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Bildad Speaks: You Are Unjustly Accusing God of Doing Evil, Job

Then Bildad from Shuah replied to Job,

“How long will you say these things?
    How long will your words be so windy?
Does El distort justice,
    or does Shadday distort righteousness?
If your children sinned against him,
    he allowed them to suffer the consequences of their sinfulness.
If you search for El
    and plead for mercy from Shadday,
if you are moral and ethical,
    then he will rise up on your behalf
        and prove your righteousness by rebuilding your home.[a]
Then what you had in the past will seem small
    compared with the great prosperity you’ll have in the future.

Learn from Past Generations

“Ask the people of past generations.
    Find out what their ancestors had learned.
We have only been around since yesterday, and we know nothing.
    Our days on earth are only a fleeting shadow.
10 Won’t their words teach you?
    Won’t they share their thoughts with you?

God Does Not Punish the Innocent Person

11 “Can papyrus grow up where there is no swamp?
    Can rushes grow tall without water?
12 Even if they were fresh and not cut,
    they would wither quicker than grass.
13 The same thing happens to all who forget El.
    The hope of the godless dies.
14 His confidence is easily shattered.
    His trust is a spider’s web.
15 If one leans on his house, it collapses.
    If one holds on to it, it will not support his weight.
16 He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine.
    The shoots spread over his garden.
17 Its roots weave through a pile of stones.
    They cling to a stone house.
18 But when it is uprooted from its place,
    the ground denies it and says, ‘I never saw you!’
19 That is its joy in this life,
    and others sprout from the same ground to take its place.

20 “Certainly, El does not reject a person of integrity
    or give a helping hand to wicked people.
21 He will fill your mouth with laughter
    and your lips with happy shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
    and the tent of the wicked will cease to exist.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 8:6 English equivalent of this line difficult.

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