Bildad: Job Should Repent

1But Baldad the Suhite, responding, said:

2How long will you speak this way, so that the words of your mouth are like a changeable wind?

3Does God supplant judgment, or does the Almighty subvert that which is just?

4And if now your children have sinned against him, and he has dismissed them into the power of their iniquity,

5even so, you should arise early to God, so as to beseech the Almighty.

6If you approach with purity and honesty, he will quickly be attentive to you, and a peaceful life will repay your righteousness,

7so much so that, if your former things were small, your latter things would be multiplied greatly.

8For inquire of the earliest generation, and investigate diligently the history of the fathers,

9(of course, we are but of yesterday and are ignorant that our days on earth are like a shadow,)

10and they will teach you; they will speak with you and will offer you the eloquence of their hearts.

11Can the marsh plant live without moisture? Or can sedges grow without water?

12When it is still in flower, and has not been pulled up by hand, it withers before all other plants.

13Just so are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite will perish.

14His frenzy will not please him, and his faith will be like a spider’s web.

15He will lean on his house, and it will not stand; he will prop it up, but it will not rise.

16He seems to have moisture before the sun arrives; and at sunrise, his sprout shoots forth.

17His roots will crowd together over a heap of stones, and among the stones he will remain.

18If someone is devoured right beside him, he will deny him and will say: “I do not know you.”

19For this is the benefit of his way, that others in turn may spring up from the earth.

20God will not discard the simple, nor will he extend his hand to the spiteful,

21even until your mouth is filled with laughter and your lips with rejoicing.

22Those who hate you, will be clothed with confusion, and the tabernacle of the impious will not continue.