Job 8

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

⁸Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

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^j 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,^k*

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^l before the sun,

and their shoots spread over the garden.^*

¹⁷Their roots twine around the stoneheap;

they live among the rocks.^m

¹⁸If they are destroyed from their place,

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

¹⁹See, these are their happy ways,ⁿ

and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰“See, God will not reject the blameless,

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.”^*