| 1 |
Then Job answered,
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| 2 |
“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
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| 3 |
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
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| 4 |
I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
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| 5 |
In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
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| 6 |
The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.
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| 7 |
“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
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| 8 |
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you.
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| 9 |
Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this,
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| 10 |
in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
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| 11 |
Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
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| 12 |
With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
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| 13 |
“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
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| 14 |
Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
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| 15 |
Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
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| 16 |
With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
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| 17 |
He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
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| 18 |
He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
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| 19 |
He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
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| 20 |
He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.
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| 21 |
He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
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| 22 |
He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
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| 23 |
He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
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| 24 |
He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
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| 25 |
They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
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