Job 8
What Happens in This Chapter
Bildad, the second of Job's three friends, answers Job's speech. He says God never twists what is right, so Job's children must have died because of their own sin, and Job should ask God for help. He points to what old teachers learned, and uses pictures of plants that dry up without water to describe people who forget God. He ends by saying God does not throw away a blameless man, and that Job could still laugh again.
Plain reading written for kids. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea at a time.
Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
1Then Bildad, a man from the land of Shuah, answered Job. He said:
2How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
2How long will you keep talking like this? Your words are like a loud, blowing wind.
3Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
3Does God ever twist what is right? Does the Almighty, the God who is stronger than all, ever judge unfairly?
4If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
4Your children sinned against him. So he handed them over to the wrong they did.
5If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;
5But if you would look hard for God, and ask the Almighty to be kind to you,
6If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
6and if you are clean and honest, then God will get up and act for you. He will put your home back the way it should be.
7Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.
7Your start may have been small. But your later days will grow big and full.
8For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
8Please ask about the people who lived long ago. Think about what their fathers learned.
9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
9We were born only yesterday, and we know nothing. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow.
10Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?
10Won't those older people teach you and tell you? They will say what they have learned.
11Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?
11Can a tall marsh plant grow where there is no wet ground? Can reeds grow with no water?
The King James words "rush" and "flag" are old names for tall plants that grow in wet, marshy ground, like papyrus and reeds.
12Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb.
12While the shoots are still green and uncut, they dry up. They wither faster than grass.
13So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:
13That is what happens to everyone who forgets God. The hope of a person who only pretends to be good dies.
In 1611, "hypocrite" meant a person who acts good on the outside but is not good inside. Bildad means someone who only pretends to care about God.
14Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.
14What he trusts in breaks easily. He leans on something as thin as a spider's web.
15He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.
15He leans on that web, but it gives way. He holds on tight, but it does not last.
16He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.
16He is like a green plant in the sunshine. Its new shoots spread out over the garden.
17His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.
17Its roots wrap around a pile of rocks. It looks for a place among the stones.
18If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
18But if it is pulled up from that spot, the place will say, "I never saw you."
19Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow.
19See, that is all the joy his way brings him. Other plants will grow up from the dirt.
20Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:
20Look, God does not throw away a good and honest man. And he does not hold up the hand of people who do evil.
"A perfect man" in the King James Bible does not mean a man with no faults at all. It means an honest man, one who is fair and whole in the way he lives.
21Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing.
21God will still fill your mouth with laughing. Your lips will shout for joy.
22They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.
22The people who hate you will be covered with shame. The tent of wicked people will be gone.
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