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Job 12
1Then Job answered,
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2“No doubt, but you are the people,
- and wisdom shall die with you.
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3But 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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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.
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5In 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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6The 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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8Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you.
- The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
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9Who doesn’t know that in all these,
- the hand of Yahweh has done this,
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10in whose hand is the life of every living thing,
- and the breath of all mankind?
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11Doesn’t the ear try words,
- even as the palate tastes its food?
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12With 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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14Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again.
- He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
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15Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up.
- Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
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16With him is strength and wisdom.
- The deceived and the deceiver are his.
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17He leads counselors away stripped.
- He makes judges fools.
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18He loosens the bond of kings.
- He binds their waist with a belt.
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19He leads priests away stripped,
- and overthrows the mighty.
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20He removes the speech of those who are trusted,
- and takes away the understanding of the elders.
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21He pours contempt on princes,
- and loosens the belt of the strong.
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22He uncovers deep things out of darkness,
- and brings out to light the shadow of death.
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23He increases the nations, and he destroys them.
- He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
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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.
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25They grope in the dark without light.
- He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
