Job 8

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 2How long will you go on talking like this? Your words are a blustering wind. 3Does God twist justice? Does the Almighty twist what is right? 4If your children sinned against him, he handed them over to the power of their own wrongdoing. 5But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty for mercy, 6if you are pure and upright, then he will rise up for you at once and restore your rightful home. 7Though your beginning was small, your future will be very great. 8Ask the generation that went before, and consider what their ancestors discovered. 9For we were born only yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are a shadow. 10Will they not teach you and tell you, bringing out words from their understanding? 11Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish without water? 12While it is still in flower and not yet cut, it withers sooner than any other plant. 13Such is the end of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will perish. 14What they rely on snaps like a thread; what they trust in is a spider’s web. 15They lean on their house, but it will not stand; they cling to it, but it will not hold. 16They are like a lush plant in the sunshine, sending out shoots all over the garden. 17Their roots twine around a pile of rocks; they look for a hold among the stones. 18But when they are torn from their place, it disowns them: “I never saw you.” 19See, that is the joy of their way, and from the soil others will spring up. 20Surely God does not reject anyone who is blameless, nor does he take evildoers by the hand. 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 gone.