Job’s reply to Zophar
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And 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; yes, who does not know such things as these?
4 📚✭“I am like someone mocked by his neighbours, one who called on God, and he answered him. The just upright man is laughed to scorn.
5 📚✭Someone at ease regards a lamp with contempt, as made ready for one whose feet slip.
6 📚✭The tents of robbers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure in what God brings into their hands.
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 declare it to you.
9 📚Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10 📚In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
11 📚Does not the ear test words, and the mouth taste its food?
12 📚With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days is understanding.
13 📚✭“With him is wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.
14 📚See, he breaks down, and it cannot be rebuilt. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15 📚See, he withholds water, and the streams dry up; and he sends them out, and they overwhelm the earth.
16 📚With him are strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 📚He leads counsellors away plundered, and makes fools of judges.
18 📚He loosens the bonds of kings, and ties up 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 understanding of the aged.
21 📚He pours contempt on princes, and weakens the strength of the mighty.
22 📚He reveals the deep things of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to the light.
23 📚He increases the nations, and destroys them. He enlarges nations, and guides them.
24 📚He takes away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25 📚They grope in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunkard.