| Chapter 12 |
1 | And Job answered and said, |
2 | Truly ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you! |
3 | I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; and who knoweth not such things as these? |
4 | I am to be one that is a derision to his friend, I who call upon +God, and whom he will answer: a derision is the just upright [man]. |
5 | He that is ready to stumble with the foot is a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. |
6 | The tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke łGod are secure; into whose hand +God bringeth. |
7 | But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee; |
8 | Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. |
9 | Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this? |
10 | In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man. |
11 | Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food? |
12 | With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding. |
13 | With him is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and understanding. |
14 | Behold, he breaketh down, and it is not built again; he shutteth up a man, and there is no opening. |
15 | Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; and he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. |
16 | With him is strength and effectual knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are his. |
17 | He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and judges maketh he fools; |
18 | He weakeneth the government of kings, and bindeth their loins with a fetter; |
19 | He leadeth priests away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty; |
20 | He depriveth of speech the trusty, and taketh away the judgment of the elders; |
21 | He poureth contempt upon nobles, and slackeneth the girdle of the mighty; |
22 | He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out into light the shadow of death; |
23 | He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in; |
24 | He taketh away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a pathless waste. |
25 | They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard. |