“Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh?
Can the rushes or reed grass grow without water?

“Though its roots grow old in the earth
And its stump dies in the dry soil,

“Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged,
Older than your father.

“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

(But from my youth the orphan grew up with me as with a father,
And from my mother’s womb I have been the widow’s guide),

Let thorns grow instead of wheat,
And stinkweed and cockleburs instead of barley.”

So the words of Job [with his friends] are finished.

“Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open field;
They leave and do not return to them.