| 1 | Then Job answered, |
| 2 | "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. |
| 3 | But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these? |
| 4 | I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. |
| 5 | In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. |
| 6 | The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands. |
| 7 | "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. |
| 8 | Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. |
| 9 | Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this, |
| 10 | in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? |
| 11 | Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? |
| 12 | With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. |
| 13 | "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. |
| 14 | Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. |
| 15 | Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. |
| 16 | With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. |
| 17 | He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. |
| 18 | He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. |
| 19 | He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. |
| 20 | He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. |
| 21 | He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. |
| 22 | He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. |
| 23 | He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. |
| 24 | He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. |
| 25 | They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man. |
