Job 12–14

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, Yahweh’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.

1“Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and understood it.

2What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

4But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

5Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

6Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

7Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?

8Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?

9Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

10He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality.

11Won’t his majesty make you afraid and his dread fall on you?

12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay.

13“Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

15Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

16This also will be my salvation, that a godless man will not come before him.

17Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

18See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

19Who is he who will contend with me? For then I would hold my peace and give up the spirit.

20“Only don’t do two things to me, then I will not hide myself from your face:

21withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.

22Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

23How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

24Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

25Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?

26For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.

27You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,

28though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

3Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?

4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.

6Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

7“For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.

8Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,

9yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.

10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

11As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,

12so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

13“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!

14If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.

15You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.

16But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?

17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.

18“But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place.

19The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.

20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.

21His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

22But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”