New International Version NIV
Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
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Then Baldad, the Suhite, answered, and said:
2 “How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
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How long wilt thou speak these things, and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
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Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?
4 When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
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Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:
5 But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
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Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:
6 if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
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If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake unto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:
7 Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
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In so much, that if thy former things were small thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.
8 “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
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For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:
9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
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(For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow
10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
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And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.
11 Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
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Can the rush be green without moisture? or sedge bush grow without water?
12 While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
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When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked u with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
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Even so are the ways of all that forget God, an the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:
14 What they trust in is fragile ; what they rely on is a spider’s web.
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His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider’s web.
15 They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
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He shall lean upon his house, and it shall no stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:
16 They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
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He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh; and at his rising, his blossom shall shoot forth.
17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
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His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones; and among the stones he shall abide.
18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
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If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.
19 Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
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For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.
20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
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God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evil doer:
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
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Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.
22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”
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They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.
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