# Job 12 (New King James Version)
Job Answers His Critics

##### Chapter 12
###### 1 Then Job answered and said:

###### 2 "No doubt you _are_ the people,  
And wisdom will die with you!  

###### 3 But I have understanding as well as you;  
I _am_ not inferior to you.  
Indeed, who does not _know_ such things as these?

###### 4 "I am one mocked by his friends,  
Who called on God, and He answered him,  
The just and blameless _who is_ ridiculed.  

###### 5 A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease;  
_It is_ made ready for those whose feet slip.  

###### 6 The tents of robbers prosper,  
And those who provoke God are secure--  
In what God provides by His hand.

###### 7 "But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;  
And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;  

###### 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;  
And the fish of the sea will explain to you.  

###### 9 Who among all these does not know  
That the hand of the Lord has done this,  

###### 10 In whose hand _is_ the life of every living thing,  
And the breath of all mankind?  

###### 11 Does not the ear test words  
And the mouth taste its food?  

###### 12 Wisdom _is_ with aged men,  
And with length of days, understanding.

###### 13 "With Him _are_ wisdom and strength,  
He has counsel and understanding.  

###### 14 If He breaks _a thing_ down, it cannot be rebuilt;  
_If_ He imprisons a man, there can be no release.  

###### 15 If He withholds the waters, they dry up;  
_If_ He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth.  

###### 16 With Him _are_ strength and prudence.  
The deceived and the deceiver _are_ His.  

###### 17 He leads counselors away plundered,  
And makes fools of the judges.  

###### 18 He loosens the bonds of kings,  
And binds their waist with a belt.  

###### 19 He leads princes away plundered,  
And overthrows the mighty.  

###### 20 He deprives the trusted ones of speech,  
And takes away the discernment of the elders.  

###### 21 He pours contempt on princes,  
And disarms the mighty.  

###### 22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness,  
And brings the shadow of death to light.  

###### 23 He makes nations great, and destroys them;  
He enlarges nations, and guides them.  

###### 24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth,  
And makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.  

###### 25 They grope in the dark without light,  
And He makes them stagger like a drunken _man._