Job, 12

1. Job spoke next. He said:

1. Then Job answered:

2. Doubtless, you are the voice of the people, and when you die, wisdom will die with you!

2. "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

3. But I have a brain, as well as you, I am in no way inferior to you, and who, in any case, does not know all that?

3. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

4. Anyone becomes a laughing-stock to his friends if he cries to God and expects an answer. People laugh at anyone who has integrity and is upright.

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. 'Add insult to injury,' think the prosperous, 'strike the fellow now that he is staggering!'

5. In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; it is ready for those whose feet slip.

6. And yet the tents of brigands are left in peace: those who provoke God dwell secure and so does anyone who makes a god of his fist!

6. The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hand.

7. You have only to ask the cattle, for them to instruct you, and the birds of the sky, for them to inform you.

7. "But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

8. The creeping things of earth will give you lessons, and the fish of the sea provide you an explanation:

8. or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

9. there is not one such creature but will know that the hand of God has arranged things like this!

9. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

10. In his hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of every human being!

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

11. Can the ear not distinguish the value of what is said, just as the palate can tell one food from another?

11. Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food?

12. Wisdom is found in the old, and discretion comes with great age.

12. Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.

13. But in him there is wisdom, and power too, and good counsel no less than discretion.

13. "With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.

14. What he destroys, no one can rebuild; whom he imprisons, no one can release.

14. If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in, none can open.

15. Is there a drought? He has withheld the waters. Do they play havoc on earth? He has let them loose.

15. If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

16. In him is strength, in him resourcefulness, beguiler and beguiled alike are his.

16. With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17. He robs a country's counsellors of their wits, turns judges into fools.

17. He leads counselors away stripped, and judges he makes fools.

18. He undoes the belts of kings and knots a rope round their waists.

18. He looses the bonds of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins.

19. He makes priests walk barefoot, and overthrows the powers that are established.

19. He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

20. He strikes the most assured of speakers dumb and robs old people of their discretion.

20. He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders.

21. He pours contempt on the nobly born, and unbuckles the belt of the strong.

21. He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong.

22. He unveils the depths of darkness, brings shadow dark as death to the light.

22. He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light.

23. He builds nations up, then ruins them, he makes peoples expand, then suppresses them.

23. He makes nations great, and he destroys them: he enlarges nations, and leads them away.

24. He strips a country's leaders of their judgement, and leaves them to wander in a trackless waste,

24. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste.

25. to grope about in unlit darkness, lurching to and fro as though drunk.

25. They grope in the dark without light; and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.