Job Chides His Accusers
12 Then Job responded,
2
“No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world],
And wisdom will die with you!
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“But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]?
4
“I am a joke to my friends;
I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him—
A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn].
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“He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune,
But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip.
6
“The tents of the destroyers prosper;
And those who provoke God are [apparently] secure,
Whom God brings into their power.
7
“Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character];
And ask the birds of the air, and let them tell you;
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Or speak to the earth [with its many forms of life], and it will teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare [this truth] to you.
9
“Who among all these does not recognize [in all these things that good and evil are randomly scattered throughout nature and human life]
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
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In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
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“Does the ear not put words to the test,
Just as the palate tastes its food [distinguishing between the desirable and the undesirable]?
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“With the aged [you say] is wisdom,
And with [a]long life is understanding.
Job Speaks of the Power of God
13
“But [only] with Him are [perfect] wisdom and might;
He [alone] has [true] counsel and understanding.
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“Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15
“Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
Again, He sends the waters out, and they overwhelm and devastate the earth.
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“With Him are might and sound wisdom,
The misled and the misleader are His [and in His power].
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“He makes [great and scheming] counselors walk barefoot
And makes fools of judges.
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“He loosens the bond of kings
And binds their loins with a loincloth.
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“He makes priests walk barefoot,
And He overturns men firmly seated and secure.
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“He deprives the trusted ones of speech
And takes away the discernment and discretion of the aged.
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“He pours contempt on princes and nobles
And loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them].
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“He uncovers mysteries [that are difficult to grasp and understand] out of the darkness
And brings black gloom and the shadow of death into light.
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“He makes nations great, and He destroys them;
He enlarges nations, and leads them away [captive].
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“He removes intelligence and understanding from the leaders of the people of the earth
And makes them wander and move blindly in a pathless waste.
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“They grope in darkness without light,
And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.”
Footnotes
- Job 12:12 Lit length of days.