View source for Job 8

==Job 8==

Go back to [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]]

New International Version (NIV)

1. Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2. “How long will you say such things?

::Your words are a blustering wind.

3.  Does God pervert justice?

::Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

4.  When your children sinned against him,

::he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

5.  But if you will seek God earnestly

::and plead with the Almighty,

6.  If you are pure and upright,

::even now he will rouse himself on your behalf

::and restore you to your prosperous state.

7.  Your beginnings will seem humble,

::so prosperous will your future be.

8.  “Ask the former generation

::and find out what their ancestors learned,

9.  For we were born only yesterday and know nothing,

::and our days on earth are but a shadow.

10.  Will they not instruct you and tell you?

::Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?

11.  Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?

::Can reeds thrive without water?

12.  While still growing and uncut,

::they wither more quickly than grass.

13.  Such is the destiny of all who forget God;

::so perishes the hope of the godless.

14.  What they trust in is fragile[a];

::what they rely on is a spider’s web.

15.  They lean on the web, but it gives way;

::they cling to it, but it does not hold.

16.  They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine,

::spreading its shoots over the garden;

17.  It entwines its roots around a pile of rocks

::and looks for a place among the stones.

18.  But when it is torn from its spot,

::that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’

19.  Surely its life withers away,

::and from the soil other plants grow.

20.  “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless

::or strengthen the hands of evildoers.

21.  He will yet fill your mouth with laughter

::and your lips with shouts of joy.

22.  Your enemies will be clothed in shame,

::and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”

Courtesy of Bible Gateway

[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+8&version=NIV]