Job 16–18

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

16Then Job answered and said:

²“I have heard ^emany such things;

^fmiserable comforters are you all.

³Shall ^gwindy words have an end?

Or what provokes you that you answer?

⁴I also could speak as you do,

if you were in my place;

I could join words together against you

and ^hshake my head at you.

⁵I could strengthen you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,

and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?

⁷Surely now God has worn me out;

ⁱhe has¹ made desolate all my company.

⁸And he has shriveled me up,

which is ^ja witness against me,

and my ^kleanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

⁹He has ^ltorn me in his wrath ^mand hated me;

he has ⁿgnashed his teeth at me;

my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰Men have ^ogaped at me with their mouth;

they have ^pstruck me insolently on the cheek;

they ^qmass themselves together against me.

¹¹God gives me up to the ungodly

and casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart;

he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;

he set me up as his ^rtarget;

¹³his ^sarchers surround me.

He slashes open my kidneys ^tand does not spare;

he ^upours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with ^vbreach upon breach;

he ^wruns upon me like a warrior.

¹⁵I have sewed ^xsackcloth upon my skin

and have laid ^ymy strength ^zin the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping,

and on my eyelids is ^adeep darkness,

¹⁷although there is no ^bviolence in my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, ^ccover not my blood,

and let my ^dcry find no resting place.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my ^ewitness is in heaven,

and he who testifies for me is ^fon high.

²⁰My friends ^gscorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

²¹that he would ^hargue the case of a man with God,

as² a son of man does with his neighbor.

²²For when a few years have come

I shall go the way ⁱfrom which I shall not return.

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17“My spirit is broken; my days are ^jextinct;

^kthe graveyard is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their ^lprovocation.

³“Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up ^msecurity for me?

⁴Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—

the ⁿeyes of his children will fail.

⁶“He has made me ^oa byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

⁷My ^peye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like ^qa shadow.

⁸The upright are ^rappalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has ^sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But you, ^tcome on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My ^udays are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

¹²They ^vmake night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’¹

¹³If I hope for ^wSheol as ^xmy house,

if I make my bed in darkness,

¹⁴if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope?

Who will see my hope?

¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of ^wSheol?

Shall we ^ydescend together ^zinto the dust?”²

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18Then ^aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“How long will you ^bhunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

³Why are we counted as ^ccattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight?

⁴You who ^dtear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or ^ethe rock be removed out of its place?

⁵“Indeed, ^fthe light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

⁶The light is ^gdark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

⁷His strong steps are shortened,

and his ^hown schemes throw him down.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet,

and he walks on its mesh.

⁹ⁱA trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

¹⁰A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

^11jTerrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength is famished,

and calamity is ^kready for his stumbling.

¹³It consumes the parts of his skin;

^lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

¹⁴He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to ^mthe king of terrors.

¹⁵In his tent dwells that which is none of his;

ⁿsulfur is scattered over his habitation.

¹⁶His ^oroots dry up beneath,

and his branches ^pwither above.

¹⁷His ^qmemory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

^18rHe is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

¹⁹He has no ^sposterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

²⁰They of the west are appalled at his ^tday,

and ^uhorror seizes them of the east.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

such is the place of him who ^vknows not God.”