Job 8

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:	1 But Baldad the Suhite, responding, said:
2 How much longer are you going to talk like this and go blustering on in this way?	2 How long will you speak this way, so that the words of your mouth are like a changeable wind?
3 Can God deflect the course of right or Shaddai falsify justice?	3 Does God supplant judgment, or does the Almighty subvert that which is just?
4 If your sons sinned against him, he has punished them for their wrong-doing.	4 And if now your children have sinned against him, and he has dismissed them into the power of their iniquity,
5 You for your part, if you are pure and honest, must now seek God, plead with Shaddai.	5 even so, you should arise early to God, so as to beseech the Almighty.
6 Forthwith his light wil shine on you and he wil restore an upright man's house to prosperity.	6 If you approach with purity and honesty, he will quickly be attentive to you, and a peaceful life will repay your righteousness,
7 Your former state wil seem as nothing to you, so great wil your future be.	7 so much so that, if your former things were small, your latter things would be multiplied greatly.
8 Question the generation that has passed, meditate on the experience of its ancestors-	8 For inquire of the earliest generation, and investigate diligently the history of the fathers,
9 for we children of yesterday, we know nothing, our life on earth passes like a shadow-	9 (of course, we are but of yesterday and are ignorant that our days on earth are like a shadow,)
10 but they wil teach you, they will tel you, and their thought is expressed in these sayings,	10 and they will teach you; they will speak with you and will offer you the eloquence of their hearts.
11 'Can papyrus flourish except in marshes? Without water can the rushes grow?	11 Can the marsh plant live without moisture? Or can sedges grow without water?
12 Even when green and before being cut, fastest of al plants they wither.	12 When it is still in flower, and has not been pulled up by hand, it withers before all other plants.
13 Such is the fate of al who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.	13 Just so are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite will perish.
14 His hope is nothing but gossamer, his confidence a spider's web.	14 His frenzy will not please him, and his faith will be like a spider’s web.
15 Let him lean on his house, it wil not stand firm; cling to it, it wil not hold.	15 He will lean on his house, and it will not stand; he will prop it up, but it will not rise.
16 Like some lush plant in the sunlight, he sent his young shoots sprouting over the garden;	16 He seems to have moisture before the sun arrives; and at sunrise, his sprout shoots forth.
17 but his roots were twined in a heap of stones, he drew his life among the rocks.	17 His roots will crowd together over a heap of stones, and among the stones he will remain.
18 Snatch him from his bed, and it denies it ever saw him.	18 If someone is devoured right beside him, he will deny him and will say: “I do not know you.”
19 Now he rots on the roadside, and others are springing up in the soil.	19 For this is the benefit of his way, that others in turn may spring up from the earth.
20 Believe me, God neither spurns anyone of integrity, nor lends his aid to the evil.	20 God will not discard the simple, nor will he extend his hand to the spiteful,
21 Once again laughter may fil your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips.	21 even until your mouth is filled with laughter and your lips with rejoicing.
22 Your enemies will be covered with shame and the tent of the wicked wil vanish!'	22 Those who hate you, will be clothed with confusion, and the tabernacle of the impious will not continue.