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Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
² ‘How long will you hunt for words?
   Consider, and then we shall speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
   Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger—
   shall the earth be forsaken because of you,
   or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ ‘Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
   and the flame of their fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is dark in their tent,
   and the lamp above them is put out.
⁷ Their strong steps are shortened,
   and their own schemes throw them down.
⁸ For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
   and they walk into a pitfall.
⁹ A trap seizes them by the heel;
   a snare lays hold of them.
¹⁰ A rope is hid for them in the ground,
   a trap for them in the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten them on every side,
   and chase them at their heels.
¹² Their strength is consumed by hunger,^*
   and calamity is ready for their stumbling.
¹³ By disease their skin is consumed,^*
   the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
¹⁴ They are torn from the tent in which they trusted,
   and are brought to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In their tents nothing remains;
   sulphur is scattered upon their habitations.
¹⁶ Their roots dry up beneath,
   and their branches wither above.
¹⁷ Their memory perishes from the earth,
   and they have no name in the street.
¹⁸ They are thrust from light into darkness,
   and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ They have no offspring or descendant among their people,
   and no survivor where they used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at their fate,
   and horror seizes those of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly,
   such is the place of those who do not know God.’

Job Replies: I Know That My Redeemer Lives

19Then Job answered:
² ‘How long will you torment me,
   and break me in pieces with words?
³ These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
   are you not ashamed to wrong me?
⁴ And even if it is true that I have erred,
   my error remains with me.
⁵ If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,
   and make my humiliation an argument against me,
⁶ know then that God has put me in the wrong,
   and closed his net around me.
⁷ Even when I cry out, “Violence!” I am not answered;
   I call aloud, but there is no justice.
⁸ He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
   and he has set darkness upon my paths.
⁹ He has stripped my glory from me,
   and taken the crown from my head.
¹⁰ He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone,
   he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
¹¹ He has kindled his wrath against me,
   and counts me as his adversary.
¹² His troops come on together;
   they have thrown up siege-works^* against me,
   and encamp around my tent.

¹³ ‘He has put my family far from me,
   and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
¹⁴ My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
¹⁵   the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my serving-girls count me as a stranger;
   I have become an alien in their eyes.
¹⁶ I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
   I must myself plead with him.
¹⁷ My breath is repulsive to my wife;
   I am loathsome to my own family.
¹⁸ Even young children despise me;
   when I rise, they talk against me.
¹⁹ All my intimate friends abhor me,
   and those whom I loved have turned against me.
²⁰ My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
   and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
²¹ Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
   for the hand of God has touched me!
²² Why do you, like God, pursue me,
   never satisfied with my flesh?

²³ ‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
²⁴ O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer^* lives,
   and that at the last he^* will stand upon the earth;^*
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in^* my flesh I shall see God,^*
27 whom I shall see on my side,^*
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!
²⁸ If you say, “How we will persecute him!”
   and, “The root of the matter is found in him”;
²⁹ be afraid of the sword,
   for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
   so that you may know there is a judgement.’