Job 17-18

Job 17

¹My spirit hath been destroyed, My days extinguished -- graves are for me.

²If not -- mockeries are with me. And in their provocations mine eye lodgeth.

³Place, I pray Thee, my pledge with Thee; Who is he that striketh hand with me?

⁴For their heart Thou hast hidden From understanding, Therefore Thou dost not exalt them.

⁵For a portion he sheweth friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.

⁶And he set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And a wonder before them I am.

⁷And dim from sorrow is mine eye, And my members as a shadow all of them.

⁸Astonished are the upright at this, And the innocent against the profane Stirreth himself up.

⁹And the righteous layeth hold on his way, And the clean of hands addeth strength, And -- dumb are they all.

¹⁰Return, and come in, I pray you, And I find not among you a wise man.

¹¹My days have passed by, My devices have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!

¹²Night for day they appoint, Light is near because of darkness.

¹³If I wait -- Sheol is my house, In darkness I have spread out my couch.

¹⁴To corruption I have called: -- ‘Thou art my father.' ‘My mother' and ‘my sister' -- to the worm.

¹⁵And where is now my hope? Yea, my hope, who doth behold it?

¹⁶To the parts of Sheol ye go down, If together on the dust we may rest.

Job 18

¹And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --

²When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

³Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

⁴(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

⁵Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

⁶The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

⁷Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

⁸For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

⁹Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

¹⁰Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

¹¹Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him -- at his feet.

¹²Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side.

¹³It consumeth the parts of his skin, Consume his parts doth death's first-born.

¹⁴Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors.

¹⁵It dwelleth in his tent -- out of his provender, Scattered over his habitation is sulphur.

¹⁶From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop.

¹⁷His memorial hath perished from the land, And he hath no name on the street.

¹⁸They thrust him from light unto darkness, And from the habitable earth cast him out.

¹⁹He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings.

²⁰At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright.

²¹Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.