Job 8

NEW JERUSALEM	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:	1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2 How much longer are you going to talk like this and go blustering on in this way?	2 "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
3 Can God deflect the course of right or Shaddai falsify justice?	3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your sons sinned against him, he has punished them for their wrong-doing.	4 If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the power of their transgression.
5 You for your part, if you are pure and honest, must now seek God, plead with Shaddai.	5 If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,
6 Forthwith his light wil shine on you and he wil restore an upright man's house to prosperity.	6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and reward you with a rightful habitation.
7 Your former state wil seem as nothing to you, so great wil your future be.	7 And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.
8 Question the generation that has passed, meditate on the experience of its ancestors-	8 "For inquire, I pray you, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have found;
9 for we children of yesterday, we know nothing, our life on earth passes like a shadow-	9 for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
10 but they wil teach you, they will tel you, and their thought is expressed in these sayings,	10 Will they not teach you, and tell you, and utter words out of their understanding?
11 'Can papyrus flourish except in marshes? Without water can the rushes grow?	11 "Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 Even when green and before being cut, fastest of al plants they wither.	12 While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.
13 Such is the fate of al who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.	13 Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless man shall perish.
14 His hope is nothing but gossamer, his confidence a spider's web.	14 His confidence breaks in sunder, and his trust is 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 leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
16 Like some lush plant in the sunlight, he sent his young shoots sprouting over the garden;	16 He thrives before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.
17 but his roots were twined in a heap of stones, he drew his life among the rocks.	17 His roots twine about the stoneheap; he lives among the rocks.
18 Snatch him from his bed, and it denies it ever saw him.	18 If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'
19 Now he rots on the roadside, and others are springing up in the soil.	19 Behold, this is the joy of his way; and out of the earth others will spring.
20 Believe me, God neither spurns anyone of integrity, nor lends his aid to the evil.	20 "Behold, God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 Once again laughter may fil your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips.	21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
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 shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."