1. And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

2. How long wilt thou speak these things? and the words of thy mouth be a strong wind?

3. Doth ·God pervert judgment, and the Almighty pervert justice?

4. If thy children have sinned against him, he hath also given them over into the hand of their transgression.

5. If thou seek earnestly unto ·God and make thy supplication to the Almighty,

6. If thou be pure and upright, surely now he will awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous;

7. And though thy beginning was small, yet thine end shall be very great.

8. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former generation, and attend to the researches of their fathers;

9. For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days upon earth are a shadow.

10. Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?

11. Doth the papyrus shoot up without mire? doth the reed-grass grow without water?

12. Whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down, it withereth before any other grass.

13. So are the paths of all that forget ·God and the profane man's hope shall perish,

14. Whose confidence shall be cut off, and his reliance is a spider's web.

15. He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand; he shall lay hold on it, but it shall not endure.

16. He is full of sap before the sun, and his sprout shooteth forth over his garden;

17. His roots are entwined about the stoneheap; he seeth the place of stones.

18. If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him: I have not seen thee!

19. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the dust shall others grow.

20. Behold, ·God will not cast off a perfect man, neither will he take evil-doers by the hand.

21. Whilst he would fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with shouting,

22. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked be no more.