1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:2 "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind?3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?4 If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression.5 If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place.7 Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.8 "For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found;9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow.10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?11 "Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water?12 While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant.13 Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish.14 Their confidence is gossamer, a spider's house their trust.15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand; if one lays hold of it, it will not endure.16 The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden.17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks.18 If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, 'I have never seen you.'19 See, these are their happy ways, and out of the earth still others will spring.20 "See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers.21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."