Job 12:13–25

¹³“With God are wisdom and might;

he has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴If he tears down, none can rebuild;

if he shuts a man in, none can open.

¹⁵If he withholds the waters, they dry up;

if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

¹⁶With him are strength and wisdom;

the deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped,

and judges he makes fools.

¹⁸He looses the bonds of kings,

and binds a waistcloth on their loins.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped,

and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He deprives of speech those who are trusted,

and takes away the discernment of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes,

and looses the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers the deeps out of darkness,

and brings deep darkness to light.

²³He makes nations great, and he destroys them:

he enlarges nations, and leads them away.

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

and makes them wander in a pathless waste.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light;

and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.