So there I was, this morning, lying in bed about to get up and take my dog for a walk in the rain and I thought ‘bloody hell, no peace for the wicked’.

And then, I wondered how to say this in Latin and where it came from.

It turns out that the phrase originated in the Book of Isaiah verses 48:22 or XLVIII in my Vulgate. XLVIII is way more classy, but I digress.

Non est pax impiis dicit Dominus

In fact, impiis is I think the dative plural impius ‘wicked’ giving a more literal translation of ‘no peace to the wicked’. Impius also has or had the meaning ‘without reverence of respect for God’.

Interestingly (or perhaps not depending on who you are and what you fret about), the relevant  wiki entry gives a different translation for Isaiah 57:21 (or better written LVII). The Latin for both XLVIII:22 and LVII:21 according to my copy of the Vulgate (which predates Wiki by around 150 years) is identical.

There are of course different translations/versions of the bible, but the Wiki entry doesn’t indicate the version to which it is referring. The moral of the story is of course, don’t take Wiki entries on faith, and refer to originals where you can.

For what it’s worth, I ended up absolutely drenched after walking said hound, and he ended up with wet paws and vomiting on the carpet.

Pax,

MF