¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered, ²“How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind? ³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness? ⁴If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience. ⁵If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty. ⁶If you were pure and upright, surely now he would awaken for you, and make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous. ⁷Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would greatly increase. ⁸“Please inquire of past generations. Find out about the learning of their fathers. ⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.) ¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you, and utter words out of their heart? ¹¹“Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water? ¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, it withers before any other reed. ¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man will perish, ¹⁴whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web. ¹⁵He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will cling to it, but it will not endure. ¹⁶He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his garden. ¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones. ¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’ ¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way. Out of the earth, others will spring. ²⁰“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers. ²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter, your lips with shouting. ²²Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more.”