Chapter 8

  And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,  

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

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  Doth ùGod pervert judgment, and the Almighty pervert justice?  

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

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  If thou seek earnestly unto ùGod, and make thy supplication to the Almighty,  

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

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

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

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

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  Shall not they teach thee, [and] tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?  

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

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

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  So are the paths of all that forget ùGod; and the profane man's hope shall perish,  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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