Job 18

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.”