Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
Then aBildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a agreat wind?
3 aDoes God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your achildren have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God
and aplead with the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will arouse himself for you
and brestore your rightful habitation.
7 And though your beginning was small,
ayour latter days will be very great.
8 “For ainquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what bthe fathers have searched out.
9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are aa 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 awither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who aforget God;
bthe hope of cthe godless shall perish.
14 His confidence is severed,
and his trust is aa spider’s web.
15 He leans against his ahouse, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
16 He is a lush plant before the sun,
and his ashoots spread over his garden.
17 His roots entwine the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.
18 If he is destroyed from his aplace,
then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never bseen you.’
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of athe soil others will spring.
20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet afill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be aclothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”