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8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 8:2 "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? 8:3 Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 8:4 If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression. 8:5 If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, 8:6 if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place. 8:7 Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. 8:8 "For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found; 8:9 for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow. 8:10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? 8:11 "Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? 8:12 While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. 8:13 Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. 8:14 Their confidence is gossamer, a spider's house their trust. 8:15 If one leans against its house, it will not stand; if one lays hold of it, it will not endure. 8:16 The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden. 8:17 Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks. 8:18 If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, 'I have never seen you.' 8:19 See, these are their happy ways, and out of the earth still others will spring. 8:20 "See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers. 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy. 8:22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."