Respondens autem Baldad Suhites, dixit:

Then answered Baldad the Suhite:

Then Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:

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

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

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

Quare reputati sumus ut jumenta, et sorduimus coram vobis?

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

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

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

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?

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

Nonne lux impii extinguetur, nec splendebit flamma ignis ejus?

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

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

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

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

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

Arctabuntur gressus virtutis ejus, et præcipitabit eum consilium suum.

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

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

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

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

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

Tenebitur planta illius laqueo, et exardescet contra eum sitis.

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

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

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

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

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

Undique terrebunt eum formidines, et involvent pedes ejus.

fears attend him everywhere, catch everywhere at his feet.

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

Attenuetur fame robur ejus, et inedia invadat costas illius.

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

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

Devoret pulchritudinem cutis ejus; consumat brachia illius primogenita mors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deorsum radices ejus siccentur: sursum autem atteratur messis ejus.

root never grow beneath nor harvest rise from it.

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

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

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

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

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

eclipsed in utter darkness, lost to the world.

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

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

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

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

In die ejus stupebunt novissimi, et primos invadet horror.

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

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

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

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

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