8 2 "How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a great wind?
8 3 Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
8 4 If your children have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the power of their transgression.
8 5 If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty,
8 6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and reward you with a rightful habitation.
8 7 And though your beginning was small,
your latter days will be very great.
8 8 "For please inquire of bygone ages,
and consider what the fathers have found;
8 9 for we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
8 10 Will they not teach you, and tell you,
and utter words out of their understanding?
8 11 "Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
8 12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
8 13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless man shall perish.
8 14 His confidence breaks in sunder,
and his trust is a spider's web.
8 15 He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
8 16 He thrives before the sun,
and his shoots spread over his garden.
8 17 His roots twine about the stoneheap;
he lives among the rocks.
8 18 If he is destroyed from his place,
then it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'
8 19 Behold, this is the joy of his way;
and out of the earth others will spring.
8 20 "Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
8 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
8 22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more."