Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2“How long will you hunt for words?

Consider, and then we will speak.

3Why are we counted as cattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight?

4You who tear yourself in your anger,

shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or the rock be removed out of its place?

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

and the flame of his fire does not shine.

6The light is dark in his tent,

and his lamp above him is put out.

7His strong steps are shortened,

and his own schemes throw him down.

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

and he walks on its mesh.

9A 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.

11Terrors frighten him on every side,

and chase him at his heels.

12His strength is famished,

and calamity is ready for his stumbling.

13It consumes the parts of his skin;

the firstborn of death consumes his limbs.

14He is torn from the tent in which he trusted

and is brought to the king of terrors.

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

sulphur is scattered over his habitation.

16His roots dry up beneath,

and his branches wither above.

17His memory perishes from the earth,

and he has no name in the street.

18He is thrust from light into darkness,

and driven out of the world.

19He has no posterity or progeny among his people,

and no survivor where he used to live.

20They of the west are appalled at his day,

and horror seizes them of the east.

21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

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