Thy Strong Word — Job 17-18: Bildad: “Why Are We Stupid in Your Sight?”

³ “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
⁴ Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
⁵ He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
    the eyes of his children will fail.

⁶ “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
⁷ My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
⁸ The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
⁹ Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
¹⁰ But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
¹¹ My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
¹² They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’^[a]
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
¹⁴ if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
¹⁵ where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
¹⁶ Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”^[b]

² “How long will you hunt for words?
    Consider, and then we will speak.
³ Why are we counted as cattle?
    Why are we stupid in your sight?
⁴ You who tear yourself in your anger,
    shall the earth be forsaken for you,
    or the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵ “Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,
    and the flame of his fire does not shine.
⁶ The light is dark in his tent,
    and his lamp above him is put out.
⁷ His strong steps are shortened,
    and his own schemes throw him down.
⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
    and he walks on its mesh.
⁹ A trap seizes him by the heel;
    a snare lays hold of him.
¹⁰ A rope is hidden for him in the ground,
    a trap for him in the path.
¹¹ Terrors frighten him on every side,
    and chase him at his heels.
¹² His strength is famished,
    and calamity is ready for his stumbling.
¹³ It consumes the parts of his skin;
    the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.
¹⁴ He is torn from the tent in which he trusted
    and is brought to the king of terrors.
¹⁵ In his tent dwells that which is none of his;
    sulfur is scattered over his habitation.
¹⁶ His roots dry up beneath,
    and his branches wither above.
¹⁷ His memory perishes from the earth,
    and he has no name in the street.
¹⁸ He is thrust from light into darkness,
    and driven out of the world.
¹⁹ He has no posterity or progeny among his people,
    and no survivor where he used to live.
²⁰ They of the west are appalled at his day,
    and horror seizes them of the east.
²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,
    such is the place of him who knows not God.”