Job 18
Bildad speaks to Job again
18:1Now Bildad tells Job how God punishes bad people. He tells Job to listen to people who can help him. He says that Job must become wise. Then he will understand what has happened to him.
1 Then Bildad, the man from Shuah, replied. This is what he said:
2 ‘You should not continue to talk like that!
Stop and think carefully. Then we can talk.
3 You should not think that we are as foolish as cows.
4 You are so angry that you are hurting yourself.
You will never change the way that things happen in the world.
Your anger will not cause the earth to shake,
or any rocks to move from their places.
What happens to wicked people
5 The light of a wicked person's life will stop shining.
His fire will no longer burn brightly.
6 His tent will be dark.
The lamp that gives him light will stop burning.
7 Once he was strong
but now his legs are weak.
His own ideas cause him to fall down.
8 He does not know where he is going
and he walks into a dangerous trap.
9 A trap catches his foot
and he cannot move.
10 Someone has hidden a rope on the ground.
It catches him as he walks along.
11 Everywhere a wicked person goes,
things frighten him.
He cannot escape from them.
12 Now he is hungry
and his strength has disappeared.
Terrible trouble is ready to take hold of him
whenever it has the chance.
13 A bad disease eats his skin.
It causes his arms and his legs to become useless
and he dies.
14 Then he has to leave his tent
where he had lived safely.
He will have to meet the terrible king of death.
15 Other people will live in his tent.
They have used sulphur to burn all his things.
18:15They used sulphur to make a place clean.
16 He is like a tree whose roots have become dry,
and its branches have fallen off.
17 Nobody remembers that he ever lived.
They have forgotten his name.
18 The wicked person has had to leave this world.
He has gone from a place where there is light
to a place where it is dark.
19 He has no children or grandchildren.
He has no family to live in his home.
20 All people are very upset
when they see what has happened to him.
Wherever they live,
they are very upset.
21 I know that this is what happens to the homes of evil people.
It happens to people who turn away from God.’
