of his wrath.

²⁹ This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage that God appoints unto him by his word.