8. “Please, ask the former generation,and prepare yourself for what their fathers searched out;
9. for we were born but yesterday and know nothing,because our days on earth are a shadow.
10. Will they not teach you, and tell you,and bring forth words out of their heart?
11. Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?Can the reed grow without water?
12. While it is yet green and not cut down,it withers before any other plant.
13. So are the paths of all who forget God;and the hypocrite’s hope will perish,
14. whose confidence will be cut off,and whose trust will be a spider’s web.
15. He will lean upon his house, but it will not stand;he will hold it fast, but it will not endure.
16. He is green before the sun,and his branch shoots forth in his garden.