Job 17; Job 18; Job 19; Job 20

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Job 17

1 "My spirit is broken. My days have been snuffed out. The cemetery [is waiting] for me.

2 Certainly, mockers are around me. My eyes are focused on their opposition.

3 Please guarantee my bail yourself. Who else will guarantee it with a handshake?

4 You have closed their minds so that they cannot understand. That is why you will not honor them.

5 (Whoever turns in friends to get their property should have his children's eyesight fail.)

6 "Now he has made me a laughingstock for many people. Now they spit in my face.

7 Now my eyes are blurred from grief. Now all my limbs are like a shadow.

8 Decent people are shocked by this, and it stirs up the innocent against godless people.

9 Yet, the righteous person clings to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.

10 "But now, all of you, come and try again! I won't find one wise man among you.

11 My days are passing by. My plans are broken. My dreams [are shattered].

12 You say that night is day. Light has nearly become darkness.

13 If I look for the grave as my home and make my bed in the darkness,

14 if I say to the pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'You are my mother and sister,'

15 then where is my hope? Can you see any hope left in me?

16 Will hope go down with me to the gates of the grave? Will my hope rest with me in the dust?"

Job 18

1 Then Bildad from Shuah replied [to Job],

2 "How long before your words will end? Think it through, and then we'll talk.

3 Why do you think of us as cattle? Why are we considered stupid in your eyes?

4 Why do you rip yourself apart in anger? Should the earth be abandoned for your sake or a boulder be dislodged?

5 "Indeed, the light of the wicked is snuffed out. The flame of his fire stops glowing.

6 The light in his tent becomes dark, and the lamp above him is snuffed out.

7 "His healthy stride is shortened, and his own planning trips him up.

8 His own feet get him tangled in a net as he walks around on its webbing.

9 A trap catches his heel. A snare holds him.

10 A rope is hidden on the ground for him. A trap is on his path [to catch] him.

11 "Terrors suddenly pounce on him from every side and chase him every step he takes.

12 Hunger undermines his strength. Disaster is waiting beside him.

13 His skin is eaten away by disease. Death's firstborn son eats away at the limbs of his body.

14 He is dragged from the safety of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors.

15 Fire lives in his tent. Sulfur is scattered over his home.

16 His roots dry up under him. His branches wither over him.

17 All memory about him will vanish from the earth, and his reputation will not be known on the street corner.

18 He will be driven from the light into the dark and chased out of the world.

19 He will not have any children or descendants among his people or any survivor where he used to live.

20 People in the west are shocked by what happens to him. People in the east are seized with horror.

21 This is what happens to the homes of wicked people and to those who do not know God."

Job 19

1 Then Job replied [to his friends],

2 "How long will you torment me and depress me with words?

3 You have insulted me ten times now. You're not even ashamed of mistreating me.

4 Even if it were true that I've made a mistake without realizing it, my mistake would affect only me.

5 If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me by using my disgrace as an argument against me,

6 then I want you to know that God has wronged me and surrounded me with his net.

7 Indeed, I cry, 'Help! I'm being attacked!' but I get no response. I call for help, but there is no justice.

8 "God has blocked my path so that I can't go on. He has made my paths dark.

9 He has stripped me of my honor. He has taken the crown off my head.

10 He beats me down on every side until I'm gone. He uproots my hope like a tree.

11 He is very angry at me. He considers me to be his enemy.

12 His troops assemble against me. They build a ramp to attack me and camp around my tent.

13 "My brothers stay far away from me. My friends are complete strangers to me.

14 My relatives and my closest friends have stopped coming. My house guests have forgotten me.

15 My female slaves consider me to be a stranger. I am like a foreigner to them.

16 I call my slave, but he doesn't answer, though I beg him.

17 My breath offends my wife. I stink to my own children.

18 Even young children despise me. If I stand up, they make fun of me.

19 All my closest friends are disgusted with me. Those I love have turned against me.

20 I am skin and bones, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.

21 "Have pity on me, my friends! Have pity on me because God's hand has struck me down.

22 Why do you pursue me as God does? Why are you never satisfied with my flesh?

23 "I wish now my words were written. I wish they were inscribed on a scroll.

24 I wish they were forever engraved on a rock with an iron stylus and lead.

25 But I know that my defender lives, and afterwards, he will rise on the earth.

26 Even after my skin has been stripped off my body, I will see God in my own flesh.

27 I will see him with my own eyes, not with someone else's. My heart fails inside me!

28 "You say, 'We will persecute him! The root of the problem is found in him.'

29 Fear death, because [your anger] is punishable by death. Then you will know there is a judge."

Job 20

1 Then Zophar from Naama replied [to Job],

2 "My disturbing thoughts make me answer, and because of them I am upset.

3 I have heard criticism that makes me ashamed, but a spirit beyond my understanding gives me answers.

4 "Don't you know that from ancient times, from the time humans were placed on earth,

5 the triumph of the wicked is short-lived, and the joy of the godless person lasts only a moment?

6 If his height reaches to the sky and his head touches the clouds,

7 he will certainly rot like his own feces. Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'

8 He will fly away like a dream and not be found. He will be chased away like a vision in the night.

9 Eyes that saw him will see him no more. His home will not look at him again.

10 His children will have to ask the poor for help. His own hands will have to give back his wealth.

11 His bones, once full of youthful vigor, will lie down with him in the dust.

12 "Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he hides it under his tongue. . . .

13 Though he savors it and won't let go of it and he holds it on the roof of his mouth,

14 the food in his belly turns sour. It becomes snake venom in his stomach.

15 He vomits up the riches that he swallowed. God forces them out of his stomach.

16 The godless person sucks the poison of snakes. A viper's fang kills him.

17 He won't be able to drink from the streams or from the rivers of honey and buttermilk.

18 He will give back what he earned without enjoying it. He will get no joy from the profits of his business

19 because he crushed and abandoned the poor. He has taken by force a house that he didn't build.

20 He will never know peace in his heart. He will never allow anything he desires to escape [his grasp].

21 "Nothing is left for him to eat. His prosperity won't last.

22 [Even] with all his wealth the full force of misery comes down on him.

23 Let that misery fill his belly. [God] throws his burning anger at the godless person and makes his wrath come down on him like rain.

24 If that person flees from an iron weapon, a bronze bow will pierce him.

25 He pulls it out, and it comes out of his back. The glittering point comes out of his gallbladder. "Terrors come quickly to the godless person:

26 Total darkness waits in hiding for his treasure. A fire that no one fans will burn him. Whatever is left in his tent will be devoured.

27 Heaven exposes his sin. Earth rises up against him.

28 A flood will sweep away his house, a flash flood on the day of his anger.

29 This is the reward God gives to the wicked person, the inheritance God has appointed for him."