Job 12:1 ←
Then Job answered,
Job 12:2 ←
“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
Job 12:3 ←
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
Job 12:4 ←
I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
Job 12:5 ←
In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
Job 12:6 ←
The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.
Job 12:7 ←
“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
Job 12:8 ←
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you.
Job 12:9 ←
Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,
Job 12:10 ←
in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Job 12:11 ←
Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
Job 12:12 ←
With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
Job 12:13 ←
“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14 ←
Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
Job 12:15 ←
Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
Job 12:16 ←
With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
Job 12:17 ←
He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
Job 12:18 ←
He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
Job 12:19 ←
He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
Job 12:20 ←
He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.
Job 12:21 ←
He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
Job 12:22 ←
He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
Job 12:23 ←
He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
Job 12:24 ←
He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
Job 12:25 ←
They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Public Domain