[8:1] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
[8:2] “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
[8:3] Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
[8:4] If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
[8:5] If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
[8:6] if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.
[8:7] And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
[8:8] “For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.
[8:9] For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
[8:10] Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?
[8:11] “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
[8:12] While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
[8:13] Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.
[8:14] His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider’s web.
[8:15] He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
[8:16] He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.
[8:17] His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.
[8:18] If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
[8:19] Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the soil others will spring.
[8:20] “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
[8:21] He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
[8:22] Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”