Job 8

¹ And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: —

² Till when dost thou speak these things? And a strong wind — sayings of thy mouth?

³ Doth God pervert judgment? And doth the Mighty One pervert justice?

⁴ If thy sons have sinned before Him, And He doth send them away, By the hand of their transgression,

⁵ If thou dost seek early unto God, And unto the Mighty makest supplication,

⁶ If pure and upright thou [art], Surely now He waketh for thee, And hath completed The habitation of thy righteousness.

⁷ And thy beginning hath been small, And thy latter end is very great.

⁸ For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers,

⁹ (For of yesterday we [are], and we know not, For a shadow [are] our days on earth.)

¹⁰ Do they not shew thee — speak to thee, And from their heart bring forth words?

¹¹ ‘Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water?

¹² While it [is] in its budding — uncropped, Even before any herb it withereth.

¹³ So [are] the paths of all forgetting God, And the hope of the profane doth perish,

¹⁴ Whose confidence is loathsome, And the house of a spider his trust.

¹⁵ He leaneth on his house — and it standeth not: He taketh hold on it — and it abideth not.

¹⁶ Green he [is] before the sun, And over his garden his branch goeth out.

¹⁷ By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for.

¹⁸ If [one] doth destroy him from his place, Then it hath feigned concerning him, I have not seen thee!

¹⁹ Lo, this [is] the joy of his way, And from the dust others spring up.’

²⁰ Lo, God doth not reject the perfect, Nor taketh hold on the hand of evil doers.

²¹ While he filleth with laughter thy mouth, And thy lips with shouting,

²² Those hating thee do put on shame, And the tent of the wicked is not!