1Then answered Job, and said,

2Truly ye are indeed the [right kind of] people, and with you wisdom must die out.

3I also have sense like you; I do not fall short compared with you: and who possesseth not such things as these?

4I am as one laughed at by his friend, who calleth upon God, while he answered him: [yea,] a laughing-stock though righteous and innocent.

5To the unfortunate there is given contempt— according to the thoughts of him that is at ease— prepared [also] for those whose foot slippeth.

6Prosperous are the tents of robbers, and security is given to those that provoke God. to him who carrieth his god in his hand.

7Yet, do only ask of the beasts, and they will instruct thee; and the fowls of the heavens, and they will tell it thee;

8Or speak to the earth, and she will instruct thee; and the fishes of the sea will inform thee

9Who knoweth not through all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?

10[He] in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all the bodies of men?

11Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food for itself?

12So It with the ancients wisdom, and with [those of] length of days understanding,

13That with him are wisdom and strength, his are counsel and understanding.

14Behold, he pulleth down, and there can be no rebuilding: he locketh [the prison] upon a man, and there can be no opening,

15Behold, he restraineth the waters, and they dry up; or he suffereth them to flow, and they overturn the earth.

16With him are strength and counsel: his are the deceived and the deceiver.

17He leadeth counsellors away bereft of sense, and maketh the judges fools.

18He looseth the bond of kings, and bindeth a girdle around their loins.

19He leadeth priests away bereft of sense, and the powerful he causeth to walk on crooked paths.

20He removeth the speech from trusty speakers, and taketh away the intelligence of the aged.

21He poureth contempt upon princes, and the belt of the mighty be looseneth.

22He layeth open deep things from the midst of darkness, and bringeth out unto light the shadow of death.

23He permitteth the nations to become great, and destroyeth them: he spreadeth out the nations, and leadeth them away.

24He taketh away the sense of the chiefs of the people of the land, and causeth them to wander astray in a wilderness when there is no way.

25They grope in the dark without light, and he causeth them to wander astray like a drunken man.