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8Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ²“How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? ³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? ⁴If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression. ⁵If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, ⁶if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place. ⁷Though 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; ⁹for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow. ¹⁰Will 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? ¹²While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. ¹³Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. ¹⁴Their confidence is gossamer, a spider’s house their trust. ¹⁵If one leans against its house, it will not stand; if one lays hold of it, it will not endure. ¹⁶The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden. ¹⁷Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks. ¹⁸If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’ ¹⁹See, 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. 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 no more.”