Job 16–18

Job’s Reply

16Job replied,

²“I’ve heard many of those things before.

You are terrible at comforting me!

³Your speeches go on forever.

Won’t they ever end?

What’s wrong with you?

Why do you keep on arguing?

⁴If you and I changed places,

I could say the same things you are saying.

I could make fine speeches against you.

I could shake my head at you.

⁵But what I might say would give you hope.

My words of comfort would help you.

⁶“If I speak, it doesn’t help me.

And if I keep quiet, my pain doesn’t go away.

⁷God has worn me out completely.

He has destroyed my whole family.

⁸People can see the condition he has put me in.

My thin body stands as a witness against me.

⁹God is angry with me.

He attacks me and tears me up.

He grinds his teeth at me.

He stares at me as if he were my enemy.

¹⁰People make fun of me.

They slap my face and laugh at me.

All of them join together against me.

¹¹God has turned me over to sinful people.

He has handed me over to them.

¹²Everything was going well with me.

But he broke me into pieces like a clay pot.

He grabbed me by the neck and crushed me.

He has taken aim at me.

¹³He shoots his arrows at me from all sides.

Without pity, he stabs me in the kidneys.

He spills my insides on the ground.

¹⁴He smashes through me as if I were a wall.

He rushes at me like a fighting man.

¹⁵“I’ve sewed black cloth over my skin.

All I can do is sit here in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red from crying.

I have deep circles under my eyes.

¹⁷But I haven’t harmed anyone.

My prayers to God are pure.

¹⁸“Earth, please don’t cover up my blood!

May God always hear my cry for help!

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven.

The one who speaks up for me is there.

²⁰My go-between is my friend

as I pour out my tears to God.

²¹He makes his appeal to God to help me

as a man begs someone to help his friend.

²²“Only a few years will pass by.

Then I’ll go on a journey I won’t return from.

17My strength is almost gone.

I won’t live much longer.

A grave is waiting for me.

²People who make fun of me are all around me.

I’m forced to watch as they attack me with their words.

³“God, please pay the price to have me set free.

Who else would put up money for me?

⁴You have closed the minds of those who are trying to comfort me.

They don’t understand that I haven’t done anything wrong.

So don’t let them win the argument.

⁵Suppose a man tells lies about his friends to get a reward.

Then his own children will suffer for it.

⁶“God has made everyone laugh at me.

People spit in my face.

⁷My eyes have grown weak because I’m so sad.

My body is so thin it hardly casts a shadow.

⁸Those who claim to be honest

are shocked when they see me.

Those who think they haven’t sinned

are stirred up against me.

They think I’m ungodly.

⁹But godly people will keep doing what is right.

Those who have clean hands will grow stronger.

¹⁰“Come on, all of you! Try again!

I can’t find a wise person among you.

¹¹My life is almost over. My plans are destroyed.

And so are the longings of my heart.

¹²People like you turn night into day.

Even though it’s dark you say,

‘Light is nearby.’

¹³Suppose the only home I can hope for is a grave.

And suppose I make my bed in the darkness of death.

¹⁴Suppose I say to the grave,

‘You are like a father to me.’

And suppose I say to its worms,

‘You are like a mother or sister to me.’

¹⁵Then what hope do I have?

Who can give me any hope?

¹⁶Will hope go down to the gates of death with me?

Will we go down together into the dust of the grave?”

The Second Speech of Bildad

18Then Bildad the Shuhite replied,

²“Job, when will you stop these speeches of yours?

Be reasonable! Then we can talk.

³Why do you look at us as if we were cattle?

Why do you think of us as being stupid?

⁴Your anger is tearing you to pieces.

Does the earth have to be deserted just to prove you are right?

Must all of the rocks be moved from their places?

⁵“The lamps of sinful people are blown out.

Their flames will never burn again.

⁶The lights in their tents become dark.

The lamps beside those who are evil go out.

⁷They walk more slowly than they used to.

Their own evil plans make them fall.

⁸Their feet take them into a net.

They wander right into it.

⁹A trap grabs hold of their heels.

It refuses to let them go.

¹⁰A trap lies in their path.

A rope to catch them is hidden on the ground.

¹¹Terrors alarm them on every side.

They follow them every step of the way.

¹²Trouble would like to eat them up.

Danger waits for them when they fall.

¹³It eats away parts of their skin.

Death itself feeds on their arms and legs.

¹⁴They are torn away from the safety of their tents.

They are marched off to the one who rules over death.

¹⁵Fire races through their tents.

Burning sulfur is scattered over their homes.

¹⁶Their roots dry up under them.

Their branches dry up above them.

¹⁷No one on earth remembers them.

Their names are forgotten in the land.

¹⁸They are driven from light into darkness.

They are thrown out of the world.

¹⁹Their family dies out among their people.

No one is left where they used to live.

²⁰What has happened to them shocks the people in the west.

It terrifies the people in the east.

²¹Now you know what the homes of sinners are like.

Those who don’t know God live in places like that.”