Job 8

¹ Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

² How long will you say these things?
The words of your mouth are a great wind.

³ Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴ If your children sinned against him,
he delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

⁵ If you yourself will seek God
and plead for mercy with the Almighty,

⁶ if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful dwelling.

⁷ Though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.

⁸ For inquire, I pray, of the former generation,
and attend to the findings of their fathers —

⁹ for we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow —

¹⁰ will they not teach you and tell you,
and from their understanding bring forth words?

¹¹ Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish without water?

¹² While still in flower and not yet cut,
it withers before any other plant.

¹³ Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish —

¹⁴ whose confidence is cut short,
whose trust is a spider's web.

¹⁵ He leans on his house, but it does not stand;
he clings to it, but it does not hold.

¹⁶ He is a well-watered plant in the sun,
and his shoots spread over his garden.

¹⁷ His roots wrap around the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.

¹⁸ If he is torn from his place,
it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'

¹⁹ See — this is the joy of his way,
and from the dust others will spring up.

²⁰ Surely God does not reject a blameless man,
nor does he grasp the hand of evildoers.

²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.

²² Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.