¹And Job answered and said:

²Indeed, you are the people, and with you wisdom will die.

³I also have a heart like you; I am not falling below you; and with whom are there not things like these?

⁴I am a thing of laughter to his friend, one who called to God and he answered him; a thing of laughter is the righteous, blameless one.

⁵Contempt for disaster is in the thought of the one at ease; it stands ready for those whose foot slips.

⁶The tents of the devastators are at ease, and there is security for those who provoke God, for whoever brings God in his hand.

⁷But ask, please, the animals, and they will teach you; and the birds of the skies, and they will tell you.

⁸Or talk to the land, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will recount to you.

⁹Who among all these does not know that the hand of Yahweh has done this?

¹⁰In whose hand is the being of every living thing, and the breath of all the flesh of humankind.

¹¹Does not the ear test words, as the palate tastes food for itself?

¹²With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days, understanding.

¹³With him are wisdom and might; his are counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Look, he tears down, and it will not be rebuilt; he shuts over a person, and it will not be opened.

¹⁵Look, he holds back the waters, and they dry up; he lets them loose, and they overturn the land.

¹⁶With him are strength and sound wisdom; his are the one who strays and the one who leads astray.

¹⁷He leads counselors away barefoot, and makes fools of judges.

¹⁸He loosens the discipline of kings, and binds a loincloth on their loins.

¹⁹He leads priests away barefoot, and overturns the enduring.

²⁰He removes the speech of the trusted ones, and takes away the judgment of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on noble ones, and slackens the belt of the channel-strong.

²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings deep shadow out into the light.

²³He makes nations great, then makes them perish; he spreads nations out, then leads them.

²⁴He removes the heart of the heads of the people of the land, and makes them wander in shapeless emptiness, where there is no path.

²⁵They grope in darkness, where there is no light, and he makes them wander about like a drunkard.