Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

17 “My spirit is broken; my days are jextinct;

kthe graveyard is ready for me.

2  Surely there are mockers about me,

and my eye dwells on their lprovocation.

3  “Lay down a pledge for me with you;

who is there who will put up msecurity for me?

4  Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5  He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—

the neyes of his children will fail.

6  “He has made me oa byword of the peoples,

and I am one before whom men spit.

7  My peye has grown dim from vexation,

and all my members are like qa shadow.

8  The upright are rappalled at this,

and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.

9  Yet the righteous holds to his way,

and he who has sclean hands grows stronger and stronger.

10  But you, tcome on again, all of you,

and I shall not find a wise man among you.

11  My udays are past; my plans are broken off,

the desires of my heart.

12  They vmake night into day:

‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’1

13  If I hope for wSheol as xmy house,

if I make my bed in darkness,

14  if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

15  where then is my hope?

Who will see my hope?

16  Will it go down to the bars of wSheol?

Shall we ydescend together zinto the dust?”2

Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

18 Then aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2  “How long will you bhunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

3  Why are we counted as ccattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight?

4  You who dtear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or ethe rock be removed out of its place?

5  “Indeed, fthe light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

6  The light is gdark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

7  His strong steps are shortened,

and his hown schemes throw him down.

8  For he is cast into a net by his own feet,

and he walks on its mesh.

9  iA trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

10  A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

11  jTerrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

12  His strength is famished,

and calamity is kready for his stumbling.

13  It consumes the parts of his skin;

lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

14  He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to mthe king of terrors.

15  In his tent dwells that which is none of his;

nsulfur is scattered over his habitation.

16  His oroots dry up beneath,

and his branches pwither above.

17  His qmemory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

18  rHe is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

19  He has no sposterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

20  They of the west are appalled at his tday,

and uhorror seizes them of the east.

21  Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

such is the place of him who vknows not God.”