8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
8:2 “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
8:3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
8:4 When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
8:5 But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
8:6 if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
8:7 Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
8:8 “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
8:9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
8:10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
8:11 Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
8:12 While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
8:13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
8:14 What they trust in is fragile*; what they rely on is a spider’s web. / *The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
8:15 They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
8:16 They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
8:17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
8:18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
8:19 Surely its life withers away, and* from the soil other plants grow. / *Or Surely all the joy it has is that
8:20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
8:22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”