Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

¹Then cBildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“How long will you say these things,

and the words of your mouth be a dgreat wind?

³eDoes God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

⁴If your fchildren have sinned against him,

he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.

⁵If you will seek God

and gplead with the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright,

surely then he will hrouse himself for you

and irestore your rightful habitation.

⁷And though your beginning was small,

jyour latter days will be very great.

⁸“For kinquire, please, of bygone ages,

and consider what lthe fathers have searched out.

⁹For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,

for our days on earth are ma 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 nwither before any other plant.

¹³Such are the paths of all who oforget God;

pthe hope of qthe godless shall perish.

¹⁴His confidence is severed,

and his trust is ra spider's web.1

¹⁵He leans against his shouse, but it does not stand;

he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

¹⁶He is a lush plant before the sun,

and his tshoots spread over his garden.

¹⁷His roots entwine the stone heap;

he looks upon a house of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his uplace,

then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never vseen you.’

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and out of wthe soil others will spring.

²⁰“Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,

nor take the hand of evildoers.

²¹He will yet xfill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you will be yclothed with shame,

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”