Job 8

²“How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

³Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

⁴If your children sinned against him,

he delivered them into the power of their transgression.

⁵If you will seek God

and make supplication to the Almighty,

⁶if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will rouse himself for you

and restore to you your rightful place.

⁷Though your beginning was small,

your latter days will be very great.

⁸“For inquire now of bygone generations,

and consider what their ancestors have found;

⁹for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,

for our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you

and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹“Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?

Can reeds flourish where there is no water?

¹²While yet in flower and not cut down,

they wither before any other plant.

¹³Such are the paths of all who forget God;

the hope of the godless shall perish.

¹⁴Their confidence is gossamer,

a spider’s house their trust.

¹⁵If one leans against its house, it will not stand;

if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.

¹⁶The wicked thrive before the sun,

and their shoots spread over the garden.

¹⁷Their roots twine around the stoneheap;

they live among the rocks.

¹⁸If they are destroyed from their place,

then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

¹⁹See, these are their happy ways,

and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰“See, God will not reject a blameless person,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,

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