Job 8
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 “How long will you say such things? The words from your mouth are a mighty wind.
3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4 If your children sinned against him, he handed them over to the power of their rebellion.
5 If only you would seek God and plead with the Almighty!
6 If you are pure and upright, he will surely rise up for you now and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
7 Your beginning was small, but your future will grow greatly.
8 Please ask the former generation, and consider what their ancestors discovered.
9 For we are only of yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are a shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and speak to you, bringing words from their hearts?
11 Can papyrus grow outside a marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?”
12 “While still in bloom, before it is cut, it withers sooner than any grass.
13 So it is with the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless perishes.
14 His confidence crumbles; what he trusts is a spider’s web.
15 He leans on his house, but it will not stand; he clings to it, but it will not hold.
16 He is full of sap in the sun, and his shoots spread through the garden.
17 His roots entwine around a mound of stones; he gazes on a house of stone.
18 If he is uprooted from his place, that place will deny him: ‘I never saw you.’
19 See, this is the joy of his way; from the dust others will spring up.
20 See, God does not reject the blameless, nor does he take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
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