Bildad Speaks Again
Bildad resents being counted as cattle and answers with a set piece on the fate of the wicked: the lamp snuffed out, the trap at the heel, no descendant left alive. Every image lands on a man who has just buried his children.
18 1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 2"How long will you hunt for words? Show some sense, and then we can talk. 3Why are we treated like cattle, counted as stupid in your sight? 4You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger—should the earth be abandoned for your sake, or the rock be moved from its place? 5Yes, the light of the wicked is snuffed out, and the flame of his fire goes dark. 6The light grows dark in his tent, and the lamp above him goes out. 7His vigorous strides are cut short, and his own schemes throw him down. 8His own feet drive him into a net, and he walks right into its mesh. 9A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare grips him tight. 10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, and a trap lies waiting on his path. 11Terrors startle him on every side and chase him at his heels. 12His strength is starved away, and calamity stands ready for his fall. 13It devours patches of his skin; the firstborn of death devours his limbs. a a v13 "The firstborn of death" is a poetic expression for a lethal, wasting disease — death's deadliest agent. 14He is torn from the safety of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors. 15Fire settles in his tent, no longer his own; burning sulfur is scattered over his home. 16His roots dry up below, and his branches wither above. 17His memory perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the streets. 18He is driven from light into darkness and chased out of the world. 19He leaves no offspring or descendant among his people, no survivor where he once lived. 20Those in the west are appalled at his fate, and those in the east are seized with horror. 21Surely this is what becomes of the dwellings of the wicked, the place of the one who does not know God."
