Job 8

²How long wilt thou speak these things?

And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?

³Doth God pervert justice?

Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴If thy children have sinned against him,

And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression;

⁵If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God,

And make thy supplication to the Almighty;

⁶If thou wert pure and upright:

Surely now he would awake for thee,

And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

⁷And though thy beginning was small,

Yet thy latter end would greatly increase.

⁸For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,

And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out

⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,

Because our days upon earth are a shadow);

¹⁰Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,

And utter words out of their heart?

¹¹Can the rush grow up without mire?

Can the flag grow without water?

¹²Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down,

It withereth before any other herb.

¹³So are the paths of all that forget God;

And the hope of the godless man shall perish:

¹⁴Whose confidence shall break in sunder,

And whose trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand:

He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun,

And his shoots go forth over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped about the stone-heap,

He beholdeth the place of stones.

¹⁸If he be destroyed from his place,

Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way;

And out of the earth shall others spring.

²⁰Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,

Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.

²¹He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter,

And thy lips with shouting.

²²They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;

And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.