The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 Bildad from Shuhah chimed in:
1
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 "How monotonous these word games are getting! Get serious! We need to get down to business.
2
How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3 Why do you treat your friends like slow-witted animals? You look down on us as if we don't know anything.
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Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
4 Why are you working yourself up like this? Do you want the world redesigned to suit you? Should reality be suspended to accommodate you?
4
He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5 "Here's the rule: The light of the wicked is put out. Their flame dies down and is extinguished.
5
Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 Their house goes dark - every lamp in the place goes out.
6
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7 Their strong strides weaken, falter; they stumble into their own traps.
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The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8 They get all tangled up in their own red tape,
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For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9 Their feet are grabbed and caught, their necks in a noose.
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The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10 They trip on ropes they've hidden, and fall into pits they've dug themselves.
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The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11 Terrors come at them from all sides. They run helter-skelter.
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Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12 The hungry grave is ready to gobble them up for supper,
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His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13 To lay them out for a gourmet meal, a treat for ravenous Death.
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It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14 They are snatched from their home sweet home and marched straight to the death house.
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His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 Their lives go up in smoke; acid rain soaks their ruins.
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It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 Their roots rot and their branches wither.
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His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 They'll never again be remembered - nameless in unmarked graves.
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His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 They are plunged from light into darkness, banished from the world.
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He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19 And they leave empty-handed - not one single child - nothing to show for their life on this earth.
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He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 Westerners are aghast at their fate, easterners are horrified:
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They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21 'Oh no! So this is what happens to perverse people. This is how the God-ignorant end up!'"
21
Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.