Job 12

¹ Then Job replied and said:

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

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

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;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁹ and lets their never-failing waters flow away.

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

²¹ He breaks down the barriers of the streams

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

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

²⁴ He takes understanding from the leaders of the land,

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