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Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

8Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
² ‘How long will you say these things,
   and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
³ Does God pervert justice?
   Or does the Almighty^* pervert the right?
⁴ If your children sinned against him,
   he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
⁵ If you will seek God
   and make supplication to the Almighty,^*
6 if you are pure and upright,
   surely then he will rouse himself for you
   and restore to you your rightful place.
⁷ Though your beginning was small,
   your latter days will be very great.

⁸ ‘For inquire now of bygone generations,
   and consider what their ancestors have found;
⁹ for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
   for our days on earth are but a shadow.
¹⁰ Will they not teach you and tell you
   and utter words out of their understanding?

¹¹ ‘Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
   Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
¹² While yet in flower and not cut down,
   they wither before any other plant.
¹³ Such are the paths of all who forget God;
   the hope of the godless shall perish.
¹⁴ Their confidence is gossamer,
   a spider’s house their trust.
¹⁵ If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
   if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
¹⁶ The wicked thrive^* before the sun,
   and their shoots spread over the garden.
¹⁷ Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
   they live among the rocks.^*
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
   then it will deny them, saying, “I have never seen you.”
¹⁹ See, these are their happy ways,^*
   and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰ ‘See, God will not reject a blameless person,
   nor 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.’