Job
Will you defend God with lies?
12
1 Then Job answered: 2 No doubt you are the people’s voice;
2 when you die, wisdom dies with you!
3 But I have a mind as well as you,
3 I know all that you have said.
4 To my friends I am a laughingstock
4 when I call on God who does not answer;
4 the just and blameless man
4 is made fun of.
5 “Contempt for the unfortunate,” so think the prosperous,
5 “a blow for those who are staggering.”
6 Yet the robbers’ tents are undisturbed,
6 those who provoke God are in peace,
6 those who make a god of their strength.
8 the plants of the earth to instruct you,
8 the fish of the sea to inform you.
9 Who among them does not understand
9 that behind all this is God’s hand?
11 The ear surely can test the words
11 as the tongue tastes food;
12 wisdom is found in the old,
12 and understanding in great age;
14 What he tears down, none can rebuild;
14 the one he imprisons, none can re lease.
15 If he withholds water, there is drought;
15 if he lets it loose, there is flood.
16 In him are strength and perception;
16 deceived and deceiver are in his power.
17 He leads counselors away stripped
17 and makes fools of judges.
18 He loosens the belt of kings
18 and ties a loincloth about their waist.
19 He leads priests away, barefoot,
19 and overthrows those in power.
20 He compels advisers to keep silent,
20 and strips elders of their discernment.
21 He puts princes to shame;
21 he unties the girdle of the strong.
22 (He uncovers the gloomy recesses
22 and brings the deep darkness to light.)
23 He makes a nation rise and fall,
23 a people to grow and to dwindle.
24 He deprives leaders of their judgment,
24 leaving them to roam in a trackless waste.
25 Without light, they grope in the dark
25 and stagger like drunkards.