1: And Job answered and said, 2: Truly ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you! 3: I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; and who knoweth not such things as these? 4: I am to be one that is a derision to his friend, I who call upon God, and whom he will answer: a derision is the just upright [man]. 5: He that is ready to stumble with the foot is a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease. 6: The tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth. 7: But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee; 8: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 9: Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this? 10: In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man. 11: Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food? 12: With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding. 13: With him is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and understanding. 14: Behold, he breaketh down, and it is not built again; he shutteth up a man, and there is no opening. 15: Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; and he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. 16: With him is strength and effectual knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are his. 17: He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and judges maketh he fools; 18: He weakeneth the government of kings, and bindeth their loins with a fetter; 19: He leadeth priests away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty; 20: He depriveth of speech the trusty, and taketh away the judgment of the elders; 21: He poureth contempt upon nobles, and slackeneth the girdle of the mighty; 22: He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out into light the shadow of death; 23: He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in; 24: He taketh away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a pathless waste. 25: They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard.
