Job 18
1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered and said,
Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said,
2 How long will you continue? forbear, that we also may speak.
“How long will you go on talking, hunting for the right words to say? Talk sense if you want us to reply!
3 For therefore have we been silent before you like brutes?
Do you think we're dumb animals? Do we look stupid to you?
4 Anger has possessed you: for what if you should die; would [the earth] under heaven be desolate? or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations?
You tear yourself apart with your anger. Do you think the earth has to be abandoned, or the mountains moved, just because of you?
5 But the light of the ungodly shall be quenched, and their flame shall not go up.
It's certain that the life of the wicked will end like a lamp that is snuffed out—their flame will shine no more.
6 His light [shall be] darkness in [his] habitation, and his lamp shall be put out with him.
The light in their home goes out, the lamp hanging above is extinguished.
7 Let the meanest of men spoil his goods, and let his counsel deceive [him].
Instead of taking strong strides they stumble, and their own plans cause them to fall.
8 His foot also has been caught in a snare, [and] let it be entangled in a net.
Their own feet trip them up and they are caught in a net; as they walk along they fall into a pit.
9 And let snares come upon him: he shall strengthen those that thirst for his destruction.
A trap grabs them by the heel; a snare tightens around them.
10 His snare is hid in the earth, and that which shall take him is by the path.
A noose is hidden on the ground for them; a rope is stretched across the path to trip them.
11 Let pains destroy him round about, and let many [enemies] come about him,
Terrors scare the wicked, coming at them from every side, chasing them, biting at their heels.
12 [vex him] with distressing hunger: and a signal destruction has been prepared for him.
Hunger robs them of strength; disaster waits for them when they fall.
13 Let the soles of his feet be devoured: and death shall consume his beauty.
Disease devours their skin; deadly disease consumes their limbs.
14 And let health be utterly banished from his tabernacle, and let distress seize upon him with a charge from the king.
They are torn from the homes they trusted in and taken to the king of terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle in his night: his excellency shall be sown with brimstone.
People they don't know will live in their homes; sulfur will be scattered where they used to live.
16 His roots shall be dried up from beneath, and his crop shall fall away from above.
They wither away, roots below and branches above;
17 Let his memorial perish out of the earth, and his name shall be publicly cast out.
the memory of them fades from the earth; nobody remembers their names any more.
18 Let [one] drive him from light into darkness.
They are thrown out of light into darkness, driven from the world.
19 He shall not be known among his people, nor his house preserved on the earth.
They have no children or descendants among their people, and no survivors where they used to live.
20 But strangers shall dwell in his possessions: the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first.
People of the west are appalled at what happens to them. People of the east are shocked.
21 These are the houses of the unrighteous, and this is the place of them that know not the Lord.
This is what happens to the homes of the wicked, to the places of those who reject God.”
