| Chapter 8 |
1 | And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --
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2 | Till when dost thou speak these things? And a strong wind -- sayings of thy mouth?
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3 | Doth God pervert judgment? And doth the Mighty One pervert justice?
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4 | If thy sons have sinned before Him, And He doth send them away, By the hand of their transgression,
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5 | If thou dost seek early unto God, And unto the Mighty makest supplication,
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6 | If pure and upright thou [art], Surely now He waketh for thee, And hath completed The habitation of thy righteousness.
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7 | And thy beginning hath been small, And thy latter end is very great.
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8 | For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers,
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9 | (For of yesterday we [are], and we know not, For a shadow [are] our days on earth.)
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10 | Do they not shew thee -- speak to thee, And from their heart bring forth words?
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11 | 'Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water?
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12 | While it [is] in its budding -- uncropt, Even before any herb it withereth.
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13 | So [are] the paths of all forgetting God, And the hope of the profane doth perish,
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14 | Whose confidence is loathsome, And the house of a spider his trust.
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15 | He leaneth on his house -- and it standeth not: He taketh hold on it -- and it abideth not.
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16 | Green he [is] before the sun, And over his garden his branch goeth out.
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17 | By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for.
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18 | If [one] doth destroy him from his place, Then it hath feigned concerning him, I have not seen thee!
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19 | Lo, this [is] the joy of his way, And from the dust others spring up.'
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20 | Lo, God doth not reject the perfect, Nor taketh hold on the hand of evil doers.
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21 | While he filleth with laughter thy mouth, And thy lips with shouting,
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22 | Those hating thee do put on shame, And the tent of the wicked is not!
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