Job 12
1 Et Job prit la parole, et dit:
Then Job said [to his three friends],
2 Vraiment, vous êtes tout un peuple, et avec vous mourra la sagesse!
“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 J'ai pourtant du sens aussi bien que vous, je ne vous suis point inférieur; et qui ne sait de telles choses?
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 Je suis un homme qui est en risée à son ami; un homme qui invoquait Dieu, et Dieu lui répondait! En risée! un homme juste, intègre!
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 Mépris au malheur! telle est la pensée des heureux; le mépris est réservé à ceux dont le pied chancelle!
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 Elles sont en paix, les tentes des pillards, et toutes les sécurités sont pour ceux qui irritent Dieu, qui se font un dieu de leur bras.
Bandits live peacefully, and no one threatens those who cause God to become angry; their own strength is the god [that they worship].
7 Mais interroge donc les bêtes, et elles t'instruiront; ou les oiseaux des cieux, et ils te l'annonceront;
“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 Ou parle à la terre, et elle t'instruira; et les poissons de la mer te le raconteront.
[If you could] ask the creatures [that crawl] on the ground, or the fish in the sea, they would tell you [about God].
9 Qui ne sait, parmi tous ces êtres, que la main de Dieu a fait cet univers?
All of them certainly know [RHQ] that it is Yahweh who has made them with his hands.
10 Qu'il tient en sa main l'âme de tous les vivants, l'esprit de toute chair d'homme?
He directs the lives of all living creatures; he gives breath to all [us] humans [to enable us to remain alive].
11 L'oreille ne juge-t-elle pas des discours, comme le palais goûte les aliments?
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 La sagesse est dans les vieillards, et le discernement est le fruit des longs jours!
Old people are [often] very wise, and because of having lived many years, they understand much,
13 Non, c'est en Dieu que se trouvent la sagesse et la force; c'est à lui qu'appartiennent le conseil et l'intelligence.
but God is wise and very powerful; he has good sense and understands [everything].
14 Voici, il démolit, et on ne rebâtit point; il enferme quelqu'un, et on ne lui ouvre pas.
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 Voici, il retient les eaux, et elles tarissent; il les lâche, et elles bouleversent la terre.
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 En lui résident la puissance et la sagesse; de lui dépendent celui qui s'égare et celui qui égare.
He is the one who is truly strong and wise; he rules over those who deceive others and those whom they deceive.
17 Il fait marcher pieds nus les conseillers; il frappe de folie les juges.
He [sometimes] causes [the king’s] officials to no longer be wise, and he causes judges to become foolish.
18 Il relâche l'autorité des rois, et il serre la corde sur leurs reins.
He takes from kings the robes that they wear and puts loincloths around their waists, [causing them to become slaves].
19 Il fait marcher pieds nus les prêtres, et il renverse les puissants.
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 Il ôte la parole aux plus assurés, et il prive de sens les vieillards.
He [sometimes] causes those whom others trust to be unable to speak, and he causes old men to no longer have good sense.
21 Il verse le mépris sur les nobles, et il délie la ceinture des forts.
He causes those who have authority to be despised, and he causes those who are powerful to no longer have any power/strength.
22 Il met en évidence les profondeurs cachées dans les ténèbres, et il amène à la lumière l'ombre de la mort.
He causes things that are hidden in the darkness to be revealed.
23 Il agrandit les nations, et il les perd; il étend les nations, et il les conduit en captivité.
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 Il ôte le sens aux chefs des peuples de la terre, et il les fait errer dans un désert sans chemin.
He causes [some] rulers to become foolish/stupid, and then he causes them to wander around, lost, in an barren desert.
25 Ils tâtonnent dans les ténèbres, sans aucune clarté, et il les fait errer comme un homme ivre.
They grope around in the darkness, without any light, and he causes them to stagger like [SIM] people who are drunk.”
