Job 12

Job Answers His Critics

12Then Job answered and said:

²“No doubt you are the people,

And wisdom will die with you!

³But 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.

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

It is made ready for ^dthose whose feet slip.

^6eThe 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;

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

And the fish of the sea will explain to you.

⁹Who among all these does not know

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

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

And the ^gbreath of ⁴all mankind?

¹¹Does not the ear test words

And the ⁵mouth taste its food?

¹²Wisdom is with aged men,

And with ⁶length of days, understanding.

¹³“With Him are ^hwisdom and strength,

He has counsel and understanding.

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

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

¹⁵If He ^jwithholds the waters, they dry up;

If He ^ksends them out, they overwhelm the earth.

¹⁶With Him are strength and prudence.

The deceived and the deceiver are His.

¹⁷He leads counselors away plundered,

And makes fools of the judges.

¹⁸He loosens the bonds of kings,

And binds their waist with a belt.

¹⁹He leads ⁷princes away plundered,

And overthrows the mighty.

^20lHe deprives the trusted ones of speech,

And takes away the discernment of the elders.

^21mHe pours contempt on princes,

And ⁸disarms the mighty.

²²He ⁿuncovers deep things out of darkness,

And brings the shadow of death to light.

^23oHe makes nations great, and destroys them;

He ⁹enlarges nations, and guides them.

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

And ^pmakes them wander in a pathless wilderness.

^25qThey grope in the dark without light,

And He makes them ^rstagger like a drunken man.