Job 12

Job: Ask the Beasts, and They Will Teach You

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Job’s First Answer to Zophar

12:1Then Job replied:

12:2“So you are the people!
Surely wisdom will die with you!

12:3I too have a heart like yours.

12:4For a righteous and blameless man became an object of mockery.

12:5For at an appointed time he was prepared to fall beneath others,
and for his houses to be plundered by the lawless.

12:6But indeed, let no wicked person trust that he will be innocent,
nor those who provoke the Lord suppose that there will be no examination of them.

12:7But ask the four-footed animals, to see whether they will tell you,
and the birds of heaven, to see whether they will report to you.

12:8Speak fully to the earth, to see whether it will tell you;
and the fish of the sea will explain to you.

12:9Who among all these did not know
that the Lord’s hand made these things?

12:10Is not the life of all living things in His hand,
and the breath of every human being?

12:11For the ear discerns words,
and the throat tastes food.

12:12In much time is wisdom,
and in a long life knowledge.

12:13With Him are wisdom and power;
to Him belong counsel and understanding.

12:14If He throws down, who will build?
If He shuts people in, who will open?

12:15If He restrains water, He will dry the earth;
if He lets it loose, He destroys it by overturning it.

12:16With Him are might and strength;
to Him belong knowledge and understanding.

12:17He leads counselors away captive
and throws the earth’s judges into confusion.

12:18He seats kings on thrones
and bound their waists with a belt.

12:19He sends priests away captive
and overthrows the earth’s rulers.

12:20He changes the lips of the faithful
and knows the elders’ understanding.

12:21He pours dishonor upon rulers
and heals the lowly.

12:22He uncovers deep things from darkness
and brings death’s shadow into light.

12:23He leads nations astray and destroys them;
He lays nations low and guides them.

12:24He changes the hearts of the earth’s rulers
and leads them astray on a road they did not know.

12:25May they grope in darkness and not light;
may they wander like one who is drunk.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.