Job 18

18Job, can’t people like you ever be quiet?

If you stopped to listen, we could talk to you.

³What makes you think we are as stupid as cattle?

⁴You are only hurting yourself with your anger.

Will the earth be deserted because you are angry?

Will God move mountains to satisfy you?

^5*The light of the wicked will still be put out;

its flame will never burn again.

^6*The lamp in their tents will be darkened.

⁷Their steps were firm, but now they stumble;

they fall—victims of their own advice.

⁸They walk into a net, and their feet are caught;

⁹a trap catches their heels and holds them.

¹⁰On the ground a snare is hidden;

a trap has been set in their path.

¹¹All round them terror is waiting;

it follows them at every step.

¹²They used to be rich, but now they go hungry;

disaster stands and waits at their side.

¹³A deadly disease spreads over their bodies

and causes their arms and legs to rot.

¹⁴They are torn from the tents where they lived secure,

and are dragged off to face King Death.

¹⁵Now anyone may live in their tents—^k

after sulphur is sprinkled to disinfect them!^l

¹⁶Their roots and branches are withered and dry.

¹⁷Their fame is ended at home and abroad;

no one remembers them any more.

¹⁸They will be

driven out of the land of the living, driven from light into darkness.

¹⁹They have no descendants, no survivors.

²⁰From east to west, all who hear of their fate

shudder and tremble with fear.

²¹That is the fate of wicked people,

the fate of those who care nothing for God.