Job 12
Open Word Bible
Then Job answered: No doubt you are the people who matter, and wisdom will die with you! But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things? I have become a laughingstock to my friends, I who called on God and he answered me; a righteous and blameless man is laughed at! Those at ease look with contempt on disaster; they think it is ready for those whose feet are slipping. The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, those who carry their god in their hands. But ask the animals, and they will teach you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare it to you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every living creature and the breath of every human being. Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food? Wisdom is with the aged, and long life brings understanding. With God are wisdom and might; counsel and understanding are his. When he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; when he shuts someone in, no one can open it. When he holds back the waters, they dry up; when he lets them loose, they overwhelm the land. With him are strength and true wisdom; the misled and the misleader are both his. He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges. He loosens the bonds that kings put on others and binds a captive’s cloth around their own waists. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows those firmly in power. He silences trusted advisers and takes away the judgment of elders. He pours contempt on nobles and loosens the belt of the mighty. He reveals deep things from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light. He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. He takes away the understanding of the leaders of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like drunkards.
Job
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Scripture quotations are from the Open Word Bible, which is in the public domain.