Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:[#Job 2:11; 8:1]

²“How long will it be until you put an end to words?

Gain understanding, and afterwards we will speak.

³Why are we counted as beasts

and regarded as stupid in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in anger,[#Job 13:14]

will the earth be forsaken for you?

And will the rock be removed from its place?

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

and the spark of his fire will not shine.

⁶The light will be dark in his tent,

and his candle beside him will be put out.

⁷The steps of his strength will be shortened,[#Pr 4:12]

and his own counsel will cast him down.

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

and he walks upon a snare.

⁹The trap will take him by the heel,

and the snare will prevail against him.

¹⁰The snare is laid for him in the ground,

and a trap for him in the path.

¹¹Terrors will make him afraid on every side[#Job 15:21; Jer 6:25]

and will drive him to his feet.

¹²His strength will be hungry,

and destruction will be ready at his side.

¹³It will devour the parts of his skin;

the firstborn of death will devour his limbs.

¹⁴His confidence will be rooted out of his tent,

and it will bring him to the king of terrors.

¹⁵They dwell in his tent who have no part with him;

brimstone will be scattered upon his habitation.

¹⁶His roots will be dried up beneath,

and above his branch will dry up.

¹⁷The memory of him will perish from the earth,[#Ps 34:16; Pr 10:7]

and he will have no name in the street.

¹⁸He will be driven from light into darkness,

and chased out of the world.

¹⁹He has neither descendant nor posterity among his people,[#Jer 22:30]

nor anyone remaining in his dwellings.

²⁰They who come after him will be astonished at his day,[#Ps 37:13; Jer 50:27]

as they who went before were seized with fright.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked,

and this is the place of him who does not know God.”