1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Does the Mighty God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
4 If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression.
5 If you would earnestly seek the Mighty God and make your supplication to the Almighty,
6 if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and would have restored your righteous abode.
7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.
8 For inquire now of the former generation, and prepare to search the 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 and tell you, and utter words from their heart?
11 Can the rush grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds grow without water?
12 While it is yet green and not cut down, it dries up before any other plant.
13 So are the paths of all who forget the Mighty God; and the hope of the ungodly shall perish,
14 whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust as a spiders house.
15 He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.
16 He is moist before the sun, and his shoots spread out in his garden.
17 His roots are wrapped around a heap; he sees a house of stones.
18 If he is swallowed up from his place, then it will deny him, saying, I have not seen you.
19 Behold, this is the joy of His way, and out of the earth others shall grow.
20 Behold, the Mighty God will not cast away the perfect, nor will His hand support evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing.
22 Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will come to nothing.