Study

8. Bildad Speaks

    ² “How long will you say such things?
   Your words are a blustering wind.
³ Does God pervert justice?
   Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
⁴ When your children sinned against him,
   he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
⁵ But if you will seek God earnestly
   and plead with the Almighty,
⁶ if you are pure and upright,
   even now he will rouse himself on your behalf
   and restore you to your prosperous state.
⁷ Your beginnings will seem humble,
   so prosperous will your future be.

    ⁸ “Ask the former generation
   and find out what their ancestors learned,
⁹ for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
   and our days on earth are but a shadow.
¹⁰ Will they not instruct you and tell you?
   Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
¹¹ Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?
   Can reeds thrive without water?
¹² While still growing and uncut,
   they wither more quickly than grass.
¹³ Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
   so perishes the hope of the godless.
¹⁴ What they trust in is fragile The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.;
   what they rely on is a spider’s web.
¹⁵ They lean on the web, but it gives way;
   they cling to it, but it does not hold.
¹⁶ They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,
   spreading its shoots over the garden;
¹⁷ it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks
   and looks for a place among the stones.
¹⁸ But when it is torn from its spot,
   that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
¹⁹ Surely its life withers away,
   and Or Surely all the joy it has / is that from the soil other plants grow.

    ²⁰ “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless
   or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
   and your lips with shouts of joy.
²² Your enemies will be clothed in shame,
   and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”