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