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 Bewails His Birth

31 After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth. 2 Job answered: 3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’ 4 Let that day be darkness.
Don’t let God from above seek for it,
neither let the light shine on it. 5 Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own.
Let a cloud dwell on it.
Let all that makes black the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it.
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year.
Let it not come into the number of the months. 7 Behold, let that night be barren.
Let no joyful voice come therein. 8 Let them curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up leviathan. 9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark.
Let it look for light, but have none,
neither let it see the eyelids of the morning, 10 because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why didn’t I die from the womb?
Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me? 12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breast, that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet.
I should have slept, then I would have been at rest, 14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built up waste places for themselves; 15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver: 16 or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
as infants who never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling.
There the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together.
They don’t hear the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there.
The servant is free from his master.

20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
life to the bitter in soul, 21 Who long for death, but it doesn’t come;
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, 22 who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat.
My groanings are poured out like water. 25 For the thing which I fear comes on me,
That which I am afraid of comes to me. 26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;
but trouble comes.”