Job 16

Job Replies: Miserable Comforters Are You

1Then Job answered and said:

2 “I have heard ^amany such things;
^bmiserable comforters are you all.
3Shall ^cwindy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
4I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and ^dshake my head at you.
5I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
6 “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
7Surely now God has worn me out;
^ehe has ▼

▼Hebrew you have; also verse 8

made desolate all my company.
8And he has shriveled me up,
which is ^ga witness against me,
and my ^hleanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
9He has ⁱtorn me in his wrath ^jand hated me;
he has ^kgnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
10Men have ^lgaped at me with their mouth;
they have ^mstruck me insolently on the cheek;
they ⁿmass themselves together against me.
11God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his ^otarget;
13his ^parchers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys ^qand does not spare;
he ^rpours out my gall on the ground.
14He breaks me with ^sbreach upon breach;
he ^truns upon me like a warrior.
15I have sewed ^usackcloth upon my skin
and have laid ^vmy strength ^win the dust.
16My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is ^xdeep darkness,
17although there is no ^yviolence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
18 “O earth, ^zcover not my blood,
and let my ^aacry find no resting place.
19Even now, behold, my ^abwitness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is ^acon high.
20My friends ^adscorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
21that he would ^aeargue the case of a man with God,
as ▼

▼Hebrew and

a son of man does with his neighbor.
22For when a few years have come
I shall go the way ^agfrom which I shall not return.

Job 18

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

1Then ^ahBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2 “How long will you ^aihunt for words?
Consider, and then we will speak.
3Why are we counted as ^ajcattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
4You who ^aktear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you,
or ^althe rock be removed out of its place?
5 “Indeed, ^amthe light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of his fire does not shine.
6The light is ^andark in his tent,
and his lamp above him is put out.
7His strong steps are shortened,
and his ^aoown schemes throw him down.
8For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he walks on its mesh.
9 ^apA trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare lays hold of him.
10A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the path.
11 ^aqTerrors frighten him on every side,
and chase him at his heels.
12His strength is famished,
and calamity is ^arready for his stumbling.
13It consumes the parts of his skin;
^asthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
14He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
and is brought to ^atthe king of terrors.
15In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
^ausulfur is scattered over his habitation.
16His ^avroots dry up beneath,
and his branches ^awwither above.
17His ^axmemory perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the street.
18 ^ayHe is thrust from light into darkness,
and driven out of the world.
19He has no ^azposterity or progeny among his people,
and no survivor where he used to live.
20They of the west are appalled at his ^baday,
and ^bbhorror seizes them of the east.
21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
such is the place of him who ^bcknows not God.”