Job 8

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 Bildad the Shuhite spoke out and said:	1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:
2 How long will you utter such things? The words from your mouth are like a mighty wind!	2 How much longer are you going to talk like this and go blustering on in this way?
3 Does God pervert judgment, and does the Almighty distort justice?	3 Can God deflect the course of right or Shaddai falsify justice?
4 If your children have sinned against him and he has left them in the grip of their guilt,	4 If your sons sinned against him, he has punished them for their wrong-doing.
5 Still, if you yourself have recourse to God and make supplication to the Almighty,	5 You for your part, if you are pure and honest, must now seek God, plead with Shaddai.
6 Should you be blameless and upright, surely now he will awake for you and restore your rightful domain;	6 Forthwith his light wil shine on you and he wil restore an upright man's house to prosperity.
7 Your former state will be of little moment, for in time to come you will flourish indeed.	7 Your former state wil seem as nothing to you, so great wil your future be.
8 If you inquire of the former generations, and give heed to the experience of the fathers	8 Question the generation that has passed, meditate on the experience of its ancestors-
9 (As we are but of yesterday and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are but a shadow),	9 for we children of yesterday, we know nothing, our life on earth passes like a shadow-
10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter their words of understanding?	10 but they wil teach you, they will tel you, and their thought is expressed in these sayings,
11 Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the reed grass flourish without water?	11 'Can papyrus flourish except in marshes? Without water can the rushes grow?
12 While it is yet green and uncut, it withers quicker than any grass.	12 Even when green and before being cut, fastest of al plants they wither.
13 So is the end of everyone who forgets God, and so shall the hope of the godless man perish.	13 Such is the fate of al who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
14 His confidence is but a gossamer thread and his trust is a spider's web.	14 His hope is nothing but gossamer, his confidence a spider's web.
15 He shall rely upon his family, but it shall not last; he shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.	15 Let him lean on his house, it wil not stand firm; cling to it, it wil not hold.
16 He is full of sap before sunrise, and beyond his garden his shoots go forth;	16 Like some lush plant in the sunlight, he sent his young shoots sprouting over the garden;
17 About a heap of stones are his roots entwined; among the rocks he takes hold.	17 but his roots were twined in a heap of stones, he drew his life among the rocks.
18 Yet if one tears him from his place, it will disown him: "I have never seen you!"	18 Snatch him from his bed, and it denies it ever saw him.
19 There he lies rotting beside the road, and out of the soil another sprouts.	19 Now he rots on the roadside, and others are springing up in the soil.
20 Behold, God will not cast away the upright; neither will he take the hand of the wicked.	20 Believe me, God neither spurns anyone of integrity, nor lends his aid to the evil.
21 Once more will he fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing.	21 Once again laughter may fil your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips.
22 They that hate you shall be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.	22 Your enemies will be covered with shame and the tent of the wicked wil vanish!'