Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This
Then Job answered and said:
2 “No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have aunderstanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know bsuch things as these?
4 I am aa laughingstock to my friends;
I, who bcalled to God and he answered me,
a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
5 In the thought of one who is aat ease there is contempt for misfortune;
it is ready for those whose feet slip.
6 aThe tents of robbers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure,
who bring their god in their hand.
7 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
8 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
that athe hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In ahis hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not athe ear test words
as the palate tastes food?
12 Wisdom is with athe aged,
and understanding in length of days.
13 a“With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he ashuts a man in, none can open.
15 If he awithholds the waters, they dry up;
if he bsends them out, they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and asound wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads acounselors away stripped,
and bjudges he makes fools.
18 He alooses the bonds of kings
and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
19 He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows the mighty.
20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted
aand takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 He apours contempt on princes
and loosens the belt of the strong.
22 He auncovers the deeps out of darkness
and brings bdeep darkness to light.
23 He amakes nations great, and he destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and bleads them away.
24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
and amakes them wander in a trackless waste.
25 They agrope in the dark without light,
and he makes them bstagger like a drunken man.