Job 17:1

17:1 My spirit is broken,

my days have faded out,

the grave awaits me.

Job 18:1-21

Bildad’s Second Speech

18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

18:2 “How long until you make an end of words?

You must consider, and then we can talk.

18:3 Why should we be regarded as beasts,

and considered stupid in your sight?

18:4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,

will the earth be abandoned for your sake?

Or will a rock be moved from its place?

18:5 “Yes, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished;

his flame of fire does not shine.

18:6 The light in his tent grows dark;

his lamp above him is extinguished.

18:7 His vigorous steps are restricted,

and his own counsel throws him down.

18:8 For he has been thrown into a net by his feet

and he wanders into a mesh.

18:9 A trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare grips him.

18:10 A rope is hidden for him on the ground

and a trap for him lies on the path.

18:11 Terrors frighten him on all sides

and dog his every step.

18:12 Calamity is hungry for him,

and misfortune is ready at his side.

18:13 It eats away parts of his skin;

the most terrible death devours his limbs.

18:14 He is dragged from the security of his tent,

and marched off to the king of terrors.

18:15 Fire resides in his tent;

over his residence burning sulfur is scattered.

18:16 Below his roots dry up,

and his branches wither above.

18:17 His memory perishes from the earth,

he has no name in the land.

18:18 He is driven from light into darkness

and is banished from the world.

18:19 He has neither children nor descendants among his people,

no survivor in those places he once stayed.

18:20 People of the west are appalled at his fate;

people of the east are seized with horror, saying,

18:21 ‘Surely such is the residence of an evil man;

and this is the place of one who has not known God.’”

Job 30:1-31

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much

to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2 Moreover, the strength of their hands –

what use was it to me?

Men whose strength had perished;

30:3 gaunt with want and hunger,

they would gnaw the parched land,

in former time desolate and waste.

30:4 By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes,

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

30:5 They were banished from the community

people shouted at them

like they would shout at thieves

30:6 so that they had to live

in the dry stream beds,

in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

30:7 They brayed like animals among the bushes

and were huddled together under the nettles.

30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people,

they were driven out of the land with whips.

Job’s Indignities

30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;

I have become a byword among them.

30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance;

they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11 Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me,

people throw off all restraint in my presence.

30:12 On my right the young rabble rise up;

they drive me from place to place,

and build up siege ramps against me.

30:13 They destroy my path;

they succeed in destroying me

without anyone assisting them.

30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;

amid the crash they come rolling in.

30:15 Terrors are turned loose on me;

they drive away my honor like the wind,

and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

Job’s Despondency

30:16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me;

days of suffering take hold of me.

30:17 Night pierces my bones;

my gnawing pains never cease.

30:18 With great power God grasps my clothing;

he binds me like the collar of my tunic.

30:19 He has flung me into the mud,

and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.

30:20 I cry out to you, but you do not answer me;

I stand up, and you only look at me.

30:21 You have become cruel to me;

with the strength of your hand you attack me.

30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it;

you toss me about in the storm.

30:23 I know that you are bringing me to death,

to the meeting place for all the living.

The Contrast With the Past

30:24 “Surely one does not stretch out his hand

against a broken man

when he cries for help in his distress.

30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?

Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

30:26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came;

when I expected light, then darkness came.

30:27 My heart is in turmoil unceasingly;

the days of my affliction confront me.

30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;

in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

30:29 I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me;

my body is hot with fever.

30:31 My harp is used for mourning

and my flute for the sound of weeping.