Job 8

²“How long will you speak these things?

Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴If your children have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.

⁵If you want to seek God diligently,

make your supplication to the Almighty.

⁶If you were pure and upright,

surely now he would awaken for you,

and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

⁷Though your beginning was small,

yet your latter end would greatly increase.

⁸“Please inquire of past generations.

Find out about the learning of their fathers.

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

because our days on earth are a shadow.)

¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you,

and utter words out of their heart?

¹¹“Can the papyrus grow up without mire?

Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down,

it withers before any other reed.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God.

The hope of the godless man will perish,

¹⁴whose confidence will break apart,

whose trust is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He will lean on his house, but it will not stand.

He will cling to it, but it will not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun.

His shoots go out along his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile.

He sees the place of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way.

Out of the earth, others will spring.

²⁰“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man,

neither will he uphold the evildoers.

²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter,

your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame.

The tent of the wicked will be no more.”