VerseAI

NIV

Job 8

  1. 1<pb/>Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
  2. 2<pb/><t>“How long will you say such things?</t> <t>Your words are a blustering wind.</t>
  3. 3<t>Does God pervert justice?</t> <t>Does the Almighty pervert what is right?</t>
  4. 4<t>When your children sinned against him,</t> <t>he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.</t>
  5. 5<t>But if you will seek God earnestly</t> <t>and plead with the Almighty,</t>
  6. 6<t>if you are pure and upright,</t> <t>even now he will rouse himself on your behalf</t> <t>and restore you to your prosperous state.</t>
  7. 7<t>Your beginnings will seem humble,</t> <t>so prosperous will your future be. <pb/></t>
  8. 8<t>“Ask the former generation</t> <t>and find out what their ancestors learned,</t>
  9. 9<t>for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,</t> <t>and our days on earth are but a shadow.</t>
  10. 10<t>Will they not instruct you and tell you?</t> <t>Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?</t>
  11. 11<t>Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?</t> <t>Can reeds thrive without water?</t>
  12. 12<t>While still growing and uncut,</t> <t>they wither more quickly than grass.</t>
  13. 13<t>Such is the destiny of all who forget God;</t> <t>so perishes the hope of the godless.</t>
  14. 14<t>What they trust in is fragile<f>[11]</f>;</t> <t>what they rely on is a spider’s web.</t>
  15. 15<t>They lean on the web, but it gives way;</t> <t>they cling to it, but it does not hold.</t>
  16. 16<t>They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,</t> <t>spreading its shoots over the garden;</t>
  17. 17<t>it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks</t> <t>and looks for a place among the stones.</t>
  18. 18<t>But when it is torn from its spot,</t> <t>that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’</t>
  19. 19<t>Surely its life withers away,</t> <t>and<f>[12]</f> from the soil other plants grow. <pb/></t>
  20. 20<t>“Surely God does not reject one who is blameless</t> <t>or strengthen the hands of evildoers.</t>
  21. 21<t>He will yet fill your mouth with laughter</t> <t>and your lips with shouts of joy.</t>
  22. 22<t>Your enemies will be clothed in shame,</t> <t>and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”</t>