Job 18

Bildad’s Second Response to Job

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“How long before you stop talking?

Speak sense if you want us to answer!

³Do you think we are mere animals?

Do you think we are stupid?

⁴You may tear out your hair in anger,

but will that destroy the earth?

Will it make the rocks tremble?

⁵“Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.

The sparks of their fire will not glow.

⁶The light in their tent will grow dark.

The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.

⁷The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened.

Their own schemes will be their downfall.

⁸The wicked walk into a net.

They fall into a pit.

⁹A trap grabs them by the heel.

A snare holds them tight.

¹⁰A noose lies hidden on the ground.

A rope is stretched across their path.

¹¹“Terrors surround the wicked

and trouble them at every step.

¹²Hunger depletes their strength,

and calamity waits for them to stumble.

¹³Disease eats their skin;

death devours their limbs.

¹⁴They are torn from the security of their homes

and are brought down to the king of terrors.

¹⁵The homes of the wicked will burn down;

burning sulfur rains on their houses.

¹⁶Their roots will dry up,

and their branches will wither.

¹⁷All memory of their existence will fade from the earth;

no one will remember their names.

¹⁸They will be thrust from light into darkness,

driven from the world.

¹⁹They will have neither children nor grandchildren,

nor any survivor in the place where they lived.

²⁰People in the west are appalled at their fate;

people in the east are horrified.

²¹They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person,

the place of one who rejected God.’”