Sirach 14:18-20

Revised Standard Version

¹⁸ Like flourishing leaves on a spreading tree
    which sheds some and puts forth others,
so are the generations of flesh and blood:
    one dies and another is born.
¹⁹ Every product decays and ceases to exist,
    and the man who made it will pass away with it.

²⁰ Blessed is the man who meditates on^[a] wisdom
    and who reasons intelligently.