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12:1  Then Job responded,
12:2  “No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], And wisdom will die with you!
12:3  “But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]?
12:4  “I am a joke to my friends; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him— A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn].
12:5  “He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune, But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip.
12:6  “The tents of the destroyers prosper; And those who provoke God are [apparently] secure, Whom God brings into their power.
12:7  “Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; And ask the birds of the air, and let them tell you;
12:8  Or speak to the earth [with its many forms of life], and it will teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare [this truth] to you.
12:9  “Who among all these does not recognize [in all these things that good and evil are randomly scattered throughout nature and human life] 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 the ear not put words to the test, Just as the palate tastes its food [distinguishing between the desirable and the undesirable]?
12:12  “With the aged [you say] is wisdom, And with long life is understanding.
12:13  “But [only] with Him are [perfect] wisdom and might; He [alone] has [true] 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; Again, He sends the waters out, and they overwhelm and devastate the earth.
12:16  “With Him are might and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader are His [and in His power].
12:17  “He makes [great and scheming] counselors walk barefoot And makes fools of judges.
12:18  “He loosens the bond of kings And binds their loins with a loincloth.
12:19  “He makes priests walk barefoot, And He overturns men firmly seated and secure.
12:20  “He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment and discretion of the aged.
12:21  “He pours contempt on princes and nobles And loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them].
12:22  “He uncovers mysteries [that are difficult to grasp and understand] out of the darkness And brings black gloom and the shadow of death into light.
12:23  “He makes nations great, and He destroys them; He enlarges nations, and leads them away [captive].
12:24  “He removes intelligence and understanding from the leaders of the people of the earth And makes them wander and move blindly in a pathless waste.
12:25  “They grope in darkness without light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.”