1Then Bildad the Shuhite answer-ed, and said,

2How long shalt thou speak such things? The spirit of the word of thy mouth is manyfold.

3Whether God supplanteth, either deceiveth, doom, and whether Almighty God destroyeth that, that is just [or rightwise]?

4Yea, though thy sons sinned against him, and he left them in the hand of their wickedness;

5nevertheless, if thou risest early to God, and beseechest Almighty God,

6if thou goest clean and rightful, anon he shall wake fully to thee, and shall make peaceable the dwelling place of thy rightfulness [or rightwiseness];

7in so much that thy former things were little, and that thy last things be multiplied greatly.

8For why, ask thou the former generations, and seek thou diligently the mind of [the] fathers.

9For we be men of yesterday, and know not; for our days be as a shadow on the earth.

10And they shall teach thee, [and] they shall speak to thee, and of their heart they shall bring forth true speeches.

11Whether a bulrush may grow with-out moisture? either a reed without water?

12When it is yet in the flower, neither it is taken with hand, it waxeth dry before all herbs.

13So be the ways of all men, that forget God; and the hope of an hypocrite shall perish.

14His cowardice shall not please God, and his trust shall be as a web of spiders.

15He shall lean, either rest, upon his house, and it shall not stand; he shall underset it, and it shall not rise up altogether.

16The bulrush seemeth moist, before that the sun come; and in the rising of the sun, the seed thereof shall go out.

17The roots thereof shall be made thick upon an heap of stones, and it shall dwell among [the] stones.

18If a man draweth it out of the place thereof, that place shall deny it, and it shall say, I know thee not.

19For this is the gladness of his way, that again other bulrushes spring out of the earth.

20Forsooth God shall not cast away a simple man, neither he shall dress his hand to help wicked men;

21till thy mouth be filled with laughter, and thy lips with hearty song.

22They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the taber-nacle of wicked men shall not stand.