Job 12

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these?

⁴I am a laughingstock to my friends;
I, who called to God and he answered me,
a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.

⁵In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
it is ready for those whose feet slip.

⁶ The tents of robbers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure,
who bring their god in their hand.

⁷“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;

⁸or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

⁹Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?

¹⁰In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.

¹¹Does not the ear test words
as the palate tastes food?

¹²Wisdom is with the aged,
and understanding in length of days.

¹³ “With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he shuts a man in, none can open.

¹⁵If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

¹⁶With him are strength and sound wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped,
and judges he makes fools.

¹⁸He looses the bonds of kings
and binds a waistcloth on their hips.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He deprives of speech those who are trusted
and takes away the discernment of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes
and loosens the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers the deeps out of darkness
and brings deep darkness to light.

²³He makes nations great, and he destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and leads them away.

²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
and makes them wander in a trackless waste.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light,
and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

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