Job 12:1-9 ▼

1 Then Job responded,

2 “No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], And wisdom will die with you!

3 “But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]?

4 “I am a joke to my friends; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him— A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn].

5 “He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune, But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip.

6 “The tents of the destroyers prosper; And those who provoke God are [apparently] secure, Whom God brings into their power.

7 “Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; And ask the birds of the air, and let them tell you;

8 Or speak to the earth [with its many forms of life], and it will teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare [this truth] to you.

9 “Who among all these does not recognize [in all these things that good and evil are randomly scattered throughout nature and human life] That the hand of the LORD has done this,