✧Then Job answered: ✧2“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die! ✧3But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these? ✧4I am a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God, and He answered. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock. ✧5The one at ease scorns misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping. ✧6The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure— those who carry their god in their hands. ✧7But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you. ✧8Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; let the fish of the sea inform you. ✧9Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? ✧10The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind. ✧11Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes its food? ✧12Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life. ✧13Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His. ✧14What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released. ✧15If He holds back the waters, they dry up, and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land. ✧16True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His. ✧17He leads counselors away barefoot and makes fools of judges. ✧18He loosens the bonds placed by kings and fastens a belt around their waists. ✧19He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established. ✧20He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders. ✧21He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. ✧22He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light. ✧23He makes nations great and destroys them; He enlarges nations, then disperses them. ✧24He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. ✧25They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.