Day 8 of 365

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²"How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

³Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵"Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.

⁶The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.

⁷The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

⁹A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

¹⁰A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him in the way.

¹¹Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength shall be famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side.

¹³The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

¹⁴He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

¹⁵There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.

¹⁷His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

¹⁹He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he sojourned.

²⁰Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

¹Then Job answered,

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

³You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.

⁴If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach;

⁶know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

⁷"Behold, I cry out 'Injustice!' but there is no justice.

⁸He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

¹²His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

¹³"He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight.

¹⁶I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

¹⁹All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹"Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

²²Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

²⁵But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

²⁶After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,

²⁷Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.

²⁸If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' because the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment."

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

²"Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,

⁵that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'

⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.

¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youth, but youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹²"Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth;

¹⁴yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him.

¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.

¹⁸That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down. According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

²⁰"Because he knew no quietness within him, he shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left that he did not devour, therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity. The earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart. They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God."

¹Then Job answered,

²"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

³Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁷"Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and do not miscarry.

¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They tell God, 'Depart from us, for we do not want to know about your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'

¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

¹⁸How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

²²"Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those who are high?

²³One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

²⁷"Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

²⁹Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Do you not know their evidences,

³⁰that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

³¹Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

³²Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

³⁴So how can you comfort me with nonsense, seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"