Job, Chapter 12: BIBLE, New American Standard Bible == BIBLE-CENTER

Job, Chapter 12

¹ Then Job^aresponded,
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^bwho does not know such things as these?
⁴ “I am a joke to^cmy friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The just and blameless man is a joke.
⁵ “^dHe 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,
^eWhom 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^ftastes its food?
¹² “Wisdom is with aged men,
With^glong life is understanding.
¹³ “With Him are wisdom and might;
To Him belong counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He^himprisons a man, andⁱthere can be no release.
¹⁵ “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up;
And He sends them out, and they^jinundate the earth.
¹⁶ “With Him are strength and sound wisdom,
The misled and the misleader belong to Him.
¹⁷ “He makes counselors walk^kbarefoot
And makes fools of judges.
¹⁸ “He loosens the^lbond of kings
And binds their loins with a girdle.
¹⁹ “He makes priests walk^mbarefoot
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;
Heⁿenlarges 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.


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