Job Chapter 8
1 Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 “How long will you talk like that?
You make your mouth a blustering wind?
3 Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty twist the truth?
4 When your children sinned against him,
he delivered them to the consequences of their sin.
5 If you look for God and beg for mercy from the Almighty,
6 if you’re pure and just,
he’ll certainly act on your behalf
and restore you to your good position.
7 Though you started with little,
you’ll end up with a lot.
Job 8:1-7
8 “Ask previous generations
and find out what the ancestors learned;
9 we’re only like yesterday and don’t know much;
our short time on earth has been like a shadow.
10 Won’t they teach you
and offer their thoughts?
Job 8:8-10
11 “Can papyrus grow where there’s no marsh?
Can reeds grow without water?
12 While they’re still growing and not ready to be cut,
they wither sooner than grass.
13 The paths of everyone that forgets God are like that;
the hopes of godless people perish.
14 What they depend on breaks down;
what they trust is like a spider’s web.
15 They trust it, but it doesn’t hold firm;
when they take hold of it, it mashes in their hand.
16 It’s like a lush plant that thrives in the sunshine
and spreads its shoots across the garden,
17 whose roots twine around a rock pile
and grow among the stones.
18 But if it’s pulled loose,
you can’t tell it was ever there.
19 That’s the extent of its ‘joy’;
others sprout up to replace it.
Job 8:11-19
20 “God doesn’t reject blameless people
or give sinners a hand.
21 Yet he’ll fill your mouth with laughter,
your lips with shouting.
22 In the end, those who hate you he’ll cover with disgrace;
the tents of sinners won’t exist anymore.”
Job 8:20-22