Job 12

12 ¹ Then Job answered: ² "No 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 things like these? ⁴ I have become a laughingstock to my friends — I, who called on God and he answered me; a just and blameless man, now a laughingstock. ⁵ The comfortable look down on misfortune — a ready blow for those whose feet are slipping. ⁶ The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure — those who carry their god in their own hand. ^a a v6 Those who carry their god in their own hand: people who trust entirely in their own strength rather than God. ⁷ But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; ⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain it to you. ⁹ Who among all these does not know that the hand of our Father has done this? ^b b v9 Through long debate with his three friends, this is the one place Job names our Father by name — the relational name his friends will never use. His heart, even in protest, is reaching toward the Father he once knew. ¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. ¹¹ Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes its food? ¹² Wisdom is found with the aged, and understanding with length of days. ¹³ With him are wisdom and might; his are counsel and understanding. ¹⁴ What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; the one he shuts in cannot be released. ¹⁵ If he holds back the waters, they dry up; if he releases them, they overwhelm the land. ¹⁶ With him are strength and sound wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are both his. ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges. ¹⁸ He loosens the bonds imposed by kings and ties a loincloth around their own waists. ¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped and overthrows those long established. ²⁰ He silences the lips of the trusted and strips the elders of discernment. ²¹ He pours contempt on princes and strips the strong of their power. ²² He uncovers deep things out of darkness and brings deep shadow into the light. ²³ He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. ²⁴ He strips away the reason of the earth's leaders and sends them wandering in a trackless waste. ²⁵ They grope in darkness with no light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.