Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

¹Then aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“How long will you bhunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

³Why are we counted as ccattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight?

⁴You who dtear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or ethe rock be removed out of its place?

⁵“Indeed, fthe light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

⁶The light is gdark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

⁷His strong steps are shortened,

and his hown schemes throw him down.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet,

and he walks on its mesh.

⁹iA trap seizes him by the heel;

a snare lays hold of him.

¹⁰A rope is hidden for him in the ground,

a trap for him in the path.

¹¹jTerrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength is famished,

and calamity is kready for his stumbling.

¹³It consumes the parts of his skin;

lthe firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

¹⁴He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to mthe king of terrors.

¹⁵In his tent dwells that which is none of his;

nsulfur is scattered over his habitation.

¹⁶His oroots dry up beneath,

and his branches pwither above.

¹⁷His qmemory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

¹⁸rHe is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

¹⁹He has no sposterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

²⁰They of the west are appalled at his tday,

and uhorror seizes them of the east.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

such is the place of him who vknows not God.”