17 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

² Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

³ Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?

⁴ For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

⁵ He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶ He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

⁷ Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

⁸ Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.

⁹ The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

¹⁰ But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.

¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

¹² They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.

¹³ If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

¹⁴ I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

¹⁵ And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶ They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

18 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

² How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.

³ Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?

⁴ He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?

⁵ Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

⁶ The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

⁷ The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

⁸ For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

⁹ The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

¹⁰ The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

¹¹ Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

¹² His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.

¹³ It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.

¹⁴ His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

¹⁵ It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

¹⁶ His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.

¹⁷ His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.

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

¹⁹ He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.

²⁰ They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

²¹ Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.