Job 18:1--20:29

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’s Reply to Bildad

19:1 Then Job answered:

19:2 “How long will you torment me

and crush me with your words?

19:3 These ten times you have been reproaching me;

you are not ashamed to attack me!

19:4 But even if it were true that I have erred,

my error remains solely my concern!

19:5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me

and plead my disgrace against me,

19:6 know then that God has wronged me

and encircled me with his net.

Job’s Abandonment and Affliction

19:7 “If I cry out, ‘Violence!’

I receive no answer;

I cry for help,

but there is no justice.

19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass,

and has set darkness over my paths.

19:9 He has stripped me of my honor

and has taken the crown off my head.

19:10 He tears me down on every side until I perish;

he uproots my hope like one uproots a tree.

19:11 Thus his anger burns against me,

and he considers me among his enemies.

19:12 His troops advance together;

they throw up a siege ramp against me,

and they camp around my tent.

Job’s Forsaken State

19:13 “He has put my relatives far from me;

my acquaintances only turn away from me.

19:14 My kinsmen have failed me;

my friends have forgotten me.

19:15 My guests and my servant girls

consider me a stranger;

I am a foreigner in their eyes.

19:16 I summon my servant, but he does not respond,

even though I implore him with my own mouth.

19:17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;

I am loathsome to my brothers.

19:18 Even youngsters have scorned me;

when I get up, they scoff at me.

19:19 All my closest friends detest me;

and those whom I love have turned against me.

19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh;

I have escaped alive with only the skin of my teeth.

19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,

for the hand of God has struck me.

19:22 Why do you pursue me like God does?

Will you never be satiated with my flesh?

Job’s Assurance of Vindication

19:23 “O that my words were written down,

O that they were written on a scroll,

19:24 that with an iron chisel and with lead

they were engraved in a rock forever!

19:25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

and that as the last

he will stand upon the earth.

19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed,

yet in my flesh I will see God,

19:27 whom I will see for myself,

and whom my own eyes will behold,

and not another.

My heart grows faint within me.

19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,

since the root of the trouble is found in him!’

19:29 Fear the sword yourselves,

for wrath brings the punishment by the sword,

so that you may know

that there is judgment.”

Zophar’s Second Speech

20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:

20:2 “This is why my troubled thoughts bring me back –

because of my feelings within me.

20:3 When I hear a reproof that dishonors me,

then my understanding prompts me to answer.

20:4 “Surely you know that it has been from old,

ever since humankind was placed on the earth,

20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief,

the joy of the godless lasts but a moment.

20:6 Even though his stature reaches to the heavens

and his head touches the clouds,

20:7 he will perish forever, like his own excrement;

those who used to see him will say, ‘Where is he?’

20:8 Like a dream he flies away, never again to be found,

and like a vision of the night he is put to flight.

20:9 People who had seen him will not see him again,

and the place where he was

will recognize him no longer.

20:10 His sons must recompense the poor;

his own hands must return his wealth.

20:11 His bones were full of his youthful vigor,

but that vigor will lie down with him in the dust.

20:12 “If evil is sweet in his mouth

and he hides it under his tongue,

20:13 if he retains it for himself

and does not let it go,

and holds it fast in his mouth,

20:14 his food is turned sour in his stomach;

it becomes the venom of serpents within him.

20:15 The wealth that he consumed he vomits up,

God will make him throw it out of his stomach.

20:16 He sucks the poison of serpents;

the fangs of a viper kill him.

20:17 He will not look on the streams,

the rivers, which are the torrents

of honey and butter.

20:18 He gives back the ill-gotten gain

without assimilating it;

he will not enjoy the wealth from his commerce.

20:19 For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them;

he has seized a house which he did not build.

20:20 For he knows no satisfaction in his appetite;

he does not let anything he desires escape.

20:21 “Nothing is left for him to devour;

that is why his prosperity does not last.

20:22 In the fullness of his sufficiency,

distress overtakes him.

the full force of misery will come upon him.

20:23 “While he is filling his belly,

God sends his burning anger against him,

and rains down his blows upon him.

20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon,

then an arrow from a bronze bow pierces him.

20:25 When he pulls it out and it comes out of his back,

the gleaming point out of his liver,

terrors come over him.

20:26 Total darkness waits to receive his treasures;

a fire which has not been kindled

will consume him

and devour what is left in his tent.

20:27 The heavens reveal his iniquity;

the earth rises up against him.

20:28 A flood will carry off his house,

rushing waters on the day of God’s wrath.

20:29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked,

and the heritage of his appointment from God.”