Bildad the Shuhite said in reply:

How long will you speak such things?
Your utterances are a mighty wind!
Will God pervert the right?
Will the Almighty pervert justice?
If your sons sinned against Him,
He dispatched them for their transgression.
But if you seek God
And supplicate the Almighty,
If you are blameless and upright,
He will protect you,
And grant well-being to your righteous home.
Though your beginning be small,
In the end you will grow very great.

Ask the generation past,
Study what their fathers have searched out -
For we are of yesterday and know nothing;
Our days on earth are a shadow -
Surely they will teach you and tell you,
Speaking out of their understanding.
Can papyrus thrive without marsh?
Can rushes grow without water?
While still tender, not yet plucked,
They would wither before any other grass,
Such is the fate of all who forget God;
The hope of the impious man comes to naught -
Whose confidence is a thread of gossamer,
Whose trust is a spider's web.
He leans on his house - it will not stand;
He seizes hold of it, but it will not hold.
He stays fresh even in the sun;
His shoots spring up in his garden;
His roots are twined around a heap,
They take hold of a house of stones.
When he is uprooted from his place,
It denies him, [saying,]
"I never saw you."
Such is his happy lot;
And from the earth others will grow.
Surely God does not despise the blameless;
He gives no support to evildoers,
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
And your lips with shouts of joy.
Your enemies will be clothed in disgrace;
The tent of the wicked will vanish.

Job 8
(JPS)