Job 16–18

Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

16Then Job answered:

²I have heard many things like these.

You are all miserable comforters. ^x

³Is there no end to your empty ^yzwords?

What provokes you that you continue testifying?

⁴If you were in my place I could also talk like you.

I could string words together against you

and shake my head at you.

⁵Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,

and the consolation from my lips would bring relief. ^a

⁶Even if I speak, my suffering is not relieved,

and if I hold back, what have I lost?

⁷Surely He ^bhas now exhausted me.

You have devastated my entire family.

⁸You have shriveled me up ^c—it has become a witness;

My frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.

⁹His anger tears at me, and He harasses ^dme.

He gnashes His teeth at me.

My enemy pierces me with His eyes.

¹⁰They open their mouths against me

and strike my cheeks with contempt; ^e

they join themselves together against me.

¹¹God hands me over to unjust men; ^f

He throws me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, but He shattered me;

He seized me by the scruff of the neck

and smashed me to pieces.

He set me up as His target; ^g

¹³His archers ^hsurround me.

He pierces my kidneys without mercy

and pours my bile on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks through my defenses again and again; ⁱ

He charges at me like a warrior. ^j

¹⁵I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;

I have buried my strength ^kin the dust. ^l

¹⁶My face has grown red with weeping,

and darkness ^mcovers my eyes,

¹⁷although my hands are free from violence ⁿ

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸Earth, do not cover my blood;

may my cry for help find no resting place. ^o

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven,

and my advocate is in the heights! ^p

²⁰My friends scoff at me

as I weep before God.

²¹I wish that someone might arbitrate

between a man and God ^q

just as a man pleads for his friend.

²²For only a few years will pass

before I go the way of no return.

17My spirit is broken.

My days are extinguished.

A graveyard ^rawaits me.

²Surely mockers surround ^sme

and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion. ^t

³Make arrangements! Put up security for me. ^uv

Who else will be my sponsor? ^w

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding,

therefore You will not honor them.

⁵If a man informs on his friends for a price,

the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶He has made me an object of scorn to the people;

I have become a man people spit at. ^xy

⁷My eyes have grown dim from grief,

and my whole body has become but a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled ^zat this,

and the innocent are roused against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,

and the one whose hands are clean ^awill grow stronger.

¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you. ^b

I will not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My days have slipped by;

my plans have been ruined,

even the things dear to my heart.

¹²They turned night into day

and made light seem near in the face of darkness. ^c

¹³If I await Sheol as my home,

spread out my bed in darkness,

¹⁴and say to corruption: You are my father,

and to the maggot: My mother or my sister, ^d

¹⁵where then is my hope? ^e

Who can see any hope for me?

¹⁶Will it go down to the gates of Sheol, ^f

or will we descend together to the dust?

Bildad Speaks

18Then Bildad the Shuhite ^greplied:

²How long until you stop talking?

Show some sense, and then we can talk.

³Why are we regarded as cattle,

as stupid in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in anger ^h—

should the earth be abandoned on your account,

or a rock be removed from its place?

⁵Yes, the light ⁱof the wicked ^jis extinguished;

the flame of his fire does not glow.

⁶The light in his tent grows dark, ^k

and the lamp beside him is put out.

⁷His powerful stride is shortened,

and his own schemes trip him up. ^l

⁸For his own feet lead him into a net,

and he strays into its mesh.

⁹A trap catches him by the heel;

a noose seizes him.

¹⁰A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,

and a snare waits for him along the path.

¹¹Terrors frighten him on every side ^m

and harass him at every step.

¹²His strength is depleted;

disaster lies ready for him to stumble. ⁿ

¹³Parts of his skin are eaten away;

death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.

¹⁴He is ripped from the security of his tent

and marched away to the king of terrors.

¹⁵Nothing he owned remains in his tent.

Burning sulfur ^ois scattered over his home.

¹⁶His roots below dry up,

and his branches above wither away. ^p

¹⁷All memory ^qof him perishes from the earth;

he has no name anywhere. ^r

¹⁸He is driven from light to darkness

and chased from the inhabited world.

¹⁹He has no children or descendants among his people,

no survivor where he used to live. ^s

²⁰Those in the west are appalled ^tat his fate,

while those in the east tremble in horror.

²¹Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,

and this is the place of the one who does not know God. ^u