¹ Then Job answered and said:

² No doubt ye are the whole people! And wisdom will die with you!

³ But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

⁴ I am become a laughing-stock to my friend,—I who call upon God, that he would answer me! The innocent and upright man is held in derision.

⁵ To calamity belongeth contempt in the mind of one at ease; It is ready for them that slip with the feet.

⁶ The tents of robbers are in prosperity, And they who provoke God are secure, Who carry their God in their hand.

⁷ For ask now the beasts, and they will teach thee; Or the fowls of the air, and they will tell thee;

⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct thee; And the fishes of the sea will declare unto thee.

⁹ Who among all these doth not know That the hand of Jehovah doeth these things?

¹⁰ In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind.

¹¹ Doth not the ear prove words, As the mouth tasteth meat?

¹² With the aged is wisdom, And with length of days is understanding.

¹³ With Him are wisdom and strength; With Him counsel and understanding.

¹⁴ Lo! he pulleth down, and it shall not be rebuilt; He bindeth a man, and he shall not be set loose.

¹⁵ Lo! he withholdeth the waters, and they are dried up; He sendeth them forth, and they lay waste the earth.

¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷ He leadeth counsellors away captive, And judges he maketh fools.

¹⁸ He looseth the authority of kings, And bindeth their loins with a cord.

¹⁹ He leadeth priests away captive, And overthroweth the mighty.

²⁰ He removeth speech from the trusty, And taketh away judgment from the elders.

²¹ He poureth contempt upon princes, And looseth the girdle of the mighty.

²² He revealeth deep things out of darkness, And bringeth the shadow of death to light.

²³ He exalteth nations, and destroyeth them; He enlargeth nations, and leadeth them captive.

²⁴ He taketh away the understanding of the great men of the land, And causeth them to wander in a wilderness, where is no path;

²⁵ They grope in the dark without light; He maketh them stagger like a drunken man.