Bildad

1-2Job, can't people like you ever be quiet?

If you stopped to listen, we could talk to you.

3What makes you think we are as stupid as cattle?

4You are only hurting yourself with your anger.

Will the earth be deserted because you are angry?

Will God move mountains to satisfy you?

518.5–6: Job 21.17The light of the wicked will still be put out;

its flame will never burn again.

6The lamp in their tents will be darkened.

7Their steps were firm, but now they stumble;

they fall — victims of their own advice.

8They walk into a net, and their feet are caught;

9a trap catches their heels and holds them.

10On the ground a snare is hidden;

a trap has been set in their path.

11All round them terror is waiting;

it follows them at every step.

12They used to be rich, but now they go hungry;

disaster stands and waits at their side.

13A deadly disease spreads over their bodies

and causes their arms and legs to rot.

14They are torn from the tents where they lived secure,

and are dragged off to face King Death.

15Now anyone may live in their tents —18.15 Now anyone may live in their tents; Hebrew unclear.

after sulphur is sprinkled to disinfect them!18.15 to disinfect them: Sulphur was used in the ancient world as a disinfectant and to clean rooms that had contained corpses.

16Their roots and branches are withered and dry.

17Their fame is ended at home and abroad;

no one remembers them any more.

18They will be driven out of the land of the living,

driven from light into darkness.

19They have no descendants, no survivors.

20From east to west, all who hear of their fate

shudder and tremble with fear.

21That is the fate of wicked people,

the fate of those who care nothing for God.