Job 12 / 42
- 1Then Job replied:
- 2"Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!
- 3But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?
- 4"I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called upon God and he answered- a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
- 5Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
- 6The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure- those who carry their god in their hands.
- 7"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
- 8or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
- 9Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
- 10In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
- 11Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?
- 12Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
- 13"To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.
- 14What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man he imprisons cannot be released.
- 15If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
- 16To him belong strength and victory; both deceived and deceiver are his.
- 17He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges.
- 18He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist.
- 19He leads priests away stripped and overthrows men long established.
- 20He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.
- 21He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
- 22He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.
- 23He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
- 24He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
- 25They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.