Job 12

Job Answers

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 “Truly then you are the people,
And with you wisdom will die!
3 “But I have a heart of wisdom as well as you;
I do not fall short of you.
And ^{▼▼Lit with whom is there not like these?}who does not know such things as these?
4 “I am a laughingstock to ^{▼▼Lit his}my friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock.
5 “ ^{▼▼Lit Contempt for calamity is the thought of him who is at ease}As for upheaval, there is only contempt by the one who acts at ease,
But it is prepared for those whose feet slip.
6 “The tents of the destroyers are complacent,
And those who provoke God are secure,
^{▼▼ Or He who brings God into his hand}Whom God brings into their power.
7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you;
And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you.
8 “Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you;
And let the fish of the sea recount it to you.
9 “Who among all these does not know
That the hand of Yahweh has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all the flesh of man?
11 “Does not the ear test words,
As the palate ^{▼▼Lit tastes food for itself}tastes its food?
12 “Wisdom is with aged men,
With ^{▼▼Lit length of days}long life is discernment.

Job Speaks of God’s Strength

13 “With Him are wisdom and might;
To Him belong counsel and discernment.
14 “Behold, He pulls down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He closes a man in, and it cannot be opened.
15 “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
And He sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
16 “With Him are strength and sound wisdom;
The misled and the misleader belong to Him.
17 “He makes counselors walk ^{▼▼Or stripped}barefoot
And makes fools of judges.
18 “He opens the ^{▼▼Or discipline}bond of kings
And binds their loins with a belt.
19 “He makes priests walk ^{▼▼Or stripped}barefoot
And subverts the enduring ones.
20 “He removes speech from the faithful
And takes away the discerning taste of the elders.
21 “He pours contempt on nobles
And loosens the belt of the strong.
22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness
And brings out the shadows of death into light.
23 “He makes the nations great, then makes them perish;
He ^{▼▼Or spreads out}enlarges the nations, then leads them away.
24 “He removes the heart of wisdom from the heads of the earth’s people
And makes them wander in a pathless ^{▼▼Or formlessness}waste.
25 “They grope in darkness with no light,
And He makes them wander about like a drunken man.