Job 12

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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Job answers: I am not inferior to you

¹Then Job answered: ²No doubt you are the people who matter, \q and wisdom will die with you! ³But I have a mind as well as you; \q I am not inferior to you. \q Who does not know such things? ⁴I have become a laughingstock to my friends, \q I who called on God and he answered me; \q a righteous and blameless man is laughed at! ⁵Those at ease look with contempt on disaster; \q they think it is ready for those whose feet are slipping. ⁶The tents of robbers are at peace, \q and those who provoke God are secure, \q those who carry their god in their hands. ⁷But ask the animals, and they will teach you; \q ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, \q and the fish of the sea will declare it to you. ⁹Which of all these does not know \q that the hand of the LORD has done this? ¹⁰In his hand is the life of every living creature \q and the breath of every human being. ¹¹Does not the ear test words \q as the tongue tastes food? ¹²Wisdom is with the aged, \q and long life brings understanding. ¹³With God are wisdom and might; \q counsel and understanding are his. ¹⁴When he tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; \q when he shuts someone in, no one can open it. ¹⁵When he holds back the waters, they dry up; \q when he lets them loose, they overwhelm the land. ¹⁶With him are strength and true wisdom; \q the misled and the misleader are both his. ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped \q and makes fools of judges. ¹⁸He loosens the bonds that kings put on others \q and binds a captive’s cloth around their own waists. ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped \q and overthrows those firmly in power. ²⁰He silences trusted advisers \q and takes away the judgment of elders. ²¹He pours contempt on nobles \q and loosens the belt of the mighty. ²²He reveals deep things from the darkness \q and brings the deepest darkness into the light. ²³He makes nations great, then destroys them; \q he enlarges nations, then leads them away. ²⁴He takes away the understanding of the leaders of the earth \q and makes them wander in a trackless waste. ²⁵They grope in the dark without light, \q and he makes them stagger like drunkards.