Chapter 18

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²“How long will you hunt for words?

Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

³Why are we counted as animals,

Which have become unclean in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in your anger,

Shall the earth be forsaken for you?

Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out,

The spark of his fire shall not shine.

⁶The light shall be dark in his tent,

His lamp above him shall be put out.

⁷The steps of his strength shall be shortened,

His own counsel shall cast him down.

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

And he wanders into its mesh.

⁹A snare shall take him by the heel;

A trap shall lay hold on him.

¹⁰A noose is hidden for him in the ground,

A trap for him in the way.

¹¹Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,

And shall chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength shall be famished,

Calamity shall be ready at his side.

¹³The members of his body shall be devoured,

The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

¹⁴He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts.

He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

¹⁵There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his.

Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath,

Above shall his branch be cut off.

¹⁷His memory shall perish from the earth.

He shall have no name in the street.

¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness,

And chased out of the world.

¹⁹He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people,

Nor any remaining where he sojourned.

²⁰Those who come after shall be astonished at his day,

As those who went before were frightened.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous,

This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”