Job, 8

¹ And Bilʹdad the Shuʹhite proceeded to answer and say:

² “How long will you keep uttering these things, When the sayings of your mouth are but a powerful wind?

³ Will God^*1 himself pervert judgment, Or will the Almighty himself pervert righteousness?

⁴ If your own sons have sinned against him, So that he lets them go into the hand of their revolt,

⁵ If you yourself will look for God, And [if] of the Almighty you will implore favor,

⁶ If you are pure and upright, By now he would awake for you^*1 And he would certainly restore your righteous abiding place.

⁷ Also, your beginning may have proved to be a small thing, But your own end afterward would grow very great.

⁸ Indeed, ask, please, of the former generation, And direct [your attention] to the things searched out by their fathers.

⁹ For we were only yesterday, and we know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow.

¹⁰ Will not they themselves instruct you, tell you,^*1 And from their heart will they not bring forth words?

¹¹ Will a papyrus plant grow tall without a swampy place? Will a reed grow big without water?

¹² While it is yet in its bud, not plucked off, Even ahead of all other grass it will dry up.

¹³ Thus are the pathways^*1 of all those forgetting God,^*2 And the very hope of an apostate^*3 will perish,

¹⁴ Whose confidence is cut off, And whose trust is a spider’s house.^*1

¹⁵ He will lean upon his house, but it will not keep standing; He will take hold of it, but it will not last.

¹⁶ He is full of sap before the sun, And in his garden his own twig goes forth.

¹⁷ In a stone heap his roots become interwoven, A house of stones he beholds.

¹⁸ If one swallows him up from his place, It will also certainly deny him, [saying,] ‘I have not seen you.’

¹⁹ Look! That is the dissolving of his way; And from the dust others spring up.

²⁰ Look! God^*1 himself will not reject anyone blameless, Neither will he take hold of the hand of evildoers,

²¹ Until he fills your mouth with laughter, And your lips with joyful shouting.

²² The very ones hating you will be clothed with shame, And the tent of wicked ones will not be.”