Job - Chapter 12 | New International Version

  • 1. Then Job replied:
  • 2. Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!
  • 3. But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?
  • 4. I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called upon God and he answered-- a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
  • 5. Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
  • 6. The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure-- those who carry their god in their hands.
  • 7. But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
  • 8. or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
  • 9. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
  • 10. In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
  • 11. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?
  • 12. Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
  • 13. To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.
  • 14. What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man he imprisons cannot be released.
  • 15. If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
  • 16. To him belong strength and victory; both deceived and deceiver are his.
  • 17. He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges.
  • 18. He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist.
  • 19. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows men long established.
  • 20. He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.
  • 21. He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
  • 22. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.
  • 23. He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
  • 24. He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
  • 25. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.
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