1 T hen Job answered,

2 “ No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

3 B ut I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?

4 I 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.

5 I n the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

6 T he 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.

8 O r speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.

9 W ho doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,

10 i n whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

11 D oesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

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

13 “ With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

14 B ehold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

15 B ehold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

16 W ith him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

17 H e leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

18 H e loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

19 H e leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

20 H e removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

21 H e pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.

22 H e uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

23 H e increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

24 H e 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.

25 T hey grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.