¹Then Job answered, ²“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? ⁴I 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. ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. ⁷“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. ⁹Who doesn’t know that in all these, the LORD’s hand has done this, ¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ¹¹Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. ¹³“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. ²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. ²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. ²⁴He 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. ²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.