Job Replies

¹And Job answered:

²“No doubt but you are the people,

and wisdom will die with you!

³But I have understanding as well as you;

I am not inferior to you.

Yes, who does not know such things as these?

⁴“I am a laughingstock to my neighbor,

who calls upon God, and He answers him;

the righteous, upright man is a laughingstock.

⁵He whose foot is unsteady

is despised in the thoughts of him who is at ease.

⁶The tents of robbers are at peace,

and those who provoke God are secure,

into whose hand they bring their own god.

⁷“But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;

and the birds of the air, and let them tell you;

⁸or speak to the earth, let it teach you;

and let the fish of the sea declare to you.

⁹Who among all these does not know

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

¹⁰in whose hand is the soul of every living thing

and the breath of all mankind?

¹¹Does not the ear test words

and the mouth taste its food?

¹²Wisdom is with the elderly,

and understanding comes with long life.

¹³“With Him are wisdom and strength;[#Job 9:4; 36:5]

He has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Surely, He tears down, and it cannot be built again;

He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

¹⁵Surely, He withholds the waters, and they dry up;[#1Ki 17:1]

also He sends them out, and they overthrow the earth.

¹⁶With Him are strength and wisdom.

The deceived and the deceiver are His.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped

and makes fools of judges.

¹⁸He has loosened the bonds imposed by kings

and bound their waist with a belt.

¹⁹He leads away priests stripped

and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He removes speech from the trusted ones

and takes away the understanding of the aged.

²¹He pours contempt upon princes[#Ps 107:40]

and loosens the belt of the mighty.

²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness

and brings the shadow of death to light.

²³He increases the nations and destroys them;[#Isa 9:3; 26:15]

He enlarges the nations and guides them.

²⁴He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth,

and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light,[#Job 5:14]

and He makes them to stagger like a drunk man.