NRSV Job 8 Chapter
8:1
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
8:2
"How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
8:3
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
8:4
If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression.
8:5
If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,
8:6
if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place.
8:7
Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
8:8
"For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found;
8:9
for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow.
8:10
Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?
8:11
"Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
8:12
While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
8:13
Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
8:14
Their confidence is gossamer, a spider's house their trust.
8:15
If one leans against its house, it will not stand; if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.
8:16
The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden.
8:17
Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks.
8:18
If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, 'I have never seen you.'
8:19
See, these are their happy ways, and out of the earth still others will spring.
8:20
"See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers.
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 be no more."