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12 Job said to his friends:
You think you are so great,
    with all the answers.
But I know as much as you do,
    and so does everyone else.
I have always lived right,
and God answered my prayers;
    now friends make fun of me.
It's easy to condemn
those who are suffering,
    when you have no troubles.
Robbers and other godless people
live safely at home and say,
    “God is in our hands!”[a]

If You Want To Learn

If you want to learn,
    then go and ask
the wild animals and the birds,
    the flowers and the fish.
Any of them can tell you
    what the Lord has done.[b]
10 Every living creature
    is in the hands of God.

11 We hear with our ears,
    taste with our tongues,
12 and gain some wisdom from those
    who have lived a long time.
13 But God is the real source
    of wisdom and strength.
14 No one can rebuild
what he destroys, or release
    those he has imprisoned.
15 God can hold back the rain
    or send a flood,
16 just as he rules over liars
    and those they lie to.

17 God shames counselors,
turns judges into fools,
18     and makes slaves of kings.
19 God removes priests and others
    who have great power—
20 he confuses wise,
    experienced advisors,
21 puts mighty kings to shame,
    and takes away their power.
22 God turns darkness to light;
23 he makes nations strong,
    then shatters their strength.
24 God strikes their rulers senseless,
then leaves them to roam
    through barren deserts,
25 lost in the dark, staggering
    like someone drunk.

Footnotes

  1. 12.6 God is in our hands: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 12.9 Any … done: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.

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