Job 8  Tree of Life Version

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!”