a[ch. 13:2; 15:9]
bch. 16:2
cch. 16:10; 17:2, 6; 21:3; 30:1
dPs. 91:15
ech. 3:18
fSee ch. 21:7
iIsa. 41:20; [ch. 1:21]
jNum. 16:22; Dan. 5:23; Acts 17:28
kch. 34:3
lch. 32:7; [Ps. 119:100]
m[ch. 9:4; 36:5]
och. 11:10; [Isa. 22:22; Rev. 3:7]
p[Deut. 11:17; 1 Kgs. 8:35; 17:1]
q[Gen. 7:11-24; Ps. 147:18; Amos 9:6]
r[ch. 5:12]
s[2 Sam. 17:23]
tch. 9:24; Isa. 40:23; [Isa. 29:14; 44:25; 1 Cor. 1:19]
uPs. 116:16
v[ch. 32:9]
wPs. 107:40
xDan. 2:22; 1 Cor. 4:5
ySee ch. 3:5
zIsa. 9:3; 26:15
aa[2 Kgs. 18:11]
abPs. 107:40; [ch. 6:18]
acSee ch. 5:14
adPs. 107:27; Isa. 19:14

‏ Job 12

Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This

1Then Job answered and said:

 2“No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.
 3But I have aunderstanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know bsuch things as these?
 4I am ca laughingstock to my friends;
I, who dcalled to God and he answered me,
a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
 5In the thought of one who is eat ease there is contempt for misfortune;
it is ready for those whose feet slip.
 6 fThe tents of robbers are at peace,
and those who provoke God are secure,
who bring their god in their hand. ▼
▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

 7“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
 8or the bushes of the earth, ▼
▼Or speak to the earth
 and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
 9Who among all these does not know
that ithe hand of the Lord has done this?
 10In jhis hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.
 11Does not kthe ear test words
as the palate tastes food?
 12Wisdom is with lthe aged,
and understanding in length of days.
 13 m“With God ▼
▼Hebrew him
 are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.
 14If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he oshuts a man in, none can open.
 15If he pwithholds the waters, they dry up;
if he qsends them out, they overwhelm the land.
 16With him are strength and rsound wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.
 17He leads scounselors away stripped,
and tjudges he makes fools.
 18He ulooses the bonds of kings
and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
 19He leads priests away stripped
and overthrows the mighty.
 20He deprives of speech those who are trusted
vand takes away the discernment of the elders.
 21He wpours contempt on princes
and loosens the belt of the strong.
 22He xuncovers the deeps out of darkness
and brings ydeep darkness to light.
 23He zmakes nations great, and he destroys them;
he enlarges nations, and aaleads them away.
 24He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
and abmakes them wander in a trackless waste.
 25They acgrope in the dark without light,
and he makes them adstagger like a drunken man.
Copyright information for ESV