1 A nd Job answered and said,

2 T ruly 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.

5 H e that is ready to stumble with the foot is a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

6 T he tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand +God bringeth.

7 B ut ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee;

8 O r speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

9 W ho knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this?

10 I n whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man.

11 D oth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?

12 W ith the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.

13 W ith him is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and understanding.

14 B ehold, he breaketh down, and it is not built again; he shutteth up a man, and there is no opening.

15 B ehold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; and he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.

16 W ith him is strength and effectual knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 H e leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and judges maketh he fools;

18 H e weakeneth the government of kings, and bindeth their loins with a fetter;

19 H e leadeth priests away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty;

20 H e depriveth of speech the trusty, and taketh away the judgment of the elders;

21 H e poureth contempt upon nobles, and slackeneth the girdle of the mighty;

22 H e discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out into light the shadow of death;

23 H e increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in;

24 H e taketh away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a pathless waste.

25 T hey grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard.