1:
The Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:
2:
How long wilt thou speak these things, and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
3:
Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?
4:
Although thy children have sinned against him, and he hath left them in the hand of their iniquity:
5:
Yet if thou wilt arise early to God, and wilt beseech the Almighty:
6:
If thou wilt walk clean and upright, he will presently awake onto thee, and will make the dwelling of thy justice peaceable:
7:
Insomuch, that if thy former things were small, thy latter things would be multiplied exceedingly.
8:
For inquire of the former generation, and search diligently into the memory of the fathers:
9:
(For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are but a shadow:)
10:
And they shall teach thee: they shall speak to thee, and utter words out of their hearts.
11:
Can the rush be green without moisture? or a sedge-bush grow without water?
12:
When it is yet in flower, and is not plucked up with the hand, it withereth before all herbs.
13:
Even so are the ways of all that forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish:
14:
His folly shall not please him, and his trust shall be like the spider's web.
15:
He shall lean upon his house, and it shall not stand: he shall prop it up, and it shall not rise:
16:
He seemeth to have moisture before the sun cometh, and at his rising his blossom shall shoot forth.
17:
His roots shall be thick upon a heap of stones, and among the stones he shall abide.
18:
If one swallow him up out of his place, he shall deny him, and shall say: I know thee not.
19:
For this is the joy of his way, that others may spring again out of the earth.
20:
God will not cast away the simple, nor reach out his hand to the evildoer:
21:
Until thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with rejoicing.
22:
They that hate thee, shall be clothed with confusion: and the dwelling of the wicked shall not stand.