1 Then Job answered and said:
2 "Truly you are the people, and with you wisdom will die!
3 I too have a mind, as you do; I do not fall short of you. Who does not know things like these?
4 I am a joke to my friends, I who called on God and he answered me; the righteous, blameless man is a joke.
5 In the mind of one who is at ease there is contempt for disaster; it is ready for those whose feet are slipping.
6 The tents of plunderers are untroubled, and those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hand.
7 But ask the beasts, and they will teach you, the birds of the heavens, and they will inform you;
8 or talk to the earth, and it will teach you, and the fish of the sea will recount it to you.
9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear try words, just as the palate tastes food?
12 With the aged is wisdom, and with length of days, understanding.
13 With him are wisdom and power; he has counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears down, there is no rebuilding; if he shuts a man in, there is no opening.
15 If he holds back the waters, they dry up; if he lets them loose, they overwhelm the earth.
16 With him are strength and sound wisdom; both the one who strays and the one who leads astray belong to him.
17 He leads counselors off barefoot, and judges he turns into fools.
18 He undoes the fetters of kings and ties a loincloth about their waists.
19 He leads priests off barefoot and topples those long secure.
20 He silences the speech of trusted men and takes away the judgment of elders.
21 He pours scorn upon princes and slackens the belt of the mighty.
22 He lays bare deep things from out of the darkness and brings deep darkness out into the light.
23 He makes nations grow, and he destroys them; he spreads nations wide, and he leads them off.
24 He strips the chiefs of the earth's people of their sense and sends them wandering in a wasteland with no road.
25 They feel their way in darkness with no light, and he makes them reel like a drunken man.