Job 12:13–25

¹³“Wisdom and power belong to God.

Advice and understanding also belong to him.

¹⁴What he tears down can’t be rebuilt.

Any man he puts in prison can’t be set free.

¹⁵If he holds back the water, everything dries up.

If he lets the water loose, it floods the land.

¹⁶Strength and success belong to him.

Those who tell lies and those who believe them also belong to him.

¹⁷He removes the wisdom of advisers and leads them away.

He makes judges look foolish.

¹⁸He sets people free from the chains that kings put on them.

Then he dresses the kings in the clothes of slaves.

¹⁹He removes the authority of priests and leads them away.

He removes from their positions

those who have been in control for a long time.

²⁰He shuts the mouths of trusted advisers.

He takes away the understanding of elders.

²¹He looks down on proud leaders.

He takes away the strength of those who are mighty.

²²He tells people the secrets of darkness.

He brings evil plans out into the light.

²³He makes nations great, and then he destroys them.

He makes nations grow, and then he scatters them.

²⁴He takes away the understanding of the leaders of the earth.

He makes them wander in a desert where no one lives.

²⁵Without any light, they feel their way along in darkness.

God makes them unsteady like those who get drunk.