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.’