Job 8

Job 8

Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

²“How long will you say these things

and the words of your mouth be a great wind?

³Does God pervert justice?[#Gen 18.25; Deut 32.4; 2 Chr 19.7; Dan 9.14; Rom 3.5]

Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

⁴If your children sinned against him,[#Job 1.5, 18, 19]

he delivered them into the power of their transgression.

⁵If you will seek God[#Job 5.8; 9.15; 11.13]

and make supplication to the Almighty,

⁶if you are pure and upright,[#Ps 7.6]

surely then he will rouse himself for you

and restore to you your rightful place.

⁷Though your beginning was small,[#Job 42.12]

your latter days will be very great.

⁸“For inquire now of bygone generations[#Deut 4.32; 32.7; Job 15.18]

and consider what their ancestors have found,

⁹for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing,[#Gen 47.9; 1 Chr 29.15; Job 7.6]

for our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will 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?

¹²While yet in flower and not cut down,[#Ps 129.6; Jer 17.6]

they wither before any other plant.

¹³Such are the paths of all who forget God;[#Job 11.20; Ps 9.17; Prov 10.28]

the hope of the godless shall perish.

¹⁴Their confidence is gossamer,

a spider’s house their trust.

¹⁵If one leans against its house, it will not stand;[#Job 27.18]

if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.

¹⁶The wicked thrive before the sun,[#Ps 37.35; 80.11; #8.16 Heb He thrives]

and their shoots spread over the garden.

¹⁷Their roots twine around the stoneheap;

they live among the rocks.

¹⁸If they are destroyed from their place,[#Job 7.10; Ps 37.36]

then it will deny them, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’

¹⁹See, these are their happy ways,[#8.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

and out of the earth still others will spring.

²⁰“See, God will not reject the blameless,[#Job 4.7; 21.30]

nor take the hand of evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter[#Ps 126.2; 132.16]

and your lips with shouts of joy.

²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,[#v 15 ; Ps 35.26; 109.29]

and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”