1Then Job answered:

2No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!

3But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who doesn't know the things you are talking about?

4I am a laughingstock to my friends, by calling on God, who answers me. The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

5The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.

6The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure; God's power provides this.

7But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

8Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct 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.

11Doesn't the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

12Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.

13Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.

14Whatever He tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever He imprisons cannot be released.

15When He withholds the waters, everything dries up, and when He releases them, they destroy the land.

16True wisdom and power belong to Him. The deceived and the deceiver are His.

17He leads counselors away barefoot and makes judges go mad.

18He releases the bonds put on by kings and fastens a belt around their waists.

19He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows established leaders.

20He deprives trusted advisers of speech and takes away the elders' good judgment.

21He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the strong.

22He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light.

23He makes nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges nations, then leads them away.

24He deprives the world's leaders of reason, and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

25They grope around in darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunken men.