Job 12

¹ Then Job answered and said:

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

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

⁴ I am a laughingstock to my friends —
one who called on God and was answered,
a righteous blameless man, a laughingstock!

⁵ In the thought of the comfortable, contempt for calamity;
it is ready for those whose feet slip.

⁶ The tents of destroyers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure —
those who carry their god in their fist.

⁷ But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

⁸ speak to the earth, and it will instruct you;
let the fish of the sea declare to you.

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

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

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

¹² Wisdom is with the aged;
understanding comes with length of days.

¹³ With God are wisdom and might;
counsel and understanding belong to him.

¹⁴ Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
whoever he shuts in cannot be released.

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

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

¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped
and makes fools of judges.

¹⁸ He looses the bonds of kings
and binds a belt around their waist.

¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows men long established.

²⁰ He silences the speech of the trusted
and takes away the discernment of elders.

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

²² He uncovers the deep things out of darkness
and brings deep shadow into the light.

²³ He makes nations great, then destroys them;
he spreads nations abroad, then drives them in.

²⁴ He strips the understanding of leaders of the earth
and makes them wander in a pathless waste.

²⁵ They grope in darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like drunkards.