Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked
1 Then aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you bhunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
3 Why are we counted as ccattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4 You who dtear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or ethe rock be removed out of its place?
5 “Indeed, fthe light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6 The light is gdark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
7 His strong steps are shortened,
and his hown schemes throw him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
9 iA trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
11 jTerrors frighten him on every side,
and chase him at his heels.
12 His strength is famished,
and calamity is kready for his stumbling.
13 It consumes the parts of his skin;
lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14 He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
and is brought to mthe king of terrors.
15 In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
nsulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16 His oroots dry up beneath,
and his branches pwither above.
17 His qmemory perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the street.
18 rHe is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19 He has no sposterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
20 They of the west are appalled at his tday,
and uhorror seizes them of the east.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who vknows not God.”
Job Replies: My Redeemer Lives
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
3 These wten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
4 And even if it be true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you xmagnify yourselves against me
and make my disgrace an argument against me,
6 know then that God has yput me in the wrong
and closed his net about me.
7 Behold, I zcry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has awalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
9 He has bstripped from me my glory
and taken the ccrown from my head.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I dam gone,
and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.
11 He has kindled his wrath against me
and ecounts me as his adversary.
12 His ftroops come on together;
they have gcast up their siege ramp1 against me
and encamp around my tent.
13 “He has put my hbrothers far from me,
and ithose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
14 My relatives jhave failed me,
my close kfriends have forgotten me.
15 The guests lin my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;
I have become a foreigner in their eyes.
16 I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.
17 My breath is strange to my mwife,
and I am a stench to the children of nmy own mother.
18 Even young ochildren despise me;
when I rise they talk against me.
19 All my pintimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My qbones stick to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has rtouched me!
22 Why do you, like God, spursue me?
Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?
23 “Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were tinscribed in a book!
24 Oh that with an iron upen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever!
25 For I vknow that my wRedeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the xearth.2
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in3 my flesh I shall ysee God,
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not zanother.
My heart afaints within me!
28 If you say, ‘How we will spursue him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’4
29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
that you may know there is ba judgment.”
