Job Answers His Critics

12 Then Job answered and said:

2 “No doubt you are the people,

And wisdom will die with you!

3 But I have 1understanding as well as you;

I am not ainferior to you.

Indeed, who does not know such things as these?

4 “I bam one mocked by his friends,

Who ccalled on God, and He answered him,

The just and blameless who is ridiculed.

5 A 2lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease;

It is made ready for dthose whose feet slip.

6 eThe tents of robbers prosper,

And those who provoke God are secure—

In what God provides by His hand.

7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;

And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

9 Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

10 fIn whose hand is the 3life of every living thing,

And the gbreath of 4all mankind?

11 Does not the ear test words

And the 5mouth taste its food?

12 Wisdom is with aged men,

And with 6length of days, understanding.

13 “With Him are hwisdom and strength,

He has counsel and understanding.

14 If iHe breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt;

If He imprisons a man, there can be no release.

15 If He jwithholds the waters, they dry up;

If He ksends them out, they overwhelm the earth.

16 With Him are strength and prudence.

The deceived and the deceiver are His.

17 He leads counselors away plundered,

And makes fools of the judges.

18 He loosens the bonds of kings,

And binds their waist with a belt.

19 He leads 7princes away plundered,

And overthrows the mighty.

20 lHe deprives the trusted ones of speech,

And takes away the discernment of the elders.

21 mHe pours contempt on princes,

And 8disarms the mighty.

22 He nuncovers deep things out of darkness,

And brings the shadow of death to light.

23 oHe makes nations great, and destroys them;

He 9enlarges nations, and guides them.

24 He takes away the 1understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth,

And pmakes them wander in a pathless wilderness.

25 qThey grope in the dark without light,

And He makes them rstagger like a drunken man.