Job - Chapter 8 - New International Version
- Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
- "How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
- Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
- When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
- But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
- if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
- Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
- "Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
- for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
- Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
- Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
- While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
- Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
- What they trust in is fragile "; what they rely on is a spider's web.
- They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
- They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
- it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
- But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, 'I never saw you.'
- Surely its life withers away, and "from the soil other plants grow.
- "Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
- He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
- Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more."