Bildad: ask the generation that came before
1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 2How long will you go on saying such things? The words of your mouth are a gale. 3Does God pervert judgment? Does the Almighty pervert justice? 4If your children sinned against him, he handed them over to their own rebellion. 5If you for your part will seek God out and beg the Almighty for mercy, 6if you are clean and upright, then he will rouse himself for you and restore the household your righteousness deserves. 7Your beginning will look small beside how great your end will be. 8Ask the generation that came before; settle your mind on what their fathers found out. 9For we are only of yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are a shadow. 10Will they not teach you and tell you, and bring out words from their heart?
Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
11Does papyrus shoot up where there is no marsh? Does the reed grow tall without water? 12Still in flower and not yet cut, it dries out before any other grass. 13Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless perishes. 14His confidence is a thread that snaps; what he trusts in is a spider’s house. 15He leans on his house, and it does not stand; he grips it, and it does not hold. 16He is well watered in the sunlight, and his shoots run out over his garden. 17His roots twist about a heap of stones; he looks out from a house of rock. 18But if he is swallowed up from his place, it disowns him: “I never saw you.” 19See, that is the joy of his way, and out of the dust others sprout. 20See, God does not reject the blameless, and he does not take the hand of evildoers. 21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy. 22Those who hate you will be dressed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.
