Job 18

Chapter 18

Bildad’s Second Response to Job

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 “How long before you stop talking?
Speak sense if you want us to answer!3 Do you think we are mere animals?
Do you think we are stupid?4 You may tear out your hair in anger,
but will that destroy the earth?
Will it make the rocks tremble?5 “Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.
The sparks of their fire will not glow.6 The light in their tent will grow dark.
The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.7 The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.
Their own schemes will be their downfall.8 The wicked walk into a net.
They fall into a pit.9 A trap grabs them by the heel.
A snare holds them tight.10 A noose lies hidden on the ground.
A rope is stretched across their path.11 “Terrors surround the wicked
and trouble them at every step.12 Hunger depletes their strength,
and calamity waits for them to stumble.13 Disease eats their skin;
death devours their limbs.14 They are torn from the security of their homes
and are brought down to the king of terrors.15 The homes of the wicked will burn down;
burning sulfur rains on their houses.16 Their roots will dry up,
and their branches will wither.17 All memory of their existence will fade from the earth,
no one will remember their names.18 They will be thrust from light into darkness,
driven from the world.19 They will have neither children nor grandchildren,
nor any survivor in the place where they lived.20 People in the west are appalled at their fate;
people in the east are horrified.21 They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person,
the place of one who rejected God.’”

JOB 18

Bildad's Second Speech

How Long Will You Talk?

1 Bildad from Shuaht said:

2 How long will you talk?
Be sensible! Let us speak.

3 Or do you think that we
are dumb animals?

4 You cut yourself in anger.
Will that shake the earth
or even move the rocks?
*

5 t The lamps of sinful people
soon are snuffed out,

6 leaving their tents dark.

7 Their powerful legs become weak,
and they stumble on schemes
of their own doing.
*

8 Before they know it,

9 they are trapped in a net,

10 hidden along the path.

11 Terror strikes and pursues
from every side.

12 Starving, they run,
only to meet disaster,

13 then afterwards to be eaten alive
by death itself.

14 Those sinners are dragged
from the safety of their tents
to die a gruesome death.

15 Then their tents and possessions
are burned to ashes,

16 and they are left like trees,
dried up from the roots.

17 They are gone and forgotten,

18 thrown far from the light
into a world of darkness,

19 without any children
to carry on their name.

20 Everyone, from east to west,
is overwhelmed with horror.

21 Such is the fate of sinners
and their families
who don't know God.