Job 12

¹Then Job replied:

²“Doubtless you are the only people who matter, 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 on God and he answered— a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!

⁵Those who are 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 God has in his hand.

⁷“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;

⁸or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in 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; those 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 insight; both deceived and deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads rulers 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 officials 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 utter darkness 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 makes them wander in a trackless waste.

²⁵They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.