Job 18

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

¹¹Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him.

⁷After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

⁸So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.”

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

¹³He who answers a matter before he hears it—this is folly and disgrace to him.

⁵If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

⁶Hear now my argument, and listen to the plea of my lips.

²“I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.

³Is there no end to your long-winded speeches? What provokes you to continue testifying?

²“Listen carefully to my words; let this be your consolation to me.

²“How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a blustering wind.

²“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a speaker be vindicated?

²²I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You.

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

¹⁸I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.”

¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.

⁷But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; let the fish of the sea inform you.

¹⁸But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,

⁹His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.

¹⁴Why do I put myself at risk and take my life in my own hands?

²For resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple.

³⁹A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It keeps mauling him and rarely departs from him.

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

⁹The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is extinguished.

²⁰For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who array yourselves with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and of the firebrands you have lit! This is what you will receive from My hand: You will lie down in a place of torment.

²³The light of a lamp will never shine in you again, and the voices of a bride and bridegroom will never call out in you again. For your merchants were the great ones of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.”

²⁸For You, O Lord, light my lamp; my God lights up my darkness.

¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be impeded; when you run, you will not stumble.

³⁶You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

¹⁰The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.

²²In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.

³⁰They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.

³¹So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

¹⁴Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had purposed to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

⁸May ruin befall them by surprise; may the net they hid ensnare them; may they fall into the hazard they created.

¹⁰Therefore snares surround you, and sudden peril terrifies you;

⁹If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will deposit ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasury to pay those who carry it out.”

⁷Furthermore, he must have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the snare of the devil.

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

⁵The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

¹⁵the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁷While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

¹⁴And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”

⁶On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

¹³But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.

⁹And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them.

²¹Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.

²⁵Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

²⁹They will take their tents and flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. They will take their camels for themselves. They will shout to them: ‘Terror is on every side!’

³⁶As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

²⁵It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.

⁵Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!” declares the Lord.

³In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep.

²³He wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish terrify him, overwhelming him like a king poised to attack.

¹⁰Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

³⁶And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

⁵The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.

¹⁰May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

¹²And this will be the plague with which the Lord strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

⁸Then I looked and saw a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed close behind. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, by famine, by plague, and by the beasts of the earth.

¹⁶Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”

⁶To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O Lord my God!

³Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.

³⁰Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain.

²⁸The hope of the righteous is joy, but the expectations of the wicked will perish.

⁴My heart pounds within me, and the terrors of death assail me.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

¹⁴His confidence is fragile; his security is in a spider’s web.

¹⁷For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!

²⁶But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

²⁷The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”

⁶On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

⁹Edom’s streams will be turned to tar, and her soil to sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch.

¹⁰It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

⁴I will send it out, declares the Lord of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

⁶Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’

⁷Will not your creditors suddenly arise and those who disturb you awaken? Then you will become their prey.

¹⁶Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

⁹Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, though his height was like that of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below.

¹⁹My roots will spread out to the waters, and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.

¹⁶But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to wipe out all memory of them from the earth.

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

¹³May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

⁴saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

¹²Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.

⁸He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.

²²to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.

³²The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

²¹He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.

¹³They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

³⁰This is what the Lord says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”

²¹Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the iniquities of their forefathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or cover the earth with their cities.

²²“I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the Lord.

⁸Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

⁹I heard the Lord of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.

¹³May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.

²⁶Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned will consume him and devour what is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

¹⁴Though his sons are many, they are destined for the sword; and his offspring will never have enough food.

¹⁵His survivors will be buried by the plague, and their widows will not weep for them.

¹³but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.

²⁷Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come—the time of their punishment.

²⁵And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

¹²But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.

⁴²and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

³“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the Lord.

⁵not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

¹⁰After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works that He had done for Israel.

²⁵Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.

⁸in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.