8 Ask a previous generationand verify the findings of your ancestors,
9 for we are only recently here and don’t knowbecause our days on earth are a shadow.
10 Won’t they instruct you and tell you;will words not proceed from their hearts?
11 Does papyrus grow apart from a marsh?Does a reed flourish without water?
12 While still tender, uncut,it will wither before every other grass.
13 So are the paths of all who forget God.Hope perishes for the godless,
14 whose confidence is a fragile thing,their trust, a spider’s web.