Book of Job, Chapter 8
Job 8 NWT - New World TranslationChapter 8 of Job—New World Translation (NWT)
- ¶ And Bilʹdad the Shuʹhite1 proceeded to answer and say:
- ¶ “How long will you keep uttering these things,2
When the sayings of your mouth are but a powerful wind?3 - ¶ Will God[a] himself pervert judgment,4
Or will the Almighty himself pervert righteousness?5 - ¶ If your own sons have sinned against him,
So that he lets them go into the hand of their revolt, - ¶ If you yourself will look for God,6
And [if] of the Almighty you will implore favor, - ¶ If you are pure and upright,7
By now he would awake for you[b]
And he would certainly restore your righteous abiding place. - ¶ Also, your beginning may have proved to be a small thing,
But your own end afterward would grow very great.8 - ¶ Indeed, ask, please, of the former generation,9
And direct [your attention] to the things searched out by their fathers.10 - ¶ For we were only yesterday,11 and we know nothing,
Because our days on earth are a shadow.12 - ¶ Will not they themselves instruct you, tell you,[c]
And from their heart will they not bring forth words? - ¶ Will a papyrus plant13 grow tall without a swampy place?
Will a reed grow big without water? - ¶ While it is yet in its bud, not plucked off,
Even ahead of all other grass it will dry up.14 - ¶ Thus are the pathways[d] of all those forgetting God,[e]15
And the very hope of an apostate[f] will perish,16 - ¶ Whose confidence is cut off,
And whose trust is a spider’s house.[g]17 - ¶ He will lean upon his house, but it will not keep standing;
He will take hold of it, but it will not last. - ¶ He is full of sap before the sun,
And in his garden his own twig goes forth.18 - ¶ In a stone heap his roots become interwoven,
A house of stones he beholds. - ¶ If one swallows him up from his place,19
It will also certainly deny him, [saying,] ‘I have not seen you.’20 - ¶ Look! That is the dissolving of his way;21
And from the dust others spring up. - ¶ Look! God[h] himself will not reject anyone blameless,
Neither will he take hold of the hand of evildoers, - ¶ Until he fills your mouth with laughter,
And your lips with joyful shouting. - ¶ The very ones hating you will be clothed with shame,22
And the tent of wicked ones will not be.”
FOOTNOTES
- ^ “God.” Heb., ha·ʼElʹ. Here ha is an interrogative particle introducing a question.
- ^ According to M; LXX, “he will listen to your supplication.”
- ^ “Tell you,” LXX; M, “say to you.”
- ^ “Pathways,” M; LXX, “the final things (outcome); the end afterward.”
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl; LXX, “Jehovah.”
- ^ Or, “ungodly (profane) one”; or, “anyone alienated from God.”
- ^ Or, “web.”
- ^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
REFERENCES
- ^ Ge 25:2; 1Ch 1:32; Jb 42:9
- ^ Jb 11:3
- ^ Jb 6:26
- ^ Ge 18:25; Jb 34:12
- ^ De 32:4; 2Ch 19:7
- ^ Jb 5:8; 11:13; 22:23
- ^ Jb 1:8; 6:24
- ^ Jb 42:12
- ^ Jb 11:17; Ps 39:5
- ^ Jb 15:18
- ^ Ge 47:9
- ^ 1Ch 29:15; Jb 14:1; Ps 144:4
- ^ Ex 2:3; Is 18:2; 35:7
- ^ Ps 129:6
- ^ Jb 42:7; Ps 9:17
- ^ Jb 27:8
- ^ Is 59:5
- ^ Jb 5:3; Ps 37:35
- ^ Jb 7:10
- ^ Jb 20:9
- ^ Jb 20:5
- ^ Ps 35:26
Read Job Chapter 8 in other Bible versions:
