171 “My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me. 2 Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation. 3 “Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me? 4 For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them. 5 He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail. 6 “But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face. 7 My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow. 8 Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless. 9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

10 But as for you all, come on now again;
I shall not find a wise man among you. 11 My days are past, my plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart. 12 They change the night into day,
saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. 13 If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness, 14 If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’
to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’ 15 where then is my hope?
as for my hope, who shall see it? 16 Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?”

Bildad Describes the Fate of the Wicked

181 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 2 “How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak. 3 Why are we counted as animals,
which have become unclean in your sight? 4 You 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. 6 The light shall be dark in his tent.
His lamp above him shall be put out. 7 The steps of his strength shall be shortened.
His own counsel shall cast him down. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he wanders into its mesh. 9 A snare will take him by the heel.
A trap will catch him. 10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the way.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
and shall chase him at his heels. 12 His strength shall be famished.
Calamity shall be ready at his side. 13 The members of his body shall be devoured.
The firstborn of death shall devour his members. 14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts.
He shall be brought to the king of terrors. 15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his.
Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation. 16 His roots shall be dried up beneath.
Above shall his branch be cut off. 17 His memory shall perish from the earth.
He shall have no name in the street. 18 He shall be driven from light into darkness,
and chased out of the world. 19 He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people,
nor any remaining where he sojourned. 20 Those who come after shall be astonished at his day,
as those who went before were frightened. 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous.
This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

Job's Faith That God Will Vindicate Him

191 Then Job answered, 2 “How long will you torment me,
and crush me with words? 3 You have reproached me ten times.
You aren’t ashamed that you attack me. 4 If it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with myself. 5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
and plead against me my reproach; 6 know now that God has subverted me,
and has surrounded me with his net. 7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard.
I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass,
and has set darkness in my paths. 9 He has stripped me of my glory,
and taken the crown from my head. 10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone.
My hope he has plucked up like a tree. 11 He has also kindled his wrath against me.
He counts me among his adversaries. 12 His 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. 14 My relatives have gone away.
My familiar friends have forgotten me. 15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger.
I am an alien in their sight. 16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer.
I beg him with my mouth. 17 My breath is offensive to my wife.
I am loathsome to the children of my own mother. 18 Even young children despise me.
If I arise, they speak against me. 19 All my familiar friends abhor me.
They whom I loved have turned against me. 20 My 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. 22 Why 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! 24 That with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever! 25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
In the end, he will stand upon the earth. 26 After my skin is destroyed,
then in my flesh shall I see God, 27 Whom I, even I, shall see on my side.
My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger.

“My heart is consumed within me. 28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
because the root of the matter is found in me, 29 be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
that you may know there is a judgment.”

Zophar Depicts the Portion of the Wicked

201 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, 2 “Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
even by reason of my haste that is in me. 3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame.
The spirit of my understanding answers me. 4 Don’t you know this from old time,
since man was placed on earth, 5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
the joy of the godless but for a moment? 6 Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds, 7 yet he shall perish forever like his own dung.
Those who have seen him shall say, ‘Where is he?’ 8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found.
Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night. 9 The eye which saw him shall see him no more,
neither shall his place any more see him.

10 His children shall seek the favor of the poor.
His hands shall give back his wealth. 11 His 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, 13 though he spare it, and will not let it go,
but keep it still within his mouth; 14 yet his food in his bowels is turned.
It is cobra venom within him. 15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again.
God will cast them out of his belly. 16 He shall suck cobra venom.
The viper’s tongue shall kill him. 17 He shall not look at the rivers,
the flowing streams of honey and butter. 18 That 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. 19 For 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. 21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour,
therefore his prosperity shall not endure. 22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him.
The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

23 When 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. 24 He shall flee from the iron weapon.
The bronze arrow shall strike him through. 25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body.
Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver.
Terrors are on him. 26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures.
An unfanned fire shall devour him.
It shall consume that which is left in his tent. 27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity.
The earth shall rise up against him. 28 The increase of his house shall depart.
They shall rush away in the day of his wrath. 29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
the heritage appointed to him by God.”