1 THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2 How long will you speak these things? And how long will your mouth utter proud words?

3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert right?

4 If your children have sinned against him, he has sent them away in their transgressions.

5 If you would seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,

6 If you were innocent and upright, surely then he would be attentive to you, and would make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous,

7 So that though your beginning was small he would make your end very great.

8 For inquire, I pray you, of the former generations, and learn through the search of their fathers;

9 For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are like a shadow;

10 And, behold, they shall teach you, and tell you, and utter words out of their heart.

11 Can papyrus grow in a thirsty land? Can reeds grow where there is no water?

12 While they are yet in their greenness, and not cut down, they wither before any other herb.

13 So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the heathen shall perish;

14 Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose house is a spider's web.

15 The wicked shall put his trust in his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

16 He is like green vegetation before the sun, and his roots shall rest in a ground liable to be washed away.

17 He shall see his house a heap of stones.

18 If he is uprooted from his place, then he will deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

19 Behold, it is he who examines all his ways, and out of the earth others shall sprout.

20 Behold, God will not reject the upright men, nor will he help the evildoers;

21 Until he fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with a song.

22 Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame; and the tent of the wicked shall be destroyed.