Bildad Answers Job
18 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “·When will you stop these speeches [L How long before you stop these words]?
·Be sensible [or Reflect], and then we can talk [Prov. 15:28; 18:13; 29:20].
3 ·You think of [L Why do you consider/count] us as cattle,
as ·if we are stupid [L stupid in your eyes/estimation].
4 You tear ·yourself [your life] to pieces in your anger.
Should the earth be vacant ·just for [or because of] you?
Should the rocks move from their places [14:18]?
5 “The lamp of the wicked will be put out,
and the flame in their lamps will stop burning.
6 The light in their tents will grow dark,
and the lamps ·by their sides [or above them] will go out.
7 Their ·strong steps [vigorous gait] will grow ·weak [cramped; restricted];
·they will fall into their own evil traps [or their own schemes/advice will throw them down].
8 Their feet will be caught in a net [Prov. 28:9]
when they walk into ·its web [a snare].
9 A trap will catch them by the heel [Prov. 22:5]
and [L a noose] hold them tight.
10 A ·trap for them [L rope] is hidden on the ground,
right in their path.
11 ·Terrible things [L Terrors] startle them from every side
and ·chase [or disperse] them at ·every step [L their feet].
12 ·Hunger takes away their strength [or Calamity is hungry for them],
and disaster is ·at their side [or prepared for them when they stumble].
13 Disease eats away ·parts of their skin [or their fleshy limbs];
·death [L the firstborn of Death; C death is personified] ·gnaws at [consumes] their ·arms and legs [L limbs].
14 They are torn from the ·safety [confidence] of their tents
and ·dragged off to Death, the King of Terrors [L terrors march them off to their king].
15 ·Their tents are set on fire [or Nothing of theirs will remain in their tents],
and sulfur is scattered over their ·homes [or pastures].
16 Their roots dry up below ground,
and their branches die above ground [C the wicked are like a dead tree].
17 People on earth will not remember them;
their names will be forgotten in the land.
18 They will be driven from light into darkness
and ·chased [driven] out of the world [C they will die].
19 They have no children or descendants among their people,
and no one will be left alive where they once lived.
20 People ·of the west [or who come after] will be ·shocked [desolated] ·at what has happened to them [by their end/fate],
and people ·of the east [or who came before] will be ·very frightened [seized with horror].
21 Surely this is ·what will happen to [L the dwelling of] the wicked;
such is the place of one who does not know God.”