¹Then Bildad the Shuhite began to speak and said,

²“How long will you declaim these things?

And the words of your mouth are a great wind.

³Does God pervert justice?

Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴What if your sons sinned against him,

And he has cast them out for their transgressions?

⁵If you would seek God diligently,

And make supplication to the Almighty,

⁶If you were pure and upright,

Then he would now bestir himself for you

And keep your righteous dwelling place safe.

⁷And however much your beginning may have been a small matter,

Yet your final situation would become very great.

⁸For inquire, I pray you, of a former generation,

And establish it by investigation of their fathers.

⁹For we are of yesterday,

And we do not know much at all,

For our days are just a shadow on the earth.

¹⁰Will they not teach you

And speak to you

And bring out words from their heart?

¹¹Do papyrus plants grow without a swamp?

Does bulrush grow without water?

¹²While it is still in tender greenness,

It is not plucked away.

But it dries up quicker than any other kind of grass.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God,

And the hope of the profane comes to nothing.

¹⁴Their hope is cut off,

And their object of trust turns out to be a spider's cobweb.

¹⁵When he leans on his house,

It will not stand;

He will hold it fast,

But it will not stand firm.

¹⁶As a tree which is moist in the sun,

Whose young shoot sprouts in its garden,

¹⁷Whose roots are intertwined at the water-source,

Which looks down on a house of stone,

¹⁸If anyone uproots it from its place,

The place will disown the tree, and say,

‘I do not care for you.’

¹⁹Behold, that would be the end of its joyful course,

And other plants would grow from its soil.

²⁰Behold, God does not reject those of integrity,

And he does not hold the hand of evildoers.

²¹If you would seek God diligently,

God would not rest

Until he fills your mouth with laughter,

And your lips with a shout for joy.

²²Those who hate you would be clothed in shame,

And the tent of the wicked would no longer exist.”