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Job Answers

¹ Then Job answered and said,

² "Truly then ^(C1)you are the people,
And with you wisdom will die!

³ "But ^(C1)I have a heart of wisdom as well as you;
I do not fall short of you.
And ^(F1)who does not know such things as these?

⁴ "I am a ^(C1)laughingstock to ^(F1)my friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The righteous and ^(C2)blameless man is a laughingstock.

⁵ "^(F1)As for upheaval, there is only contempt by the one who acts at ease,
But it is prepared for those whose feet slip.

⁶ "The ^(C1)tents of the destroyers are complacent,
And those who provoke God ^(C2)are secure,
^(F1)Whom God brings ^(C3)into their power.

⁷ "But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you;
And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you.

⁸ "Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you;
And let the fish of the sea recount it to you.

⁹ "Who among all these does not know
That ^(C1)the hand of Yahweh has done this,

^10 (C1)In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And ^(C2)the breath of all the flesh of man?

¹¹ "Does not ^(C1)the ear test words,
As the palate ^(F1)tastes its food?

¹² "Wisdom is with ^(C1)aged men,
With ^(F1)long life is discernment.

Job Speaks of God's Strength

¹³ "With Him are ^(C1)wisdom and ^(C1)might;
To Him belong counsel and ^(C2)discernment.

¹⁴ "Behold, He ^(C1)pulls down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He ^(C2)closes a man in, and it cannot be opened.

¹⁵ "Behold, He ^(C1)restrains the waters, and they dry up;
And He ^(C2)sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶ "With Him are strength and sound wisdom;
The ^(C1)misled and the misleader belong to Him.

¹⁷ "He makes ^(C1)counselors walk ^(F1)barefoot
And makes fools of ^(C2)judges.

¹⁸ "He ^(C1)opens the ^(F1)bond of kings
And binds their loins with a belt.

¹⁹ "He makes priests walk ^(F1)barefoot
And subverts ^(C1)the enduring ones.

²⁰ "He removes speech from the faithful
And ^(C1)takes away the discerning taste of the elders.

²¹ "He ^(C1)pours contempt on nobles
And ^(C2)loosens the belt of the strong.

²² "He ^(C1)reveals mysteries from the darkness
And brings out the shadows of death into light.

²³ "He ^(C1)makes the nations great, then makes them perish;
He ^(F1)enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

²⁴ "He ^(C1)removes the heart of wisdom from the heads of the earth's people
And makes them wander in a pathless ^(F1)waste.

²⁵ "They ^(C1)grope in darkness with no light,
And He makes them ^(C2)wander about like a drunken man.