Job 8
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke up and said,
The Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:
2 “How much longer will you go on talking like this? The words coming out of your mouth are a lot of hot air!
How long wilt thou speak these things, and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?
4 Your children must have sinned against him, and so they deserved the punishment he inflicted on them.
Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:
5 But if you pray to God and ask for his help,
Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:
6 if you live a clean life and do what is right, then he would act to make things right for you in your home.
If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake onto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:
7 Though you began with next to nothing, you will end up with so much!
Insomuch, that if thy former things were small, thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.
8 Why don't you ask what previous generations discovered, examine what our ancestors found out? We were born yesterday and don't know anything!
For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:
9 Our days on earth fade as quickly as a passing shadow.
(For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow: )
10 Won't they teach you and explain what they know?
And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.
11 Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds grow without water?
Can the rush be green without moisture? or a sedge-bush grow without water?
12 Even without being cut, while they are still flowering, they wither faster than grass.
When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked up with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
13 This is what happens to everyone who forgets God. The hopes of those who live without God come to nothing.
Even so are the ways of all that forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:
14 Their confidence is like holding on to a flimsy spider's web.
His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider’s web.
15 They look to their home to provide security, but it provides no support. They try to hang onto it, but it doesn't last.
He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:
16 Those who live without God are like a luxuriant plant growing in the sun, spreading its shoots all over the garden.
He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh, and at his rising his blossom shall shoot forth.
17 It twists its roots down through the stones, and holds on to rock.
His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones, and among the stones he shall abide.
18 But when it's cut down, the place where it was disowns it, saying, ‘I never even saw you.’
If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.
19 Its life is over, and others spring up from the earth to take its place.
For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.
20 Look, God doesn't reject someone who is innocent, and he doesn't support those who are guilty.
God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evildoer:
21 He can make you laugh with happiness again and shout for joy.
Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.
22 Those who hate you will be put to shame, and the place where the wicked live will be destroyed.”
They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.
