Job 12:1-25
12 But Job answered
2 “You are indeed a peoplewith whom wisdom will die!
3 * I have brains like you,am not inferior to you,and who does not have things like these on hand?
4 ‘A butt for his neighbor’s laughter’ am I,‘one who called on God and he answered him,an honest conscientious man is a butt.’
5 * ‘To the thinking of one who is at ease, disaster is to be pooh-poohed;for one whose foot is giving way it is a solid certainty.’
6 ‘Marauders’ tents prosperand there is security for those who disturb Deity,for the one who brings God in his hand.’
7 But ask beasts and they will inform you,the birds of the air and they will tell you,
8 * Or crawlers of the earth and they will inform you,and the fishes of the sea will tell you the story:
9 * Who does not know by all thesethat Jehovah’s hand made this,
10 In whose hand is the soul of everything livingand the breath of all flesh of men?
11 Does not an ear test wordsand a palate do its tasting of food?
12 In graybeards is wisdom,and length of life is intelligence—
13 With him is wisdom and efficiency,his are skill and intelligence.
14 Where he demolishes, there is no rebuilding;he locks a man up and there is no unlocking;
15 When he shuts off the water, it dries out;he lets it loose and it tears up the earth.
16 With him are might and sagacity;to him belong misled and misleader.
17 One who sets counselors to going strippedand judges to running wild,
18 Undoes kings’ controland ties a loincloth on their waists,
19 One who sets priests to going strippedand upsets immemorial status,
20 * One who makes reliable men’s tongues slipand takes away old men’s sagacity,
21 One who pours contempt on noblesand slackens irresistible men’s girdles,
22 One who unveils abysmal things out of darknessand brings gloom to light,
23 * One who makes nations immense and destroys them,spreads out folk upon folk and leaves them lying,
24 One who turns aside the minds of the heads of the populaceand sets them wandering in pathless nothingness,
25 * Groping in unlighted darkness;and he makes them wander about like a drunken man.
Footnotes
^ 12:3 Conj. that am not inferior to you does not belong here but only in 13:2
^ 12:5 Lit. contempt belongs to disaster
^ 12:8 Codd. Or a bush on the ground and it will (or Or consider of the earth and it will
^ 12:9 Var. God’s hand
^ 12:20 (tongues) Lit. lips
^ 12:23 Unc.
^ 12:25 (makes them wander about) Susp.
