Job 8

Bildad

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²“How long will you say such things?

Your words are a blustering wind.

³Does God pervert justice?

Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴When your children sinned against him,

he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

⁵But if you will seek God earnestly

and plead with the Almighty,

⁶if you are pure and upright,

even now he will rouse himself on your behalf

and restore you to your prosperous state.

⁷Your beginnings will seem humble,

so prosperous will your future be.

⁸“Ask the former generation

and find out what their ancestors learned,

⁹for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,

and our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not instruct you and tell you?

Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?

¹¹Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?

Can reeds thrive without water?

¹²While still growing and uncut,

they wither more quickly than grass.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God;

so perishes the hope of the godless.

¹⁴What they trust in is fragile;

what they rely on is a spider’s web.

¹⁵They lean on the web, but it gives way;

they cling to it, but it does not hold.

¹⁶They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,

spreading its shoots over the garden;

¹⁷it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks

and looks for a place among the stones.

¹⁸But when it is torn from its spot,

that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’

¹⁹Surely its life withers away,

and from the soil other plants grow.

²⁰“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless

or strengthen the hands of evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter

and your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed in shame,

and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”