Job 12 · Clearspring

Job Presents His Case

¹Then Job answered,+ ²“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.+ ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?+ ⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.+ ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.+ ⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.+ ⁷“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.+ ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.+ ⁹Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,+ ¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?+ ¹¹Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?+ ¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.+ ¹³“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.+ ¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.+ ¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.+ ¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.+ ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.+ ¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.+ ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.+ ²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.+ ²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.+ ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.+ ²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.+ ²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.+ ²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.+

Job Presents His Case

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