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