Job 24:18-20

The Voice

This passage is challenging to translate because it appears to have Job arguing against his previous convictions by claiming the wicked do suffer, which fits better with Zophar’s philosophy. But that textual difficulty offers two possible explanations of Job’s apparent dual arguments. First, it is possible to read these verses as if Job is quoting his friends; he is not adopting this theology, but mocking his friends who do. Second, Job may be cursing the wicked, wishing these evil things would happen to them. The Greek version of the text, called the Septuagint, provides the second translation of this passage. Regardless of who said it and how, this passage describes the possible pitfalls of evil actions.

¹⁸Job: The wicked may sit lightly on the surface of the waters,
        but their bit of land, the parcel on which they live, is accursed;
    In fact, they don’t even turn down the road to their vineyards
        because they don’t produce.
¹⁹    Just as summer’s heat and drought melt and carry off the winter snow,
        the land of the dead digests and carries away sinners.
²⁰    The very wombs whence they came forget them;
        the worms will feast on them until no one remembers they existed;
        the skeletons of wickedness dry up and snap like twigs.