1 Job Answers His Critics Then Job answered and said:
2 “No doubt you are the people, And wisdom will die with you!
3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not Job 13:2 inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these?
4 “I Job 21:3 am one mocked by his friends, Who Ps. 91:15 called on God, and He answered him, The just and blameless who is ridiculed.
5 A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is made ready for Prov. 14:2 those whose feet slip.
6 (Job 9:24; 21:6–16; Ps. 73:12; Jer. 12:1; Mal. 3:15) The tents of robbers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure— In what God provides by His hand.
7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
9 Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this,
10 (Acts 17:28) In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the Job 27:3; 33:4 breath of all mankind?
11 Does not the ear test words And the mouth taste its food?
12 Wisdom is with aged men, And with length of days, understanding.
13 “With Him are Job 9:4; 36:5 wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding.
14 If Job 11:10; Is. 25:2 He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release.
15 If He Deut. 11:17; (1 Kin. 8:35, 36) withholds the waters, they dry up; If He Gen. 7:11–24 sends them out, they overwhelm the earth.
16 With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His.
17 He leads counselors away plundered, And makes fools of the judges.
18 He loosens the bonds of kings, And binds their waist with a belt.
19 He leads princes away plundered, And overthrows the mighty.
20 Job 32:9 He deprives the trusted ones of speech, And takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 (Job 34:19); Ps. 107:40; (Dan. 2:21) He pours contempt on princes, And disarms the mighty.
22 He Dan. 2:22; (1 Cor. 4:5) uncovers deep things out of darkness, And brings the shadow of death to light.
23 Is. 9:3; 26:15 He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them.
24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, And Ps. 107:4 makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.
25 Job 5:14; 15:30; 18:18 They grope in the dark without light, And He makes them Ps. 107:27 stagger like a drunken man.