Home Master Index
←Prev   Job 8 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


8:1  Bildad the Shuchi spoke next:
8:2  “How long will you go on talking like this? What you are saying is raging wind!
8:3  Does God distort judgment? Does Shaddai pervert justice?
8:4  If your children sinned against him, he left them to be victims of their own offense.
8:5  “If you will earnestly seek God and plead for Shaddai’s favor,
8:6  if you are pure and upright; then he will rouse himself for you and fulfill your needs.
8:7  Then, although your beginnings were small, your future will be very great indeed.
8:8  “Ask the older generation, and consider what their ancestors found out;
8:9  for we who were born yesterday know nothing, our days on earth are but a shadow.
8:10  They will teach you, they will tell you, they will say what is in their hearts:
8:11  ‘Can papyrus grow except in a marsh? Can swamp grass flourish without water?
8:12  While still green, before being cut down, it dries up faster than any other plant.
8:13  Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of a hypocrite will perish —
8:14  his confidence is mere gossamer, his trust a spider’s web.
8:15  He can lean on his house, but it won’t stand; he can hold on to it, but it won’t last;
8:16  [for its destruction will come] like the lush growth of a plant in the sun, its shoots may spread out all over its garden,
8:17  but meanwhile its roots cause the stone house to collapse, as it seizes hold of the rocks;
8:18  someone who tears it away from its place denies he has ever seen it.
8:19  Yes, this is the “joy” of the way [of the godless], and out of the dust will spring up others [like him].’
8:20  “Look, God will not reject a blameless man; nor will he uphold wrongdoers.
8:21  He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
8:22  Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will cease to exist.”