Job 12

1 Then Job said [to his three friends],

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.

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.

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.

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.

6 Bandits live peacefully, and no one threatens those who cause God to become angry; their own strength is the god [that they worship].

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.

8 [If you could] ask the creatures [that crawl] on the ground, or the fish in the sea, they would tell you [about God].

9 All of them certainly know [RHQ] that it is Yahweh who has made them with his hands.

10 He directs the lives of all living creatures; he gives breath to all [us] humans [to enable us to remain alive].

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].

12 Old people are [often] very wise, and because of having lived many years, they understand much,

13 but God is wise and very powerful; he has good sense and understands [everything].

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].

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.

16 He is the one who is truly strong and wise; he rules over those who deceive others and those whom they deceive.

17 He [sometimes] causes [the king’s] officials to no longer be wise, and he causes judges to become foolish.

18 He takes from kings the robes that they wear and puts loincloths around their waists, [causing them to become slaves].

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.

20 He [sometimes] causes those whom others trust to be unable to speak, and he causes old men to no longer have good sense.

21 He causes those who have authority to be despised, and he causes those who are powerful to no longer have any power/strength.

22 He causes things that are hidden in the darkness to be revealed.

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.

24 He causes [some] rulers to become foolish/stupid, and then he causes them to wander around, lost, in an barren desert.

25 They grope around in the darkness, without any light, and he causes them to stagger like [SIM] people who are drunk.”