Bildad Speaks of the Wicked

1Then Bildad the Shuhite responded,

2“How long will you hunt for words?

Show understanding and then we can talk.

3Why are we regarded as beasts,

As stupid in your eyes?

4O you 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 light of the wicked goes out,

And the flame of his fire gives no light.

6The light in his tent is darkened,

And his lamp goes out above him.

7His vigorous stride is shortened,

And his own scheme brings him down.

8For he is thrown into the net by his own feet,

And he steps on the webbing.

9A snare seizes him by the heel,

And a trap snaps shut on him.

10A noose for him is hidden in the ground,

And a trap for him on the path.

11All around terrors frighten him,

And harry him at every step.

12His strength is famished,

And calamity is ready at his side.

13His skin is devoured by disease,

The firstborn of death devours his limbs.

14He is torn from the security of his tent,

And they march him before the king of terrors.

15There dwells in his tent nothing of his;

Brimstone is scattered on his habitation.

16His roots are dried below,

And his branch is cut off above.

17Memory of him perishes from the earth,

And he has no name abroad.

18He is driven from light into darkness,

And chased from the inhabited world.

19He has no offspring or posterity among his people,

Nor any survivor where he sojourned.

20Those in the west are appalled at his fate,

And those in the east are seized with horror.

21Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,

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

Job Feels Insulted

1Then Job responded,

2“How long will you torment me

And crush me with words?

3These ten times you have insulted me;

You are not ashamed to wrong me.

4Even if I have truly erred,

My error lodges with me.

5If indeed you vaunt yourselves against me

And prove my disgrace to me,

6Know then that God has wronged me

And has closed His net around me.

Everything Is against Him

7“Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer;

I shout for help, but there is no justice.

8He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,

And He has put darkness on my paths.

9He has stripped my honor from me

And removed the crown from my head.

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;

And He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11He has also kindled His anger against me

And considered me as His enemy.

12His troops come together,

And build up their way against me

And camp around my tent.

13“He has removed my brothers far from me,

And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me.

14My relatives have failed,

And my intimate friends have forgotten me.

15Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger.

I am a foreigner in their sight.

16I call to my servant, but he does not answer;

I have to implore him with my mouth.

17My breath is offensive to my wife,

And I am loathsome to my own brothers.

18Even young children despise me;

I rise up and they speak against me.

19All my associates abhor me,

And those I love have turned against me.

20My bone clings to my skin and my flesh,

And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,

For the hand of God has struck me.

22Why do you persecute me as God does,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives”

23“Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24That with an iron stylus and lead

They were engraved in the rock forever!

25As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

26Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

27Whom I myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My heart faints within me!

28If you say, ‘How shall we persecute him?’

And ‘What pretext for a case against him can we find?’

29Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves,

For wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

So that you may know there is judgment.”

Zophar Says, “The Triumph of the Wicked Is Short”

1Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

2“Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond,

Even because of my inward agitation.

3I listened to the reproof which insults me,

And the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.

4Do you know this from of old,

From the establishment of man on earth,

5That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

And the joy of the godless momentary?

6Though his loftiness reaches the heavens,

And his head touches the clouds,

7He perishes forever like his refuse;

Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him;

Even like a vision of the night he is chased away.

9The eye which saw him sees him no longer,

And his place no longer beholds him.

10His sons favor the poor,

And his hands give back his wealth.

11His bones are full of his youthful vigor,

But it lies down with him in the dust.

12“Though evil is sweet in his mouth

And he hides it under his tongue,

13Though he desires it and will not let it go,

But holds it in his mouth,

14Yet his food in his stomach is changed

To the venom of cobras within him.

15He swallows riches,

But will vomit them up;

God will expel them from his belly.

16He sucks the poison of cobras;

The viper’s tongue slays him.

17He does not look at the streams,

The rivers flowing with honey and curds.

18He returns what he has attained

And cannot swallow it;

As to the riches of his trading,

He cannot even enjoy them.

19For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;

He has seized a house which he has not built.

20“Because he knew no quiet within him,

He does not retain anything he desires.

21Nothing remains for him to devour,

Therefore his prosperity does not endure.

22In the fullness of his plenty he will be cramped;

The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him.

23When he fills his belly,

God will send His fierce anger on him

And will rain it on him while he is eating.

24He may flee from the iron weapon,

But the bronze bow will pierce him.

25It is drawn forth and comes out of his back,

Even the glittering point from his gall.

Terrors come upon him,

26Complete darkness is held in reserve for his treasures,

And unfanned fire will devour him;

It will consume the survivor in his tent.

27The heavens will reveal his iniquity,

And the earth will rise up against him.

28The increase of his house will depart;

His possessions will flow away in the day of His anger.

29This is the wicked man’s portion from God,

Even the heritage decreed to him by God.”