² “How long will you say these things?
How long will your words be so windy?
³ Does God distort justice,
or does the Almighty distort righteousness?
⁴ If your children sinned against him,
he allowed them to suffer the consequences of their sinfulness.
⁵ If you search for God
and plead for mercy from the Almighty,
⁶ if you are moral and ethical,
then he will rise up on your behalf
and prove your righteousness by rebuilding your home.
⁷ Then what you had in the past will seem small
compared with the great prosperity you’ll have in the future.

⁸ “Ask the people of past generations.
Find out what their ancestors had learned.
⁹ We have only been around since yesterday, and we know nothing.
Our days on earth are only a fleeting shadow.
¹⁰ Won’t their words teach you?
Won’t they share their thoughts with you?

¹¹ “Can papyrus grow up where there is no swamp?
Can rushes grow tall without water?
¹² Even if they were fresh and not cut,
they would wither quicker than grass.
¹³ The same thing happens to all who forget God.
The hope of the godless dies.
¹⁴ His confidence is easily shattered.
His trust is a spider’s web.
¹⁵ If one leans on his house, it collapses.
If one holds on to it, it will not support his weight.
¹⁶ He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine.
The shoots spread over his garden.
¹⁷ Its roots weave through a pile of stones.
They cling to a stone house.
¹⁸ But when it is uprooted from its place,
⌞the ground⌟ denies it ⌞and says⌟, ‘I never saw you!’
¹⁹ That is its joy in this life,
and others sprout from the same ground to ⌞take its place⌟.