Job 12 :: New International Version (NIV)

Job

Job 12:1Then Job replied:

Job 12:2“Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!

Job 12:3But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?

Job 12:4“I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered— a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!

Job 12:5

Job 12:5Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.

Job 12:6

Job 12:6The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure— those God has in his hand.[fn]

Job 12:7

Job 12:7“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;

Job 12:8

Job 12:8or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.

Job 12:9

Job 12:9Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

Job 12:10

Job 12:10In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.

Job 12:11

Job 12:11Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?

Job 12:12

Job 12:12Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?

Job 12:13

Job 12:13“To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.

Job 12:14

Job 12:14What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; those he imprisons cannot be released.

Job 12:15

Job 12:15If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.

Job 12:16

Job 12:16To him belong strength and insight; both deceived and deceiver are his.

Job 12:17

Job 12:17He leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of judges.

Job 12:18

Job 12:18He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth[fn] around their waist.

Job 12:19

Job 12:19He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long established.

Job 12:20

Job 12:20He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.

Job 12:21

Job 12:21He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.

Job 12:22

Job 12:22He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light.

Job 12:23

Job 12:23He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.

Job 12:24

Job 12:24He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste.

Job 12:25

Job 12:25They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(12:6)

Or those whose god is in their own hand

(12:18)

Or shackles of kings / and ties a belt

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For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.