Job 12  Legacy Standard Bible

² “Truly then ^(A)you are the people,
And with you wisdom will die!
³ But ^(B)I have a heart of wisdom as well as you;
I do not fall short of you.
And ^[a]who does not know such things as these?
⁴ I am a ^(C)laughingstock to ^[b]my friends,
The one who called on God and He answered him;
The righteous and ^(D)blameless man is a laughingstock.
^5 [c]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 ^(E)tents of the destroyers are complacent,
And those who provoke God ^(F)are secure,
^[d]Whom God brings ^(G)into their power.

¹³ “With Him are ^(M)wisdom and ^(N)might;
To Him belong counsel and ^(O)discernment.
¹⁴ Behold, He ^(P)pulls down, and it cannot be rebuilt;
He ^(Q)closes a man in, and it cannot be opened.
¹⁵ Behold, He ^(R)restrains the waters, and they dry up;
And He ^(S)sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
¹⁶ With Him are strength and sound wisdom;
The ^(T)misled and the misleader belong to Him.
¹⁷ He makes ^(U)counselors walk ^[g]barefoot
And makes fools of ^(V)judges.
¹⁸ He ^(W)opens the ^[h]bond of kings
And binds their loins with a belt.
¹⁹ He makes priests walk ^[i]barefoot
And subverts ^(X)the enduring ones.
²⁰ He removes speech from the faithful
And ^(Y)takes away the discerning taste of the elders.
²¹ He ^(Z)pours contempt on nobles
And ^(AA)loosens the belt of the strong.
²² He ^(AB)reveals mysteries from the darkness
And brings out the shadows of death into light.
²³ He ^(AC)makes the nations great, then makes them perish;
He ^[j]enlarges the nations, then leads them away.
²⁴ He ^(AD)removes the heart of wisdom from the heads of the earth’s people
And makes them wander in a pathless ^[k]waste.
²⁵ They ^(AE)grope in darkness with no light,
And He makes them ^(AF)wander about like a drunken man.