Job 18

Bildad Speaks: Why Do You Think You Are So Great, Job?

¹Then Bildad from Shuah replied ⌞to Job⌟ ,

²“How long before your words will end?

Think it through, and then we’ll talk.

³Why do you think of us as cattle?

Why are we considered stupid in your eyes?

⁴Why do you rip yourself apart in anger?

Should the earth be abandoned for your sake

or a boulder be dislodged?

What a Wicked Person Can Expect from Life

⁵“Indeed, the light of the wicked is snuffed out.

The flame of his fire stops glowing.

⁶The light in his tent becomes dark,

and the lamp above him is snuffed out.

⁷“His healthy stride is shortened,

and his own planning trips him up.

⁸His own feet get him tangled in a net

as he walks around on its webbing.

⁹A trap catches his heel.

A snare holds him.

¹⁰A rope is hidden on the ground for him.

A trap is on his path ⌞to catch⌟ him.

¹¹“Terrors suddenly pounce on him from every side

and chase him every step he takes.

¹²Hunger undermines his strength.

Disaster is waiting beside him.

¹³His skin is eaten away by disease.

Death’s firstborn son eats away at the limbs of his body.

¹⁴He is dragged from the safety of his tent

and marched off to the king of terrors.

¹⁵Fire lives in his tent.

Sulfur is scattered over his home.

¹⁶His roots dry up under him.

His branches wither over him.

¹⁷All memory about him will vanish from the earth,

and his reputation will not be known on the street corner.

¹⁸He will be driven from the light into the dark

and chased out of the world.

¹⁹He will not have any children or descendants among his people

or any survivor where he used to live.

²⁰People in the west are shocked by what happens to him.

People in the east are seized with horror.

²¹This is what happens to the homes of wicked people

and to those who do not know God.”