¹ Then Job responded, ² “Truly then you are the people,
And with you wisdom will die! ³ “But I have intelligence as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
And who does not know such things as these? ⁴ “I am a joke to my friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The just and blameless man is a joke. ⁵ “He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,
As prepared for those whose feet slip. ⁶ “The tents of the destroyers prosper,
And those who provoke God are secure,
Whom God brings into their power. ⁷ “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. ⁸ “Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you. ⁹ “Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this, ¹⁰ In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? ¹¹ “Does not the ear test words,
As the palate tastes its food? ¹² “Wisdom is with aged men,
With long life is understanding. Job Speaks of the Power of God ¹³ “With Him are wisdom and might;
To Him belong counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵ “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth. ¹⁶ “With Him are strength and sound wisdom,
The misled and the misleader belong to Him. ¹⁷ “He makes counselors walk barefoot
And makes fools of judges. ¹⁸ “He loosens the bond of kings
And binds their loins with a girdle. ¹⁹ “He makes priests walk barefoot
And overthrows the secure ones. ²⁰ “He deprives the trusted ones of speech
And takes away the discernment of the elders. ²¹ “He pours contempt on nobles
And loosens the belt of the strong. ²² “He reveals mysteries from the darkness
And brings the deep darkness into light. ²³ “He makes the nations great, then destroys them;
He enlarges the nations, then leads them away. ²⁴ “He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people
And makes them wander in a pathless waste. ²⁵ “They grope in darkness with no light,
And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.