Job
12 But Job answered
2 “You are indeed a people
with whom wisdom will die!
4 ‘A butt for his neighbor’s laughter’ am I,
‘one who called on God and he answered him,
an honest conscientious man is a butt.’
5* ‘To the thinking of one who is at ease, disaster is to be pooh-poohed;
for one whose foot is giving way it is a solid certainty.’
6 ‘Marauders’ tents prosper
and there is security for those who disturb Deity,
for the one who brings God in his hand.’
7 But ask beasts and they will inform you,
the birds of the air and they will tell you,
8* Or crawlers of the earth and they will inform you,
and the fishes of the sea will tell you the story:
10 In whose hand is the soul of everything living
and the breath of all flesh of men?
11 Does not an ear test words
and a palate do its tasting of food?
12 In graybeards is wisdom,
and length of life is intelligence—
13 With him is wisdom and efficiency,
his are skill and intelligence.
14 Where he demolishes, there is no rebuilding;
he locks a man up and there is no unlocking;
15 When he shuts off the water, it dries out;
he lets it loose and it tears up the earth.
16 With him are might and sagacity;
to him belong misled and misleader.
17 One who sets counselors to going stripped
and judges to running wild,
18 Undoes kings’ control
and ties a loincloth on their waists,
19 One who sets priests to going stripped
and upsets immemorial status,
21 One who pours contempt on nobles
and slackens irresistible men’s girdles,
22 One who unveils abysmal things out of darkness
and brings gloom to light,
23* One who makes nations immense and destroys them,
spreads out folk upon folk and leaves them lying,
24 One who turns aside the minds of the heads of the populace
and sets them wandering in pathless nothingness,