Bildad: God Punishes the Wicked

1And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: —

2When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

3Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

4(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

5Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

6The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

7Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

8For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

9Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

10Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

11Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him — at his feet.

12Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side.

13It consumeth the parts of his skin, Consume his parts doth death’s first-born.

14Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors.

15It dwelleth in his tent — out of his provender, Scattered over his habitation is sulphur.

16From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop.

17His memorial hath perished from the land, And he hath no name on the street.

18They thrust him from light unto darkness, And from the habitable earth cast him out.

19He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings.

20At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright.

21Only these [are] tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.