Job 16–18

Chapter 16

Job Says Friends Are Sorry Comforters

¹Then Job ¹answered,

²“I have heard many such things;

^1aSorry comforters are you all.

³“Is there no limit to ^awindy words?

Or what plagues you that you answer?

⁴“I too could speak like you,

If ¹I were in your place.

I could compose words against you

And ^ashake my head at you.

⁵“I could strengthen you with my mouth,

And the solace of my lips could lessen your pain.

Job Says God Shattered Him

⁶“If I speak, ^amy pain is not lessened,

And if I hold back, what has left me?

⁷“But now He has ^aexhausted me;

You have laid ^bwaste all my company.

⁸“You have shriveled me up,

^aIt has become a witness;

And my ^bleanness rises up against me,

It testifies to my face.

⁹“His anger has ^atorn me and ¹hunted me down,

He has ^bgnashed at me with His teeth;

My ^cadversary ²glares at me.

¹⁰“They have ^agaped at me with their mouth,

They have ^1bslapped me on the cheek with contempt;

They have ^cmassed themselves against me.

¹¹“God hands me over to ruffians

And tosses me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²“I was at ease, but ^aHe shattered me,

And He has grasped me by the neck and shaken me to pieces;

He has also set me up as His ^btarget.

¹³“His ^aarrows surround me.

Without mercy He splits my kidneys open;

He pours out ^bmy gall on the ground.

¹⁴“He ^abreaks through me with breach after breach;

He ^bruns at me like a warrior.

¹⁵“I have sewed ^asackcloth over my skin

And ^bthrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶“My face is flushed from ^aweeping,

^bAnd deep darkness is on my eyelids,

¹⁷Although there is no ^aviolence in my hands,

And ^bmy prayer is pure.

¹⁸“O earth, do not cover my blood,

And let there be no resting place for my cry.

¹⁹“Even now, behold, ^amy witness is in heaven,

And my ¹advocate is ^bon high.

²⁰“My friends are my scoffers;

^aMy eye ¹weeps to God.

²¹“O that a man might plead with God

As a man with his neighbor!

²²“For when a few years are past,

I shall go the way ^aof no return.

Chapter 17

Job Says He Has Become a Byword

¹“My spirit is broken, my days are extinguished,

The ^1agrave is ready for me.

²“^aSurely mockers are with me,

And my eye ¹gazes on their provocation.

³“Lay down, now, a pledge ^afor me with Yourself;

Who is there that will ¹be my guarantor?

⁴“For You have ^1akept their heart from understanding,

Therefore You will not exalt them.

⁵“He who ^ainforms against friends for a share of the spoil,

The ^beyes of his children also will languish.

⁶“But He has made me a ^abyword of the people,

And I am ¹one at whom men ^bspit.

⁷“My eye has also grown ^adim because of grief,

And all my ^bmembers are as a shadow.

⁸“The upright will be appalled at this,

And the ^ainnocent will stir up himself against the godless.

⁹“Nevertheless ^athe righteous will hold to his way,

And ^bhe who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰“But come again all of ¹you now,

For I ^ado not find a wise man among you.

¹¹“My ^adays are past, my plans are torn apart,

Even the wishes of my heart.

¹²“They make night into day, saying,

‘The light is near,’ in the presence of darkness.

¹³“If I look for ^aSheol as my home,

I ¹make my bed in the darkness;

¹⁴If I call to the ^apit, ‘You are my father’;

To the ^bworm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

¹⁵Where now is ^amy hope?

And who regards my hope?

¹⁶“¹Will it go down with me to Sheol?

Shall we together ^ago down into the dust?”

Chapter 18

Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite ¹responded,

²“How long will you hunt for words?

Show understanding and then we can talk.

³“Why are we ^aregarded as beasts,

As stupid in your eyes?

⁴“O ¹you who tear yourself in your anger—

For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,

Or the rock to be moved from its place?

⁵“Indeed, the ^alight of the wicked goes out,

And the ¹flame of his fire gives no light.

⁶“The light in his tent is ^adarkened,

And his lamp goes out above him.

⁷“His ¹vigorous stride is shortened,

And his ^aown scheme brings him down.

⁸“For he is ^athrown into the net by his own feet,

And he steps on the webbing.

⁹“A snare seizes him by the heel,

And a trap snaps shut on him.

¹⁰“A noose for him is hidden in the ground,

And a trap for him on the path.

¹¹“All around ^aterrors frighten him,

And ^bharry him at every step.

¹²“His strength is ^afamished,

And calamity is ready at his side.

¹³“¹His skin is devoured by disease,

The firstborn of death ^adevours his ²limbs.

¹⁴“He is ^atorn from ¹the security of his tent,

And ²they march him before the king of ^bterrors.

¹⁵“¹There dwells in his tent nothing of his;

^aBrimstone is scattered on his habitation.

¹⁶“His ^aroots are dried below,

And his ^bbranch is cut off above.

¹⁷“^aMemory of him perishes from the earth,

And he has no name abroad.

¹⁸“¹He is driven from light ^ainto darkness,

And ^bchased from the inhabited world.

¹⁹“He has no ^aoffspring or posterity among his people,

Nor any survivor where he sojourned.

²⁰“Those ¹in the west are appalled at ^ahis ²fate,

And those ³in the east are seized with horror.

²¹“Surely such are the ^adwellings of the wicked,

And this is the place of him who does not know God.”