12:1 THEN JOB answered, |
12:2 No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], and wisdom will die with you! |
12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God's wisdom and might]? |
12:4 I am become one who is a laughingstock to his friend; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him--a just, upright (blameless) man--laughed to scorn! |
12:5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune--but it is ready for those whose feet slip. |
12:6 The dwellings of robbers prosper; those who provoke God are [apparently] secure; God supplies them abundantly [who have no god but their own hands and power]. |
12:7 For ask now the animals, and they will teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you; |
12:8 Or speak to the earth [with its other forms of life], and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare [this truth] to you. |
12:9 Who [is so blind as] not to recognize in all these [that good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature and human life] that it is God's hand which does it [and God's way]? |
12:10 In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. |
12:11 Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between [wise and unwise] words, just as the mouth distinguishes [between desirable and undesirable] food? |
12:12 With the aged [you say] is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding. |
12:13 But [only] with [God] are [perfect] wisdom and might; He [alone] has [true] counsel and understanding. |
12:14 Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be built again; He shuts a man in, and none can open. |
12:15 He withholds the waters, and the land dries up; again, He sends forth [rains], and they overwhelm the land {or} transform it. |
12:16 With Him are might and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are His [and in His power]. |
12:17 He leads [great and scheming] counselors away stripped {and} barefoot and makes the judges fools [in human estimation, by overthrowing their plans]. |
12:18 He looses the fetters [ordered] by kings and has [the] waistcloth [of a slave] bound about their [own] loins. |
12:19 He leads away priests as spoil, and men firmly seated He overturns. |
12:20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted and takes away the discernment {and} discretion of the aged. |
12:21 He pours contempt on princes and loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them, bringing low the pride of the learned]. |
12:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness and brings into light black gloom {and} the shadow of death. |
12:23 He makes nations great, and He destroys them; He enlarges nations [and then straitens and shrinks them again], and leads them [away captive]. |
12:24 He takes away understanding from the leaders of the people of the land {and} of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no path. |
12:25 They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them to stagger {and} wander like a drunken man. |