Job Replies
12 And Job answered:
2 “No doubt but 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.
Yes, who does not know such things as these?
4 “I am a laughingstock to my neighbor,
who calls upon God, and He answers him;
the righteous, upright man is a laughingstock.
5 He whose foot is unsteady
is despised in the thoughts of him who is at ease.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure,
into whose hand they bring their own god.
7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
and the birds of the air, and let them tell you;
8 or speak to the earth, let it teach you;
and 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 whose hand is the soul of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind?
11 Does not the ear test words
and the mouth taste its food?
12 Wisdom is with the elderly,
and understanding comes with long life.
13 “With Him are wisdom and strength;
He has counsel and understanding.
14 Surely, He tears down, and it cannot be built again;
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15 Surely, He withholds the waters, and they dry up;
also He sends them out, and they overthrow the earth.
16 With Him are strength and wisdom.
The deceived and the deceiver are His.
17 He leads counselors away stripped
and makes fools of judges.
18 He has loosened the bonds imposed by kings
and bound their waist with a belt.
19 He leads away priests stripped
and overthrows the mighty.
20 He removes speech from the trusted ones
and takes away the understanding of the aged.
21 He pours contempt upon princes
and loosens the belt of the mighty.
22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness
and brings the shadow of death to light.
23 He increases the nations and destroys them;
He enlarges the nations and guides them.
24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth,
and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25 They grope in the dark without light,
and He makes them to stagger like a drunk man.