Job 17-18

17My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. 2Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. 3“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me? 4Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. 5Those who denounce friends for reward— the eyes of their children will fail. 6“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit. 7My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow. 8The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless. 9Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you. 11My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart. 12They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’ 13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, 14if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ 15where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? 16Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 2“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we shall speak. 3Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight? 4You who tear yourself in your anger— shall the earth be forsaken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its place?

5“Surely the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of their fire does not shine. 6The light is dark in their tent, and the lamp above them is put out. 7Their strong steps are shortened, and their own schemes throw them down. 8For they are thrust into a net by their own feet, and they walk into a pitfall. 9A trap seizes them by the heel; a snare lays hold of them. 10A rope is hid for them in the ground, a trap for them in the path.

11Terrors frighten them on every side, and chase them at their heels. 12Their strength is consumed by hunger, and calamity is ready for their stumbling. 13By disease their skin is consumed, the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs. 14They are torn from the tent in which they trusted, and are brought to the king of terrors. 15In their tents nothing remains; sulfur is scattered upon their habitations. 16Their roots dry up beneath, and their branches wither above. 17Their memory perishes from the earth, and they have no name in the street. 18They are thrust from light into darkness, and driven out of the world. 19They have no offspring or descendant among their people, and no survivor where they used to live. 20They of the west are appalled at their fate, and horror seizes those of the east. 21Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly, such is the place of those who do not know God.”

From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.