【Job】Chapter 12 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

12:1 Then Job replied and said:

12:2 No doubt you are the intelligent folk, and with you wisdom shall die!

12:3 But I have intelligence as well as you; for who does not know such things as these?

12:4 I have become the sport of my neighbors: "The one whom God answers when he calls upon him, The just, the perfect man," is a laughing-stock;

12:5 The undisturbed esteem my downfall a disgrace such as awaits unsteady feet;

12:6 Yet the tents of robbers are prosperous, and those who provoke God are secure.

12:7 But now ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you;

12:8 Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you.

12:9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this?

12:10 In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind.

12:11 Does not the ear judge words as the mouth tastes food?

12:12 So with old age is wisdom, and with length of days understanding.

12:13 With him are wisdom and might; his are counsel and understanding.

12:14 If he breaks a thing down, there is no rebuilding; if he imprisons a man, there is no release.

12:15 He holds back the waters and there is drought; he sends them forth and they overwhelm the land.

12:16 With him are strength and prudence; the misled and the misleaders are his.

12:17 He sends counselors away barefoot, and of judges he makes fools.

12:18 He loosens the bonds imposed by kings and leaves but a waistcloth to bind the king’s own loins.

12:19 and lets their never-failing waters flow away.

12:20 He silences the trusted adviser, and takes discretion from the aged.

12:21 He breaks down the barriers of the streams

12:22 The recesses of the darkness he discloses, and brings the gloom forth to the light.

12:23 He makes nations great and he destroys them; he spreads peoples abroad and he abandons them.

12:24 He takes understanding from the leaders of the land,

12:25 till they grope in the darkness without light; he makes them stagger like drunken men.

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