Then answered Baldad the Suhite:

Respondens autem Baldad Suhites, dixit:

Then Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:

Ah, you word-mongers, you have never had enough! First grasp our meaning, and we might argue to some purpose;

Usque ad quem finem verba jactabitis? intelligite prius, et sic loquamur.

How long will you throw out words? understand first, and so let us speak.

but no, to men like thee we are worthless as dumb beasts.

Quare reputati sumus ut jumenta, et sorduimus coram vobis?

Why are we reputed as beasts, and counted vile before you?

See with what fury he rends his own bosom! Must earth be dispeopled, must the rocks be torn from their place, to gratify one man’s despairing mood?

Qui perdis animam tuam in furore tuo, numquid propter te derelinquetur terra, et transferentur rupes de loco suo?

Thou that destroyest thy soul in thy fury, shall the earth be forsaken for thee, and shall rocks be removed out of their place?

Nay, the hopes of the wicked man are a light that shall be put out; a very will of the wisp;

Nonne lux impii extinguetur, nec splendebit flamma ignis ejus?

Shall not the light of the wicked be extinguished, and the flame of his fire not shine?

darkness shall fall over his dwelling-place, and the lamp that shone there will shine no more.

Lux obtenebrescet in tabernaculo illius, et lucerna quæ super eum est extinguetur.

The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and the lamp that is over him, shall be put out.

The boldness of his own stride takes him prisoner; his own devices recoil against him;

Arctabuntur gressus virtutis ejus, et præcipitabit eum consilium suum.

The step of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down headlong.

into the trap he walks, struggles vainly with its meshes;

Immisit enim in rete pedes suos, et in maculis ejus ambulat.

For he hath thrust his feet into a net, and walketh in its meshes.

now he is laid by the heels! Mounts ever higher his burning thirst.

Tenebitur planta illius laqueo, et exardescet contra eum sitis.

The sole of his foot shall be held in a snare, and thirst shall burn against him.

The ground sown with snares, pit-falls about his path,

Abscondita est in terra pedica ejus, et decipula illius super semitam.

A gin is hidden for him in the earth, and his trap upon the path.

fears attend him everywhere, catch everywhere at his feet.

Undique terrebunt eum formidines, et involvent pedes ejus.

Fears shall terrify him on every side, and shall entangle his feet.

His strength brought low by famine, hunger gnawing at his sides

Attenuetur fame robur ejus, et inedia invadat costas illius.

Let his strength be wasted with famine, and let hunger invade his ribs.

and wasting all his beauty, death in its primal guise shall devour those limbs.

Devoret pulchritudinem cutis ejus; consumat brachia illius primogenita mors.

Let it devour the beauty of his skin, let the firstborn death consume his arms.

Gone the security of his home, now its master lies under the heels of tyrant death;

Avellatur de tabernaculo suo fiducia ejus, et calcet super eum, quasi rex, interitus.

Let his confidence be rooted out of his tabernacle, and let destruction tread upon him like a king.

in his house strangers shall dwell, on his lands brimstone be scattered,

Habitent in tabernaculo illius socii ejus qui non est; aspergatur in tabernaculo ejus sulphur.

Let the companions of him that is not, dwell in his tabernacle, let brimstone be sprinkled in his tent.

root never grow beneath nor harvest rise from it.

Deorsum radices ejus siccentur: sursum autem atteratur messis ejus.

Let his roots be dried up beneath, and his harvest destroyed above.

Gone the fame of him, gone the name of him, from street and country-side,

Memoria illius pereat de terra, et non celebretur nomen ejus in plateis.

Let the memory of him perish from the earth, and let not his name be renowned in the streets.

eclipsed in utter darkness, lost to the world.

Expellet eum de luce in tenebras, et de orbe transferet eum.

He shall drive him out of light into darkness, and shall remove him out of the world.

Root nor branch of his posterity shall remain among his folk, vanished every trace of him from the lands he knew.

Non erit semen ejus, neque progenies in populo suo, nec ullæ reliquiæ in regionibus ejus.

His seed shall not subsist, nor his offspring among his people, nor any remnants in his country.

That doom with terror and amazement high and low shall witness.

In die ejus stupebunt novissimi, et primos invadet horror.

They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, and horror shall fall upon them that went before.

Here (they will say) was a home of wrong-doing; he who lived here, lived a stranger to God.

Hæc sunt ergo tabernacula iniqui, et iste locus ejus qui ignorat Deum.

These then are the tabernacles of the wicked, and this the place of him that knoweth not God.