1   Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

2   How soon will you bridle ^note your tongue?
Do but think, and then we will talk.
3   What do you mean by treating us as cattle?
Are we nothing but brute beasts to you? ^note
4   Is the earth to be deserted to prove you right,
or the rocks to be moved from their place?


5   No, it is the wicked whose light is extinguished,
from whose fire no flame will rekindle;

Second cycle of speeches
6   the light fades in his tent,
and his lamp dies down and fails him.
7   In his iniquity his steps ^note totter,
and his disobedience trips him up;
8   he rushes headlong into a net
and steps through the hurdle that covers a pit;
9   his heel is caught in a snare,
the noose grips him tight;
10   a cord lies hidden in the ground for him
and a trap in the path.
11   The terrors of death suddenly beset him
and make him piss over his feet.
12   For all his vigour he is paralysed with fear;
strong as he is, disaster awaits him.
13   Disease eats away his skin,
Death's eldest child devours his limbs.
14   He is torn from the safety of his home,
and Death's terrors escort him to their king. ^note
15   Magic herbs lie strewn about his tent,
and his home is sprinkled with sulphur to protect it.
16   His roots beneath dry up,
and above, his branches wither.
17   His memory vanishes from the face of the earth
and he leaves no name in the world.
18   He is driven from light into darkness
and banished from the land of the living.
19   He leaves no issue or offspring among his people,
no survivor in his earthly home;
20   in the west men hear of his doom and are appalled;
in the east they shudder with horror.
21   Such is the fate of the dwellings of evildoers,
and of the homes of those who care nothing for God.

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