Job 12
1 Then Job said [to his three friends],
Then responded Job, and said: —
2 “You (talk as though/You think) [SAR] that you are the people [whom everyone should listen to], and that when you die, there will be no more wise people.
Of a truth, ye, are the people, and, with you, wisdom, will die.
3 But I have as much good sense as you do; I am (not less wise than/certainly as wise as [LIT]) you. Certainly everyone knows [RHQ] all that you have said.
I also, have a mind like you, I, fall not short, of you, But who hath not such things as these?
4 My friends all laugh at me now. Previously I habitually requested God to help me, and he answered/helped me. I am righteous, a very godly man [DOU], but everyone laughs at me.
A laughing-stock to one’s neighbour, do I become, one who hath called upon GOD and he hath answered him! A laughing-stock—a righteous man without blame!
5 Those [like you] who have no troubles make fun of me; they cause those [like me] who are already suffering to have more troubles.
For ruin, there is contempt, in the thought of the man at ease, —ready, for such as are of faltering foot!
6 Bandits live peacefully, and no one threatens those who cause God to become angry; their own strength is the god [that they worship].
At peace are the tents that belong to the spoilers, and there is security to them who provoke GOD, To him who bringeth a god in his hand.
7 “But ask the wild animals [what they know about God], and [if they could speak] they would teach you. [If you could] ask the birds, they would tell you.
But, in very deed, ask, I pray thee, the beasts, and they will teach thee, and the bird of the heavens, and it will tell thee;
8 [If you could] ask the creatures [that crawl] on the ground, or the fish in the sea, they would tell you [about God].
Or address the earth, and it will teach thee, and the fishes of the sea, will recount it to thee:
9 All of them certainly know [RHQ] that it is Yahweh who has made them with his hands.
Who knoweth not, among all these, that, the hand of Yahweh, hath done this?
10 He directs the lives of all living creatures; he gives breath to all [us] humans [to enable us to remain alive].
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all the flesh of men.
11 And when we [SYN] hear what other people [like you] say, we [RHQ] think carefully about what they say [to determine what is good and what is bad], like we [SYN] taste food [to determine what is good and what is bad].
Doth not, the ear, try, words? even as, the palate, tasteth for itself, food?
12 Old people are [often] very wise, and because of having lived many years, they understand much,
In the Ancient, is wisdom, and [in] Length of Days, understanding:
13 but God is wise and very powerful; he has good sense and understands [everything].
With Him, are wisdom and strength, to Him, pertain counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears [something] down, no one can rebuild it; if he puts someone in prison, no one can open [the prison doors to allow that person to escape].
Lo! He pulleth down, and it cannot be built, He closeth up over a man, and it cannot be opened:
15 When he prevents rain from falling, everything dries up. When he causes a lot of rain to fall, [the result is that] there are floods.
Lo! He holdeth back the waters, and they dry up, or sendeth them out, and they transform the earth:
16 He is the one who is truly strong and wise; he rules over those who deceive others and those whom they deceive.
With Him, is strength and effective wisdom, to Him, belong he that erreth, and he that causeth to err.
17 He [sometimes] causes [the king’s] officials to no longer be wise, and he causes judges to become foolish.
Who leadeth away counsellors [as] a spoil, and, judges, He befooleth:
18 He takes from kings the robes that they wear and puts loincloths around their waists, [causing them to become slaves].
The fetters of kings, He looseth, or hath bound a slave’s waistcloth about their loins:
19 He takes from priests the sacred clothes that they wear, [with the result that they no longer can do their work], and takes power from those who rule others.
Who leadeth away priests [as] a spoil, and, men firmly seated, He overturneth:
20 He [sometimes] causes those whom others trust to be unable to speak, and he causes old men to no longer have good sense.
Setting aside the speech of the trusty, and, the discernment of elders, He taketh away:
21 He causes those who have authority to be despised, and he causes those who are powerful to no longer have any power/strength.
Pouring contempt upon nobles, and, the girdle of the mighty, hath He loosed:
22 He causes things that are hidden in the darkness to be revealed.
Laying open deep things, out of darkness, and bringing out to light, the death-shade:
23 He causes some nations to become very great, and [later] he destroys them; he causes the territory of some nations to become much larger, and [later] he causes them to be defeated and their people to be scattered.
Who giveth greatness to nations, or destroyeth them, Who spreadeth out nations, or leadeth them into exile:
24 He causes [some] rulers to become foolish/stupid, and then he causes them to wander around, lost, in an barren desert.
Who taketh away the sense of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and hath caused them to wander in a pathless waste:
25 They grope around in the darkness, without any light, and he causes them to stagger like [SIM] people who are drunk.”
They grope about in the dark, having no light, and He hath made them to reel, like a drunken man.
