# Job 12 [[Job-11|← Job 11]] | [[Job]] | [[Job-13|Job 13 →]] *** ###### v1 Then Job answered, ###### v2 "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. ###### v3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these? ###### v4 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. ###### v5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ###### v6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. ###### v7 "But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. ###### v8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. ###### v9 Who doesn't know that in all these, Yahweh's hand has done this, ###### v10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ###### v11 Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ###### v12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. ###### v13 "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ###### v14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ###### v15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ###### v16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. ###### v17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ###### v18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. ###### v19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ###### v20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. ###### v21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. ###### v22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. ###### v23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. ###### v24 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. ###### v25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man. *** [[Job-11|← Job 11]] | [[Job]] | [[Job-13|Job 13 →]]