18:1And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --

18:2When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

18:3Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

18:4(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

18:5Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

18:6The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

18:7Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

18:8For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

18:9Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

18:10Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

18:11Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him -- at his feet.

18:12Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side.

18:13It consumeth the parts of his skin, Consume his parts doth death's first-born.

18:14Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors.

18:15It dwelleth in his tent -- out of his provender, Scattered over his habitation is sulphur.

18:16From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop.

18:17His memorial hath perished from the land, And he hath no name on the street.

18:18They thrust him from light unto darkness, And from the habitable earth cast him out.

18:19He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings.

18:20At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright.

18:21Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.

19:1And Job answereth and saith: --

19:2Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

19:3These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --

19:4And also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.

19:5If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;

19:6Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round,

19:7Lo, I cry out -- violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.

19:8My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth.

19:9Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

19:10He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope.

19:11And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.

19:12Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.

19:13My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

19:14Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

19:15Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

19:16To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

19:17My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my mother's womb.

19:18Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

19:19Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

19:20To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

19:21Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

19:22Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

19:23Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

19:24With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.

19:25That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

19:26And after my skin hath compassed this body, Then from my flesh I see God:

19:27Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

19:28But ye say, `Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

19:29Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious are the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that there is a judgment.

20:1And Zophar the Naamathite answereth and saith: --

20:2Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, And because of my sensations in me.

20:3The chastisement of my shame I hear, And the spirit of mine understanding Doth cause me to answer:

20:4This hast thou known from antiquity? Since the placing of man on earth?

20:5That the singing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the profane for a moment,

20:6Though his excellency go up to the heavens, And his head against a cloud he strike --

20:7As his own dung for ever he doth perish, His beholders say: `Where is he?'

20:8As a dream he fleeth, and they find him not, And he is driven away as a vision of the night,

20:9The eye hath not seen him, and addeth not. And not again doth his place behold him.

20:10His sons do the poor oppress, And his hands give back his wealth.

20:11His bones have been full of his youth, And with him on the dust it lieth down.

20:12Though he doth sweeten evil in his mouth, Doth hide it under his tongue,

20:13Hath pity on it, and doth not forsake it, And keep it back in the midst of his palate,

20:14His food in his bowels is turned, The bitterness of asps is in his heart.

20:15Wealth he hath swallowed, and doth vomit it. From his belly God driveth it out.

20:16Gall of asps he sucketh, Slay him doth the tongue of a viper.

20:17He looketh not on rivulets, Flowing of brooks of honey and butter.

20:18He is giving back what he laboured for, And doth not consume it; As a bulwark is his exchange, and he exults not.

20:19For he oppressed -- he forsook the poor, A house he hath taken violently away, And he doth not build it.

20:20For he hath not known ease in his belly. With his desirable thing he delivereth not himself.

20:21There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good doth not stay.

20:22In the fulness of his sufficiency he is straitened. Every perverse hand doth meet him.

20:23It cometh to pass, at the filling of his belly, He sendeth forth against him The fierceness of His anger, Yea, He raineth on him in his eating.

20:24He fleeth from an iron weapon, Pass through him doth a bow of brass.

20:25One hath drawn, And it cometh out from the body, And a glittering weapon from his gall proceedeth. On him are terrors.

20:26All darkness is hid for his treasures, Consume him doth a fire not blown, Broken is the remnant in his tent.

20:27Reveal do the heavens his iniquity, And earth is raising itself against him.

20:28Remove doth the increase of his house, Poured forth in a day of His anger.

20:29This is the portion of a wicked man from God. And an inheritance appointed him by God.