Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent
1 Then cBildad the Shuhite answered and said:
2 “How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a dgreat wind?
3 eDoes God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
4 If your fchildren have sinned against him,
he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression.
5 If you will seek God
and gplead with the Almighty for mercy,
6 if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will hrouse himself for you
and irestore your rightful habitation.
7 And though your beginning was small,
jyour latter days will be very great.
8 “For kinquire, please, of bygone ages,
and consider what lthe fathers have searched out.
9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing,
for our days on earth are ma shadow.
10 Will they not teach you and tell you
and utter words out of their understanding?
11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
they nwither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who oforget God;
pthe hope of qthe godless shall perish.
14 His confidence is severed,
and his trust is ra spider’s web.1
15 He leans against his shouse, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
16 He is a lush plant before the sun,
and his tshoots spread over his garden.
17 His roots entwine the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.
18 If he is destroyed from his uplace,
then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never vseen you.’
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of wthe soil others will spring.
20 “Behold, God will not reject a blameless man,
nor take the hand of evildoers.
21 He will yet xfill your mouth with laughter,
and your lips with shouting.
22 Those who hate you will be yclothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”
27 Just then ihis disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man jwho told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, k“Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, l“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, m“My food is nto do the will of him who sent me and oto accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that pthe fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that qsower and rreaper smay rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, t‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap uthat for which you did not labor. Others have labored, vand you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans wfrom that town believed in him xbecause of ythe woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed zbecause of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, aand we know that this is indeed bthe Savior cof the world.”
43 After dthe two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified ethat a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, fhaving seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For gthey too had gone to the feast.