The Berean Pursuit
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
"How long until you end these speeches?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.
Why are we regarded as cattle,
as stupid in your sight?
You who tear yourself in anger-
should the earth be forsaken on your account,
or the rocks be moved from their place?
Indeed, the lamp of the wicked is extinguished;
the flame of his fire does not glow.
The light in his tent grows dark,
and the lamp beside him goes out.
His vigorous stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.
For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he wanders into its mesh.
A trap seizes his heel;
a snare grips him.
A noose is hidden in the ground,
and a trap lies in his path.
Terrors frighten him on every side
and harass his every step.
His strength is depleted,
and calamity is ready at his side.
It devours patches of his skin;
the firstborn of death devours his limbs.
He is torn from the shelter of his tent
and is marched off to the king of terrors.
Fire resides in his tent;
burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.
The roots beneath him dry up,
and the branches above him wither away.
The memory of him perishes from the earth,
and he has no name in the land.
He is driven from light into darkness
and is chased from the inhabited world.
He has no offspring or posterity among his people,
no survivor where he once lived.
Those in the west are appalled at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.
Surely such is the dwelling of the wicked
and the place of one who does not know God."
Then Job answered:
"How long will you torment me
and crush me with your words?
Ten times now you have reproached me;
you shamelessly mistreat me.
Even if I have truly gone astray,
my error concerns me alone.
If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me
and use my disgrace against me,
then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and drawn His net around me.
Though I cry out, 'Violence!' I get no response;
though I call for help, there is no justice.
He has blocked my way so I cannot pass;
He has veiled my paths with darkness.
He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
He tears me down on every side until I am gone;
He uproots my hope like a tree.
His anger burns against me,
and He counts me among His enemies.
His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp against me
and encamp around my tent.
He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.
My kinsmen have failed me,
and my friends have forgotten me.
My guests and maidservants count me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
though I implore him with my own mouth.
My breath is repulsive to my wife,
and I am loathsome to my own family.
Even little boys scorn me;
when I appear, they deride me.
All my best friends despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.
My skin and flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Have pity on me, my friends, have pity,
for the hand of God has struck me.
Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
I wish that my words were recorded
and inscribed in a book,
by an iron stylus on lead,
or chiseled in stone forever.
But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God.
I will see Him for myself;
my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger.
How my heart yearns within me!
If you say, 'Let us persecute him,
since the root of the matter lies with him,'
then you should fear the sword yourselves,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment."
Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
"So my anxious thoughts compel me to answer,
because of the turmoil within me.
I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and my understanding prompts a reply.
Do you not know that from antiquity,
since man was placed on the earth,
the triumph of the wicked has been brief
and the joy of the godless momentary?
Though his arrogance reaches the heavens,
and his head touches the clouds,
he will perish forever, like his own dung;
those who had seen him will ask, 'Where is he?'
He will fly away like a dream, never to be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
The eye that saw him will see him no more,
and his place will no longer behold him.
His sons will seek the favor of the poor,
for his own hands must return his wealth.
The youthful vigor that fills his bones
will lie down with him in the dust.
Though evil is sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,
though he cannot bear to let it go
and keeps it in his mouth,
yet in his stomach his food sours
into the venom of cobras within him.
He swallows wealth but vomits it out;
God will force it from his stomach.
He will suck the poison of cobras;
the fangs of a viper will kill him.
He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and cream.
He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he cannot enjoy the profits of his trading.
For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;
he has seized houses he did not build.
Because his appetite is never satisfied,
he cannot escape with his treasure.
Nothing is left for him to consume;
thus his prosperity will not endure.
In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed;
the full force of misery will come upon him.
When he has filled his stomach,
God will vent His fury upon him,
raining it down on him as he eats.
Though he flees from an iron weapon,
a bronze-tipped arrow will pierce him.
It is drawn out of his back,
the gleaming point from his liver.
Terrors come over him.
Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned will consume him
and devour what is left in his tent.
The heavens will expose his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
The possessions of his house will be removed,
flowing away on the day of God's wrath.
This is the wicked man's portion from God,
the inheritance God has appointed him."
A Psalm of David.
I call upon You, O LORD; come quickly to me.
Hear my voice when I call to You.
May my prayer be set before You like incense,
my uplifted hands like the evening offering.
Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
keep watch at the door of my lips.
Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing
or take part in works of wickedness
with men who do iniquity;
let me not feast on their delicacies.
Let the righteous man strike me;
let his rebuke be an act of loving devotion.
It is oil for my head; let me not refuse it.
For my prayer is ever against the deeds of the wicked.
When their rulers are thrown down from the cliffs,
the people will listen to my words,
for they are pleasant.
As when one plows and breaks up the soil,
so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
But my eyes are fixed on You,
O GOD the Lord.
In You I seek refuge;
do not leave my soul defenseless.
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
and from the lures of evildoers.
Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
Then I saw another great and marvelous sign in heaven: seven angels with the seven final plagues, with which the wrath of God is completed.
And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, beside which stood those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name. They were holding harps from God, and they sang the song of God's servant Moses and of the Lamb:
"Great and wonderful are Your works,
O Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear You, O Lord,
and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before You,
for Your righteous acts have been revealed."
After this I looked, and the temple-the tabernacle of the Testimony-was opened in heaven. And out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, dressed in clean and bright linen and girded with golden sashes around their chests.
Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.