Job, chapter 8

How Long Will You Talk?

Bildad from ShuahG said:

²How long will you talk and keep saying nothing?

³Does God All-Powerful stand in the way of justiceI?

⁴He made your children pay for their sinsI.

⁵So why don't you turn to him ⁶and start living rightI?

Then he will decide to rescue and restore you

to your place of honor.

⁷Your future will be brighter by far than your past.

Our Ancestors Were Wise

⁸Our ancestors were wiseP, so learn from them.

⁹Our own time has been short, like a fading shadow,

and we know very little.

¹⁰But they will instruct you with great understanding.

¹¹Papyrus reedsO grow healthy only in a swamp,

¹²and if the water dries up,

they die sooner than grass.

¹³Such is the hopeless future of all who turn from God

¹⁴and trust in something as frail as a spider's web—

¹⁵they take hold and fall because it's so flimsy.

¹⁶Sinful people are like plants with spreading roots

and plenty of sun and water.

¹⁷They wrap their roots tightly around rocks.*

¹⁸But once they are pulled up, they have no more place;

¹⁹their life slips away,* and other plants growI there.

²⁰We know God doesn't reject an innocent person

or helpI a sinner.

²¹And so, he will make you happy

and give you something to smile about.

²²But your evil enemies will be put to shame

and disappear forever.