Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This

12 Then Job answered and said:

2  “No doubt you are the people,

and wisdom will die with you.

3  But I have bunderstanding as well as you;

I am not inferior to you.

Who does not know csuch things as these?

4  I am da laughingstock to my friends;

I, who ecalled to God and he answered me,

a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.

5  In the thought of one who is fat ease there is contempt for misfortune;

it is ready for those whose feet slip.

6  gThe tents of robbers are at peace,

and those who provoke God are secure,

who bring their god in their hand.1

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

the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;

8  or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;2

and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

9  Who among all these does not know

that hthe hand of the Lord has done this?

10  In ihis hand is the life of every living thing

and the breath of all mankind.

11  Does not jthe ear test words

as the palate tastes food?

12  Wisdom is with kthe aged,

and understanding in length of days.

13  l“With God3 are wisdom and might;

he has counsel and understanding.

14  If he tears down, none can rebuild;

if he mshuts a man in, none can open.

15  If he nwithholds the waters, they dry up;

if he osends them out, they overwhelm the land.

16  With him are strength and psound wisdom;

the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17  He leads qcounselors away stripped,

and rjudges he makes fools.

18  He slooses the bonds of kings

and binds a waistcloth on their hips.

19  He leads priests away stripped

and overthrows the mighty.

20  He deprives of speech those who are trusted

tand takes away the discernment of the elders.

21  He upours contempt on princes

and loosens the belt of the strong.

22  He vuncovers the deeps out of darkness

and brings wdeep darkness to light.

23  He xmakes nations great, and he destroys them;

he enlarges nations, and yleads them away.

24  He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth

and zmakes them wander in a trackless waste.

25  They agrope in the dark without light,

and he makes them bstagger like a drunken man.