Job 8
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
The Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:
2 “How long will you say these things? How long will the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
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 righteousness?
Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?
4 Your children have sinned against him; we know this, for he gave them into the hand of their sins.
Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:
5 But suppose you diligently sought God and presented your request to the Almighty.
Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:
6 If you are pure and upright, then he would surely stir himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place.
If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake onto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:
7 Even though your beginning was small, still your final condition would be much greater.
Insomuch, that if thy former things were small, thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.
8 Please ask the former generations, and give your attention to what our ancestors learned.
For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:
9 (We were only born yesterday and know nothing because our days on earth are a shadow).
(For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow: )
10 Will they not teach you and tell you? Will they not speak words from their hearts?
And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.
11 Can papyrus grow without a marsh? Can reeds grow without water?
Can the rush be green without moisture? or a sedge-bush grow without water?
12 While they are still green and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked up with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
13 So also are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will perish.
Even so are the ways of all that forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:
14 His confidence will break apart, and his trust is as weak as a spider's web.
His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider’s web.
15 He leans on his house, but it will not support him; he takes hold of it, but it does not stand.
He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:
16 Under the sun he is green, and his shoots go out over his entire garden.
He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh, and at his rising his blossom shall shoot forth.
17 His roots are wrapped about the heaps of stone; they look for good places among the rocks.
His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones, and among the stones he shall abide.
18 But if this person is destroyed out of his place, then that place will deny him and say, 'I never saw you.'
If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.
19 See, this is the “joy” of such a person's behavior; other plants will sprout out of the same soil in his place.
For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.
20 See, God will not cast away an innocent man; neither will he take the hand of evildoers.
God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evildoer:
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting.
Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.
