✧Then Job answered and said, ✧2No doubt but ye are the people, And wisdom shall die with you. ✧3But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? ✧4I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor, I who called upon God, and he answered: The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock. ✧5In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune; It is ready for them whose foot slippeth. ✧6The tents of robbers prosper, And they that provoke God are secure; Into whose hand God bringeth [abundantly]. ✧7But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee: ✧8Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. ✧9Who knoweth not in all these, That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this, ✧10In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? ✧11Doth not the ear try words, Even as the palate tasteth its food? ✧12With aged men is wisdom, And in length of days understanding. ✧13With [God] is wisdom and might; He hath counsel and understanding. ✧14Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again; He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. ✧15Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. ✧16With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his. ✧17He leadeth counsellors away stripped, And judges maketh he fools. ✧18He looseth the bond of kings, And he bindeth their loins with a girdle. ✧19He leadeth priests away stripped, And overthroweth the mighty. ✧20He removeth the speech of the trusty, And taketh away the understanding of the elders. ✧21He poureth contempt upon princes, And looseth the belt of the strong. ✧22He uncovereth deep things out of darkness, And bringeth out to light the shadow of death. ✧23He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them: He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive. ✧24He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. ✧25They grope in the dark without light; And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.