1. Job responded and said:
2. “Without a doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you!
3. But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know these things?
4. “I have become a laughingstock to my friend, though I called on God and He answered— a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!
5. Contempt for calamity is the thought of one at ease, prepared for those whose foot slips.
6. The tents of marauders prosper, and there is security for those who provoke God— for those whom God brings in His hand.
7. But now ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds of the sky and they will tell you,
8. or speak to the earth and it will teach you, or the fish of the sea and they will inform you.
9. Which of these does not know that the hand of Adonai has done this?
10. In His hand is the life of every creature, and the breath of all the human race.
11. Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
12. Is not wisdom with the aged and understanding bring long life?
13. “With Him are wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are His.
14. If He tears down, it cannot be rebuilt; one He imprisons cannot be released.
15. If He holds back the waters, they dry up; if He releases them, they destroy the earth.
16. With Him are power and sound wisdom; both deceived and deceiver are His.
17. He leads counselors away stripped and makes judges into fools.
18. He loosens the bonds of the kings, and binds a loincloth around their waists.
19. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows the rulers.
20. He silences the lips of trusted advisors and removes the discernment of elders.
21. He pours contempt on nobles and loosens the belts of the mighty.
22. He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into light.
23. He makes nations great and destroys them. He enlarges the nations and leads them away.
24. He deprives the heads of the people of earth of understanding, and causes them to wander in a pathless wasteland.
25. They grope in darkness with no light; He makes them stagger like a drunkard.