Day 156 of 364

^16:1Then Job answered, ^16:2“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters! ^16:3Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer? ^16:4I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul’s place, I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you, ^16:5but I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you. ^16:6“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased? ^16:7But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made all my company desolate. ^16:8You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me. It testifies to my face. ^16:9He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. ^16:10They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me. ^16:11God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. ^16:12I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target. ^16:13His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my bile on the ground. ^16:14He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant. ^16:15I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, and have thrust my horn in the dust. ^16:16My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids, ^16:17although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. ^16:18“Earth, don’t cover my blood. Let my cry have no place to rest. ^16:19Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high. ^16:20My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God, ^16:21that he would maintain the right of a man with God, of a son of man with his neighbor! ^16:22For when a few years have come, I will go the way of no return. ^17:1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct and the grave is ready for me. ^17:2Surely there are mockers with me. My eye dwells on their provocation. ^17:3“Now give a pledge. Be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me? ^17:4For you have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore you will not exalt them. ^17:5He who denounces his friends for plunder, even the eyes of his children will fail. ^17:6“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face. ^17:7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. ^17:8Upright men will be astonished at this. The innocent will stir himself up against the godless. ^17:9Yet the righteous will hold to his way. He who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger. ^17:10But as for you all, come back. I will not find a wise man among you. ^17:11My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart. ^17:12They change the night into day, saying ‘The light is near’ in the presence of darkness. ^17:13If I look for Sheol as my house, if I have spread my couch in the darkness, ^17:14if I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘My sister,’ ^17:15where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it? ^17:16Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, or descend together into the dust?” ^18:1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ^18:2“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. ^18:3Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight? ^18:4You who tear yourself in your anger, will the earth be forsaken for you? Or will the rock be removed out of its place? ^18:5“Yes, the light of the wicked will be put out. The spark of his fire won’t shine. ^18:6The light will be dark in his tent. His lamp above him will be put out. ^18:7The steps of his strength will be shortened. His own counsel will cast him down. ^18:8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh. ^18:9A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him. ^18:10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path. ^18:11Terrors will make him afraid on every side, and will chase him at his heels. ^18:12His strength will be famished. Calamity will be ready at his side. ^18:13The members of his body will be devoured. The firstborn of death will devour his members. ^18:14He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors. ^18:15There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation. ^18:16His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above. ^18:17His memory will perish from the earth. He will have no name in the street. ^18:18He will be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. ^18:19He will have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived. ^18:20Those who come after will be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened. ^18:21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”