Job

¹ Bildad from Shuhah was next to speak:

² You're talking nonsense, and noisy nonsense at that.

³ Does God Almighty ever get things backwards?

⁴ otherwise, why would God have punished them?

⁵ Get down on your knees before God Almighty.

⁶ it's not too late—he'll come running; he'll set everything right again, reestablish your fortunes.

⁷ you'll end up better than ever.

⁸ study what they learned from their ancestors.

⁹ and not too long to learn it.

¹⁰ instruct you in what they knew from experience?

¹¹ Can luscious tomatoes flourish without water?

¹² but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.

¹³ all their hopes come to nothing.

¹⁴ they hitch their fate to a spider web.

¹⁵ one jab and the web collapses.

¹⁶ invading the garden,

¹⁷ getting a foothold even in the rocks.

¹⁸ the garden doesn't miss them one bit.

¹⁹ then good plants can grow in their place.

²⁰ and there is no way he'll help a bad one.

²¹ you'll raise the roof with shouts of joy,

²² their house of cards collapsed."