Day 139: Job 18-20

The Certainty of Judgment, the Pain of Betrayal, and the Hope of Vindication

Job 18

1 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 will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine.

6 The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out.

7 The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down.

8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on 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 will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels.

12 His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side.

13 The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members.

14 He will be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He will be brought to the king of terrors.

15 There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.

16 His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above.

17 His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street.

18 He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

19 He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.

20 Those who come after will 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 19

1 Then Job answered,

2 “How long will you torment me, and crush me with words?

3 You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.

4 If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach,

6 know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.

7 “Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8 He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.

9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone. He has uprooted my hope like a tree.

11 He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

12 His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

14 My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, consider me a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer. I beg him with my mouth.

17 My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

18 Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

19 All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me as God, and aren’t satisfied with my flesh?

23 “Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24 That with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever!

25 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

26 After my skin is destroyed, then in my flesh shall I see God,

27 whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger.

“My heart is consumed within me.

28 If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,

29 be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishments of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”

Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

2 “Therefore my thoughts answer me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

4 Don’t you know this from of old, since man was placed on the earth,

5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

7 yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

8 He will fly away as a dream, and will not be found. Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

9 The eye which saw him will see him no more, neither will his place see him any more.

10 His children will seek the favor of the poor. His hands will give back his wealth.

11 His bones are full of his youth, but youth will lie down with him in the dust.

12 “Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,

13 though he spare it, and will not let it go, but keep it still within his mouth,

14 yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

15 He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.

16 He will suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue will kill him.

17 He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.

18 That which he labored for he will restore, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten.

19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up.

20 “Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights.

21 There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure.

22 In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.

23 When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.

24 He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through.

25 He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent.

27 The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.

28 The increase of his house will depart. His goods will flow away in the day of his wrath.

29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.