Job Chapter 12 Back Next{12:1} Then
Job answered,
{12:2} "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
{12:3} But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?
{12:4} I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
{12:5} In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
{12:6} The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
{12:7} "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the
birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
{12:8} Or speak to the
earth, and it shall teach you. The
fish of the sea shall declare to you.
{12:9} Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this,
{12:10} in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
{12:11} Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
{12:12} With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
{12:13} "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
{12:14} Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
{12:15} Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
{12:16} With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
{12:17} He leads
counselors away stripped. He makes
judges fools.
{12:18} He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
{12:19} He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
{12:20} He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the
elders.
{12:21} He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
{12:22} He uncovers deep things out of
darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of
death.
{12:23} He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them
captive.
{12:24} He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
{12:25} They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a
drunken man.
Job Chapter 12 Back Next