12:1 Then Job replied:
12:2 “Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!
12:3 But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?
12:4 “I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered - a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
12:5 Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
12:6 The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure - those God has in his hand.* / *Or those whose god is in their own hand
12:7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
12:8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.
12:9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?
12:10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
12:11 Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?
12:12 Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
12:13 “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.
12:14 What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released.
12:15 If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
12:16 To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his.
12:17 He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.
12:18 He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth* around their waist. / *Or shackles of kings / and ties a belt
12:19 He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long established.
12:20 He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.
12:21 He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
12:22 He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.
12:23 He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste.
12:25 They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.