English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
1
Bildad from Shuhah chimed in:
2 "How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak.
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"How monotonous these word games are getting! Get serious! We need to get down to business.
3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
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Why do you treat your friends like slow-witted animals? You look down on us as if we don't know anything.
4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you, or the rock be removed out of its place?
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Why are you working yourself up like this? Do you want the world redesigned to suit you? Should reality be suspended to accommodate you?
5 "Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.
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"Here's the rule: The light of the wicked is put out. Their flame dies down and is extinguished.
6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out.
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Their house goes dark - every lamp in the place goes out.
7 His strong steps are shortened, and his own schemes throw him down.
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Their strong strides weaken, falter; they stumble into their own traps.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh.
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They get all tangled up in their own red tape,
9 A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare lays hold of him.
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Their feet are grabbed and caught, their necks in a noose.
10 A rope is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the path.
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They trip on ropes they've hidden, and fall into pits they've dug themselves.
11 Terrors frighten him on every side, and chase him at his heels.
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Terrors come at them from all sides. They run helter-skelter.
12 His strength is famished, and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
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The hungry grave is ready to gobble them up for supper,
13 It consumes the parts of his skin; the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
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To lay them out for a gourmet meal, a treat for ravenous Death.
14 He is torn from the tent in which he trusted and is brought to the king of terrors.
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They are snatched from their home sweet home and marched straight to the death house.
15 In his tent dwells that which is none of his; sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
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Their lives go up in smoke; acid rain soaks their ruins.
16 His roots dry up beneath, and his branches wither above.
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Their roots rot and their branches wither.
17 His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the street.
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They'll never again be remembered - nameless in unmarked graves.
18 He is thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world.
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They are plunged from light into darkness, banished from the world.
19 He has no posterity or progeny among his people, and no survivor where he used to live.
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And they leave empty-handed - not one single child - nothing to show for their life on this earth.
20 They of the west are appalled at his day, and horror seizes them of the east.
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Westerners are aghast at their fate, easterners are horrified:
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, such is the place of him who knows not God."
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'Oh no! So this is what happens to perverse people. This is how the God-ignorant end up!'"
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.