1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
2 "{How long} will you say these [things], and the words of your mouth [be] a mighty wind?
3 Does God pervert justice, {or} Shaddai pervert righteousness?
4 If your children sinned against him, then he sent them into the {power} of their transgression.
5 If you yourself would seek God, then you would plead to Shaddai for grace.
6 If you [are] pure and upright, indeed, now he will rouse himself for you, and he will restore your righteous abode.
7 Though your beginning was small, your end will be very great.
8 "Indeed, please inquire of former generations, and consider {what their ancestors have found},
9 for we [are of] yesterday, and we do not know, for our days on earth [are] a shadow.
10 Will they themselves not teach you [and] {tell you} and {utter} words from their heart?
11 Can papyrus grow tall where [there is] not a marsh? Will reeds flourish without water?
12 While it [is] in its flower [and] is not plucked, yet it withers {before} all grass.
13 So [are] the paths of all who forget God; and [the] hope of [the] godless will perish,
14 whose confidence is cut off and {whose trust} [is] a spider's house.
15 He will lean himself against his house, but it will not stand; he will take hold of it, but it will not endure.
16 He [is] {thriving} {before} the sun, and his plant shoots spread over his garden.
17 His roots twine over a stone heap; he sees a house of stone.
18 If he destroys him from his place, then it deceives him, [saying], 'I have never seen you.'
19 Look, this [is] the joy of his way, and from dust others will spring up.
20 "Look, God will not reject [the] blameless, and he will not uphold the hand of evildoers.
21 Yet he will fill your mouth [with] laughter and your lips [with] a shout of joy.
22 [Those] who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked {will be no more}."