1. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
2. “How long will you say these things,
2. and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
3. Does God pervert justice,
3. or Shaddai pervert righteousness?
4. If your children sinned against him,
4. then he sent them into the power of their transgression.
5. If you yourself would seek God,
5. then you would plead to Shaddai for grace.
6. If you are pure and upright,
6. indeed, now he will rouse himself for you,
6. and he will restore your righteous abode.
7. Though your beginning was small,
7. your end will be very great.
8. “Indeed, please inquire of former generations,
8. and consider what their ancestors have found,
9. for we are of yesterday, and we do not know,
9. for our days on earth are a shadow.
10. Will they themselves not teach you and tell you
10. and utter words from their heart?
11. Can papyrus grow tall where there is not a marsh?
11. Will reeds flourish without water?
12. While it is in its flower and is not plucked,
12. yet it withers before all grass.
13. So are the paths of all who forget God;
13. and the hope of the godless will perish,
14. whose confidence is cut off
14. and whose trust is a spider’s house.
15. He will lean himself against his house, but it will not stand;
15. he will take hold of it, but it will not endure.
16. He is thriving before the sun,
16. and his plant shoots spread over his garden.
17. His roots twine over a stone heap;
17. he sees a house of stone.
18. If he destroys him from his place,
18. then it deceives him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19. Look, this is the joy of his way,
19. and from dust others will spring up.
20. “Look, God will not reject the blameless,
20. and he will not uphold the hand of evildoers.
21. Yet he will fill your mouth with laughter
21. and your lips with a shout of joy.
22. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
22. and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”