Beginning
Hope in Sheol?
17 “My spirit is broken, my days have cut short,
the graveyard awaits me.
2 Surely mockers are with me,
my eyes must gaze on their hostility.
3 “Make then a pledge for me with You.
Who else would strike hands with me?
4 Because You have closed their heart to understanding,
therefore You will not exalt them.
5 If anyone denounces his friends for profit
the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me a byword to people,
I am the one in whose face people spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief
and all my limbs are like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this;
the innocent are stirred up against the ungodly.
9 But the righteous one holds to his way,
and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
10 “But turn, all of you, come now!
I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have passed, my plans are torn apart.
Yet the desires of my heart
12 turn night into day;
in the face of darkness light is near.
13 If I hope for Sheol as my home,
if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
And my hope, who sees it?
16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol?
Will we descend together into the dust?”
Bildad Rebukes Job
18 Then, Bildad the Shuhite replied, saying:
2 “How long until you end these words?
Consider, and then we will talk.
3 Why are we regarded as beasts,
and stupid in your eyes?
4 You, who tear yourself to pieces in anger,
will the earth be abandoned for your sake?
Or must a rock be moved from its place?
5 Indeed, the light of the wicked is snuffed out;
the flame of his fire does not shine.
6 The light in his tent grows dark;
the lamp above him goes out.
7 His vigorous stride is shortened,
and his own scheme throws him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his feet;
he wanders into its mesh.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare holds him fast.
10 A rope is hidden for him on the ground,
and a trap for him lies on the path.
11 On every side terrors frighten him
and harass his every step.
12 Calamity is hungry for him;
disaster is ready for his fall.
13 It eats away pieces of his skin;
death’s firstborn devours his limbs.
14 He is torn from the security of his tent,
and marched off to the king of terrors.
15 Nothing of his dwells in his tent;
brimstone is scattered over his dwelling.
16 Below his roots dry up,
and above his branches wither.
17 His memory perishes from the earth
and he has no name in the land.
18 He is driven from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.
19 He has no offspring or descendant among his people,
no survivor where he once dwelt.
20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;
people of the east are seized with horror.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”
Job: Have Pity on Me
19 Job responded, saying:
2 “How long will you torment my soul
and crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have reproached me;
you attack me shamelessly.
4 But even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and prove my humiliation against me,
6 then know that God has wronged me
and encircled me with His net.
7 “Though I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I get no response.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass,
and has shrouded my path in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor,
and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side until I am gone;
He uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me,
and He considers me among His enemies.
12 His troops advance together;
they build a siege ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 “He removed my brothers far from me;
my acquaintances are only strangers to me.
14 My relatives have gone away and my close friends
have forgotten me.
15 My houseguests and my maidservants consider me a stranger.
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call my servant but he does not reply
though I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my children.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I stand, they speak against me.[a]
19 All my close friends despise me;
those I love have turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and my flesh;
I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.
21 “Have pity on me my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
22 Why do you pursue me—like God?
Are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were written,
that they were recorded in a scroll
24 that with an iron pen and lead,
they were engraved in stone forever!
My Redeemer Lives!
25 “Yet I know that my Redeemer lives,
and in the end, He will stand on earth.
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;[b]
27 I myself will see Him with my own eyes,
I and not a stranger.
My heart[c] grows weak within me.
28 “If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,
since the root of the matter is found in him;’
29 then you should fear the sword for yourselves;
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword—
so that you may know judgment!”
Zophar: Death and Hell for the Wicked
20 Then Zophar the Naamathite responded and said:
2 “In truth, my troubled thoughts urge me to answer
because of my feelings within me.
3 I hear a rebuke that dishonors me
and my understanding inspires me to reply.
4 Do you not know that it has been from old,
since mankind was put on earth,
5 that the triumph of the wicked is short
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
6 Though his pride reaches to the heavens,
and his head touches the clouds,
7 he perishes forever like his own dung.
Those who have seen him will say,
‘Where is he?’
8 Like a dream, he flies away
and they cannot find him;
like a vision of the night,
he is chased away.
9 The eye that saw him will not see him again;
his place will look on him no more.
10 His children must recompense the poor;
his own hands must give back his wealth.
11 His bones were full of his youthful vigor
but it will lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
though he hides it under his tongue,
13 though he cannot bear to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,
14 his food turns sour in his stomach;
it becomes the venom of serpents within him.
15 He swallows riches and vomits them up;
God empties it out of his stomach.
16 He sucks the poison of serpents;
fangs of a viper kill him.
17 He will not look at streams,
rivers flowing with honey and butter.
18 He gives back what he toiled for without swallowing it;
he will not enjoy the riches of his trade.
19 For he has oppressed and abandoned the poor.
He has seized a house he did not build.
20 For he knows no satisfaction from his greed,
he cannot save himself by his desires.
21 Nothing remains for him to devour;
therefore his prosperity will not last.
22 In the fullness of his plenty, he will be distressed;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
23 While he is filling his belly,
He will send the anger of His wrath against him,
and rain it down it on him, on his flesh.
24 Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze bow pierces him through.
25 He pulls and it comes out of his back,
the gleaming point out of his liver.
Terrors come upon him!
26 Total darkness waits for his treasures;
A fire not fanned will devour him;
it will consume what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his iniquity;
the earth will rise up against him.
28 A flood will carry off his house,
rushing waters on the day of His wrath.
29 Such is the wicked man’s lot from God,
the heritage appointed to him by God.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.