Job 18

1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered and said,

Then Bildad replied [again]:

2 How long will you continue? forbear, that we also may speak.

“When are you going to stop talking [RHQ]? If you would stop talking and listen, we could tell you something.

3 For therefore have we been silent before you like brutes?

Why do you think that we are [as stupid] as cattle? [DOU, RHQ]

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?

By being [very] angry and hurting yourself, do you think that doing that will shake the earth, or cause the rocks in the mountains to move? [RHQ]?

5 But the light of the ungodly shall be quenched, and their flame shall not go up.

“What will happen is that the lives of wicked people [like you] end [as quickly as we can] put out a light or extinguish the flame of a fire.

6 His light [shall be] darkness in [his] habitation, and his lamp shall be put out with him.

And when the lamps above them [in their tents] are extinguished, there will be no light in those tents.

7 Let the meanest of men spoil his goods, and let his counsel deceive [him].

[For many years] they walked confidently, but later [in life it was as though] they stumbled and fell, because [they themselves did not heed] the advice [that they gave to others].

8 His foot also has been caught in a snare, [and] let it be entangled in a net.

[It was as though] they walked into their own net or fell into a pit that they themselves have dug.

9 And let snares come upon him: he shall strengthen those that thirst for his destruction.

[It was as though] a trap grabbed their heels and held them fast [DOU],

10 His snare is hid in the earth, and that which shall take him is by the path.

[as though the noose of] a rope that was hidden on the ground, [whose other end was fastened to the limb of a tree], seized them when they walked into it.

11 Let pains destroy him round about, and let many [enemies] come about him,

Everywhere they went, there were things that caused them to be terrified; [it was as though] those things were pursuing them and biting at their heels.

12 [vex him] with distressing hunger: and a signal destruction has been prepared for him.

They became hungry, with the result that they had no strength. They experienced disasters [PRS] constantly.

13 Let the soles of his feet be devoured: and death shall consume his beauty.

Diseases spread all over their skin/bodies; diseases that (caused their bodies to decay/destroyed their arms and legs).

14 And let health be utterly banished from his tabernacle, and let distress seize upon him with a charge from the king.

[When they died, ] they were snatched away from their tents and brought to the one who rules over the dead.

15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle in his night: his excellency shall be sown with brimstone.

Now their tents will burn down, when burning sulfur rains down on those tents!

16 His roots shall be dried up from beneath, and his crop shall fall away from above.

[Because those who died had no descendants], they were [like trees whose] roots have dried up and whose branches have all withered [MET].

17 Let his memorial perish out of the earth, and his name shall be publicly cast out.

No one on the earth will remember them any more; no [one on any] street [will even remember] their names [MTY].

18 Let [one] drive him from light into darkness.

They will be expelled from the earth where there is light, and they will be sent into the place where it is dark.

19 He shall not be known among his people, nor his house preserved on the earth.

They will have no children or grandchildren, no descendants where they previously lived.

20 But strangers shall dwell in his possessions: the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first.

People from the east to the west [who hear about what happened to them], will be shocked and horrified.

21 These are the houses of the unrighteous, and this is the place of them that know not the Lord.

And that is what happens to ungodly/sinful people [like you], to people who (have no interest in/have rejected) God.”