1: Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, 2: "How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? 3: Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? 4: If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience; 5: If you want to seek God diligently, Make your supplication to the Almighty. 6: If you were pure and upright, Surely now he would awaken for you, And make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. 7: Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would greatly increase. 8: "Please inquire of past generations, Find out about the learning of their fathers. 9: (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow.) 10: Shall they not teach you, tell you, And utter words out of their heart? 11: "Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water? 12: While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed. 13: So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish, 14: Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider's web. 15: He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure. 16: He is green before the sun, His shoots go forth over his garden. 17: His roots are wrapped around the rock pile, He sees the place of stones. 18: If he is destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.' 19: Behold, this is the joy of his way: Out of the earth shall others spring. 20: "Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers. 21: He will still fill your mouth with laughter, Your lips with shouting. 22: Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more."
