Job 12

Job Affirms God's Power and Wisdom

12¹ Then Job answered: ² "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. ³ But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? ⁴ I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock. ⁵ In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.

⁶ The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand. ⁷ "But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ⁸ or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. ⁹ Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? ¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. ¹¹ Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food?

¹² Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days. ¹³ "With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open. ¹⁵ If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land. ¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools. ¹⁸ He looses the bonds of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins. ¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ²⁰ He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders. ²¹ He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong. ²² He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light. ²³ He makes nations great, and he destroys them: he enlarges nations, and leads them away. ²⁴ He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste. ²⁵ They grope in the dark without light; and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.