7. And though your beginning was small, your future would flourish.
8. Now ask the previous generation; consider the findings of their fathers;
9. for we were born yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
10. Will they not teach you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their hearts?
11. “Can papyrus grow tall without a marsh? Can reeds flourish without water?
12. When still in bloom and uncut, it withers more quickly than other grass.
13. Such are the ways of all who forget God; the hope of the godless perishes—
14. whose confidence is snapped off, his trust is a spider’s web.
15. He leans against his house but it does not stand, He holds fast to it, but it does not hold up.
16. He is a well-watered plant in the sun, spreading his shoots over his garden;
17. he entwines his roots around a heap of stones, and looks for a place between the rocks.
18. If he is uprooted from his place, it denies him saying, ‘I never saw you.’
19. Such is his joyous course, and from the earth others spring up.
20. Surely God does not spurn the blameless or strengthen the hand of evildoers.
21. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
22. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked will be no more!”