Job 12

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

¹Then answered Job, and said,

²Truly ye are indeed the right kind of people, and with you wisdom must die out.

³I also have sense like you; I do not fall short compared with you: and who possesseth not such things as these?

⁴I am as one laughed at by his friend, who calleth upon God, while he answered him: yea, a laughing-stock though righteous and innocent.

⁵To the unfortunate there is given contempt— according to the thoughts of him that is at ease— prepared also for those whose foot slippeth.

⁶Prosperous are the tents of robbers, and security is given to those that provoke God. to him who carrieth his god in his hand.

⁷Yet, do only ask of the beasts, and they will instruct thee; and the fowls of the heavens, and they will tell it thee;

⁸Or speak to the earth, and she will instruct thee; and the fishes of the sea will inform thee

⁹Who knoweth not through all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?

¹⁰He in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all the bodies of men?

¹¹Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food for itself?

¹²So It with the ancients wisdom, and with those of length of days understanding,

¹³That with him are wisdom and strength, his are counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he pulleth down, and there can be no rebuilding: he locketh the prison upon a man, and there can be no opening,

¹⁵Behold, he restraineth the waters, and they dry up; or he suffereth them to flow, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him are strength and counsel: his are the deceived and the deceiver.

¹⁷He leadeth counsellors away bereft of sense, and maketh the judges fools.

¹⁸He looseth the bond of kings, and bindeth a girdle around their loins.

¹⁹He leadeth priests away bereft of sense, and the powerful he causeth to walk on crooked paths.

²⁰He removeth the speech from trusty speakers, and taketh away the intelligence of the aged.

²¹He poureth contempt upon princes, and the belt of the mighty be looseneth.

²²He layeth open deep things from the midst of darkness, and bringeth out unto light the shadow of death.

²³He permitteth the nations to become great, and destroyeth them: he spreadeth out the nations, and leadeth them away.

²⁴He taketh away the sense of the chiefs of the people of the land, and causeth them to wander astray in a wilderness when there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light, and he causeth them to wander astray like a drunken man.