✧Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ✧2How long wilt thou speak these things? And [how long] shall the words of thy mouth be [like] a mighty wind? ✧3Doth God pervert justice? Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness? ✧4If thy children have sinned against him, And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression; ✧5If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, And make thy supplication to the Almighty; ✧6If thou wert pure and upright: Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. ✧7And though thy beginning was small, Yet thy latter end would greatly increase. ✧8For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out ✧9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days upon earth are a shadow); ✧10Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, And utter words out of their heart? ✧11Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water? ✧12Whilst it is yet in its greenness, [and] not cut down, It withereth before any [other] herb. ✧13So are the paths of all that forget God; And the hope of the godless man shall perish: ✧14Whose confidence shall break in sunder, And whose trust is a spider’s web. ✧15He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure. ✧16He is green before the sun, And his shoots go forth over his garden. ✧17His roots are wrapped about the [stone]-heap, He beholdeth the place of stones. ✧18If he be destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, [saying], I have not seen thee. ✧19Behold, this is the joy of his way; And out of the earth shall others spring. ✧20Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers. ✧21He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter, And thy lips with shouting. ✧22They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.