Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long will you say these things
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty[a] pervert the right?(A)
4 If your children sinned against him,
he delivered them into the power of their transgression.(B)
5 If you will seek God
and make supplication to the Almighty,[b](C)
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore to you your rightful place.(D)
7 Though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.(E)
8 “For inquire now of bygone generations
and consider what their ancestors have found,(F)
9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,
for our days on earth are but a shadow.(G)
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?
11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.(H)
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.(I)
14 Their confidence is gossamer,
a spider’s house their trust.
15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand;
if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.(J)
16 The wicked thrive[c] before the sun,
and their shoots spread over the garden.(K)
17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap;
they live among the rocks.[d]
18 If they are destroyed from their place,
then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’(L)
19 See, these are their happy ways,[e]
and out of the earth still others will spring.
20 “See, God will not reject the blameless,
nor take the hand of evildoers.(M)
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.(N)
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”(O)
Footnotes
- 8.3Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
- 8.5Traditional rendering of Heb Shaddai
- 8.16Heb He thrives
- 8.17Gk Vg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 8.19Meaning of Heb uncertain
Cross references
- 8.3 : Gen 18.25; Deut 32.4; 2 Chr 19.7; Dan 9.14; Rom 3.5
- 8.4 : Job 1.5, 18, 19
- 8.5 : Job 5.8; 9.15; 11.13
- 8.6 : Ps 7.6
- 8.7 : Job 42.12
- 8.8 : Deut 4.32; 32.7; Job 15.18
- 8.9 : Gen 47.9; 1 Chr 29.15; Job 7.6
- 8.12 : Ps 129.6; Jer 17.6
- 8.13 : Job 11.20; Ps 9.17; Prov 10.28
- 8.15 : Job 27.18
- 8.16 : Ps 37.35; 80.11
- 8.18 : Job 7.10; Ps 37.36
- 8.20 : Job 4.7; 21.30
- 8.21 : Ps 126.2; 132.16
- 8.22 : v 15; Ps 35.26; 109.29