Bildad: Job Should Repent

1And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

2“Until when will you speak these things,

and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

3Does God pervert judgment?

Or does Shaddai† pervert justice?

4If your sons have sinned against Him,

then He has sent them into the hand of their transgression.

5If you seek diligently for God,

and ask Shaddai for favor,

6if you are pure and upright,

surely now He will rouse Himself over you

and restore the abode of your righteousness.

7And your beginning was small,

and your end will greatly increase.

8For inquire, please, of the former generation,

and consider the finding of their fathers.

9For we are of yesterday, and we do not know;

indeed, our days are a shadow upon the earth.

10Will they not instruct you and speak to you,

and from their heart bring forth words?

11Can the papyrus rise up without a marsh?

Can the reed grow without waters?

12It is still in its greenness—it is not cut down,

and before all grass, it withers.

13So are the paths of all those forgetting God;

and the hope of the godless will perish,

14for whom his confidence shall be cut off,

and his trust the house of a spider.

15He leans upon his house, and it does not stand;

he takes firm hold on it, and it does not arise.

16He is lush before the face of the sun,

and over his garden, his shoot goes forth;

17over a rock-pile his roots are wrapped,

he looks for a house of stones.

18If one destroys him from his place,

then it will disown him: ‘I have not seen you.’

19Behold, this is the joy of his way,

and from the dust another sprouts up.

20Behold, God will not reject the blameless,

and He will not strengthen the hand of those doing evil.

21Yet He will fill your mouth with laughter,

and your lips with a shout of joy.

22Those hating you will be clothed with shame,

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