¹Then Job answered, ²“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? ⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands. ⁷“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. ⁹Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, ¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ¹¹Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. ¹³“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.