1Then answered Bildad the Shuchite, and said, 2How long wilt thou speak these things? and let like a mighty wind be the words of thy mouth? 3Should God pervert justice? or should the Almighty pervert righteousness? 4If thy children have sinned against him, then did he send them off through the means of their transgression. 5If thou wilt earnestly seek for God, and make thy supplication to the Almighty; 6If thou become pure and upright: surely then will he watch over thee, and restore thy righteous habitation. 7And thy beginning will have been small; because thy latter end will grow up greatly. 8For ask, I pray thee, of an earlier generation, and prepare thyself to stand by the research of their fathers; –– 9For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because a mere shadow are our days upon earth; –– 10Behold, these will truly teach thee, they will speak unto thee, and out of their very heart will they bring forth words: 11Can the bulrush shoot upward without mire? can the meadow–grass grow up without water? 12It is yet in its greenness, not yet cut down, when it withereth before any other grass. 13So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hope of the hypocrite will perish: 14It is he whose trust will be cut off, and but a spider’s web is that in which he confideth. 15He leaneth against his house, but it shall not stand: he layeth fast hold on it, but it shall not remain erect. 16He is in full vigor before the sun, and over his garden his shoots go forth. 17His roots are twisted about a stoneheap, he selecteth for himself a place of stones. 18But when men destroy him from his place, then will it deny him, saying, I have never seen thee. 19Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the same dust others will grow up. 20Behold, God will not reject a perfect man, and will not hold fast by their hand the evil–doers: 21Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with joyful shouting. 22They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the tent of the wicked shall be no more.