"17. What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
18. The paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing and perish."
The Douay version has it:
"16. They" (the people) "that fear the hoary frost, the snow shall fall upon them.
"17. At the time when they shall be scattered they shall perish; and after it groweth hot they shall be melted out of their place.
"18. The paths of their steps are entangled; they shall walk in vain and shall perish."
There is a great deal of perishing here--some by frost and snow, some by heat; the people are scattered, they lose their way, they perish.
{p. 289}
Job's servants and sheep were also consumed in their place; they came to naught, they perished.
Job begins to think, like the Aztec priest, that possibly the human race has reached its limit and is doomed to annihilation (chap. vii):