Job 17; Job 18; Job 19; Job 20

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Job 17

1 My spirit is broken. My days are extinguished. A graveyard awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround me and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3 Make arrangements! Put up security for me. Who [else] will be my sponsor?
4 You have closed their minds to understanding, therefore You will not honor [them].
5 If a man informs on his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 He has made me an object of scorn to the people; I have become a man people spit at.
7 My eyes have grown dim from grief, and my whole body has become but a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are roused against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous person will hold to his way, and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger.
10 But come back [and try] again, all of you. I will not find a wise man among you.
11 My days have slipped by; my plans have been ruined, even the things dear to my heart.
12 They turned night into day and [made] light [seem] near in the face of darkness.
13 If I await Sheol as my home, spread out my bed in darkness,
14 and say to the Pit: You are my father, and to the worm: My mother or my sister,
15 where then is my hope? Who can see [any] hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of Sheol, or will we descend together to the dust?
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 How long until you stop talking? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
3 Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in anger- should the earth be abandoned on your account, or a rock be removed from its place?
5 Yes, the light of the wicked is extinguished; the flame of his fire does not glow.
6 The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him is put out.
7 His powerful stride is shortened, and his own schemes trip him up.
8 For his own feet lead him into a net, and he strays into its mesh.
9 A trap catches [him] by the heel; a noose seizes him.
10 A rope lies hidden for him on the ground, and a snare [waits] for him along the path.
11 Terrors frighten him on every side and harass him at every step.
12 His strength is depleted; disaster lies ready for him to stumble.
13 Parts of his skin are eaten away; death's firstborn consumes his limbs.
14 He is ripped from the security of his tent and marched away to the king of terrors.
15 Nothing he owned remains in his tent. Burning sulfur is scattered over his home.
16 His roots below dry up, and his branches above wither away.
17 [All] memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name abroad.
18 He is driven from light to darkness and chased from the inhabited world.
19 He has no children or descendants among his people, no survivor where he used to live.
20 Those in the west are appalled at his fate, while those in the east tremble in horror.
21 Indeed, such is the dwelling of the wicked, and this is the place of the one who does not know God.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Job 19

1 Then Job answered:
2 How long will you torment me and crush me with words?
3 You have humiliated me ten times now, and you mistreat me without shame.
4 Even if it is true that I have sinned, my mistake concerns only me.
5 If you really want to appear superior to me and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
6 then understand that it is God who has wronged me and caught me in His net.
7 I cry out: Violence! but get no response; I call for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. He uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me, and He regards me as [one of] His enemies.
12 His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and camp around my tent.
13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
14 My relatives stop coming by, and my close friends have forgotten me.
15 My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight.
16 I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife, and my own children find me repulsive.
18 Even young boys scorn me. When I stand up, they mock me.
19 All of my best friends despise me, and those I love have turned against me.
20 My skin and my flesh cling to my bones; I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy, for God's hand has struck me.
22 Why do you persecute me as God [does]? Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23 I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll
24 or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead!
25 But I know my living Redeemer, and He will stand on the dust at last.
26 Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh.
27 I will see Him myself; my eyes will look at [Him], and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.
28 If you say, "How will we pursue him, since the root of the problem lies with him?"
29 be afraid of the sword, because wrath [brings] punishment by the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!
3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my understanding makes me reply.
4 Don't you know that ever since antiquity, from [the time] man was placed on earth,
5 the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
6 Though his arrogance reaches heaven, and his head touches the clouds,
7 he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, "Where is he?"
8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
9 The eye that saw him will see [him] no more, and his household will no longer see him.
10 His children will beg from the poor, for his own hands must give back his wealth.
11 His bones may be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the grave.
12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth,
14 yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras' venom inside him.
15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.
16 He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper's fangs will kill him.
17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming [it]; he doesn't enjoy the profits from his trading.
19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.
20 Because his appetite is never satisfied, he does not escape his desires.
21 Nothing is left for him to consume; therefore, his prosperity will not last.
22 At the height of his success distress will come to him; the full weight of misery will crush him.
23 When he fills his stomach, God will send His burning anger against him, raining [it] down on him while he is eating.
24 If he flees from an iron weapon, [an arrow from] a bronze bow will pierce him.
25 He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver. Terrors come over him.
26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned [by human hands] will consume him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.
27 The heavens will expose his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.
28 The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God's anger.
29 This is the wicked man's lot from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.
Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.