Job 8 / 42
- 1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
- 2"How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
- 3Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
- 4When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
- 5But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty,
- 6if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place.
- 7Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
- 8"Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned,
- 9for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
- 10Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
- 11Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
- 12While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
- 13Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
- 14What he trusts in is fragile ; what he relies on is a spider's web.
- 15He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.
- 16He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
- 17it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
- 18But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, 'I never saw you.'
- 19Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
- 20"Surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
- 21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
- 22Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more."