8. For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers,
9. (For of yesterday we [are], and we know not, For a shadow [are] our days on earth.)
10. Do they not shew thee--speak to thee, And from their heart bring forth words?
11. `Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water?
12. While it [is] in its budding--uncropped, Even before any herb it withereth.
13. So [are] the paths of all forgetting God, And the hope of the profane doth perish,
14. Whose confidence is loathsome, And the house of a spider his trust.
15. He leaneth on his house--and it standeth not: He taketh hold on it--and it abideth not.
16. Green he [is] before the sun, And over his garden his branch goeth out.
17. By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for.
18. If [one] doth destroy him from his place, Then it hath feigned concerning him, I have not seen thee!
19. Lo, this [is] the joy of his way, And from the dust others spring up.'