Job 12

²No doubt but ye are the people,

And wisdom shall die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you;

I am not inferior to you:

Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

⁴I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor,

I who called upon God, and he answered:

The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.

⁵In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;

It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.

⁶The tents of robbers prosper,

And they that provoke God are secure;

Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.

⁷But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;

And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee:

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;

And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

⁹Who knoweth not in all these,

That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this,

¹⁰In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,

And the breath of all mankind?

¹¹Doth not the ear try words,

Even as the palate tasteth its food?

¹²With aged men is wisdom,

And in length of days understanding.

¹³With God is wisdom and might;

He hath counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again;

He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.

¹⁵Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up;

Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom;

The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leadeth counsellors away stripped,

And judges maketh he fools.

¹⁸He looseth the bond of kings,

And he bindeth their loins with a girdle.

¹⁹He leadeth priests away stripped,

And overthroweth the mighty.

²⁰He removeth the speech of the trusty,

And taketh away the understanding of the elders.

²¹He poureth contempt upon princes,

And looseth the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovereth deep things out of darkness,

And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

²³He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them:

He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive.

²⁴He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,

And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light;

And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.