Job 16–18

Job’s Fifth Speech

16Then^a Job answered and said,

²“I have heard many things like these;

all of you are miserable comforters.^b

³Is there a limit to windy words?

What provokes you that you answer?

⁴I myself^c also could talk as you,

if you were in my place;^d

I could join against you with words,

and I could shake at you with my head.

⁵I could^e encourage you with my mouth,

and the solace of my lips would^f ease the pain.

⁶If I speak, my pain is not relieved;

and if I cease, how much will leave me?

⁷“Surely now he has worn me out;

you^g have devastated all my company.

⁸Thus^h you shriveled me up;ⁱ

it became a witness.

And my leanness has risen up against me;

it testifies to my face.

⁹His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me;

he gnashed at me with his teeth.

My foe sharpens his eyes against me.

¹⁰They gaped at me with their mouth;

they struck my cheeks with disgrace;

they have massed themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivers me to an evil one,

and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²“I was at ease, then^j he broke me in two,

and he seized me by my neck;

then^k he shattered me

and set me up as a target for him.

¹³His archers surround me;

he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion;

he pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breached me breach upon breach;^l

he rushes at me like a warrior.

¹⁵“I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,

and I have inserted my pride^m in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red because of weeping,

and deep shadows are on my eyelids,

¹⁷althoughⁿ violence is not on my hands,

and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, you should not cover my blood,

and let there be no place^o for my cry for help.

¹⁹So now look, my witness is in the heavens,

and he who vouches for me is in the heights.

²⁰My friends scorn me;

my eye pours out tears to God,

²¹and it argues^p for a mortal with God,

and as a human^q for his friend.

²²Indeed, after a few years^r have come,

then^s I will go the way from which I will not return.

Job’s Fifth Speech, Continued

17“My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;

the graveyard is for me.

²Surely^a mockery is with me,

and my eye rests^b on their provocation.

³Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;

who is he who will give security for my hand?^c

⁴Indeed,^d you have closed their mind from understanding;

therefore, you will not let them triumph.

⁵He denounces friends for reward,

so^e his children’s eyes will fail.

⁶“And he has made me a proverb for^f the peoples,

and I am one before whom people spit.^g

⁷And my eye has grown dim from grief,

and the limbs of my body are all^h like a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled at this,

and the innocent excites himself over the godless.

⁹Butⁱ the righteous holds on to his way,

and he who has clean hands^j increases in strength.

¹⁰But^k all of you must return^l—please come!^m

Butⁿ I shall not find a wise person among you.

¹¹“My days are past; my plans are broken down—

even the desires of my heart.

¹²They make night into day,

saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’^o

¹³If I hope for Sheol as my house,

if I spread my couch in the darkness,

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

to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or^p my sister,’

¹⁵where^q then is my hope?

And who will see my hope?^r

¹⁶Will they go down to the bars of Sheol?

Or shall we descend together into the dust?”

Bildad’s Second Speech

18Then^a Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

²“How long^b will you^c hunt for words?^d

Consider,^e and afterward we shall speak.

³Why are we considered as animals?

Why are we taken as^f stupid in your^g eyes?

⁴“You who are tearing yourself^h in yourⁱ anger,

will the earth be forsaken because of you?^j

Or^k will the rock be removed from its place?

⁵Furthermore,^l the light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire will not shine.

⁶The light becomes dark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

⁷“His strong steps^m are shortened,

and his own schemesⁿ throw him down,

⁸for he is thrust into a net by his feet,

and he walks into a pitfall.

⁹A trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare takes hold of him.

¹⁰His rope is hidden in the ground,

and his trap on the path.

¹¹“Sudden terrors terrify him all around,

and they chase him at his heels.

¹²His wealth will become hunger,

and disaster is ready for his stumbling.

¹³It consumes parts of his skin;

the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

¹⁴He is torn from his tent in which he trusted,^o

and it brought him to the king of terrors.

¹⁵“Nothing^p remains for him in his tent;

sulfur is scattered upon his dwelling place.

¹⁶His roots dry up below,^q

and its branches^r wither away above.^s

¹⁷His remembrance perishes from the earth,

and there is not a name for him on the street.

¹⁸“They thrust him from light into darkness,

and they drive him out from the world.

¹⁹There is no offspring for him nor^t a descendant among his people,

and there is not a survivor in his abode.

²⁰Those of the west are appalled over his fate,^u

and those of the east are seized with horror.^v

²¹Surely these are the dwellings of the godless,

and this is the dwelling place of him who knows not God.”