Chapter 12

Job Chides His Accusers

1 Then Job 1responded,

2 “Truly then ayou are the people,

And with you wisdom will die!

3 “But aI have intelligence as well as you;

I am not inferior to you.

And 1who does not know such things as these?

4 “I am a ajoke to 1my friends,

The one who called on God and He answered him;

The just and bblameless man is a joke.

5 “1He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,

As prepared for those whose feet slip.

6 “The atents of the destroyers prosper,

And those who provoke God bare secure,

1Whom God brings cinto their power.

7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;

And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.

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

And let the fish of the sea declare to you.

9 “Who among all these does not know

That athe hand of the Lord has done this,

10 aIn whose hand is the life of every living thing,

And bthe breath of all mankind?

11 “Does not athe ear test words,

As the palate 1tastes its food?

12 “Wisdom is with aaged men,

With 1long life is understanding.

Job Speaks of the Power of God

13 “With Him are awisdom and amight;

To Him belong counsel and bunderstanding.

14 “Behold, He atears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;

He 1bimprisons a man, and 2there can be no release.

15 “Behold, He arestrains the waters, and they dry up;

And He bsends them out, and they 1inundate the earth.

16 “With Him are strength and sound wisdom,

The amisled and the misleader belong to Him.

17 “He makes acounselors walk 1barefoot

And makes fools of bjudges.

18 “He aloosens the 1bond of kings

And binds their loins with a girdle.

19 “He makes priests walk 1barefoot

And overthrows athe secure ones.

20 “He deprives the trusted ones of speech

And atakes away the discernment of the elders.

21 “He apours contempt on nobles

And bloosens the belt of the strong.

22 “He areveals mysteries from the darkness

And brings the deep darkness into light.

23 “He amakes the nations great, then destroys them;

He 1enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

24 “He adeprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people

And makes them wander in a pathless waste.

25 “They agrope in darkness with no light,

And He makes them bstagger like a drunken man.