Job
Summary
Job Chapter 12 is Job’s sharp and sarcastic reply to Zophar and his friends. He mocks their supposed wisdom, famously saying, "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!" Job asserts that he knows just as much as they do, and that even the animals and the birds could tell them that God is the author of all life and sovereignty. He describes God's absolute power to build and destroy, to give wisdom and to take it away. Job insists that he does not need their lectures on God's power, as the reality of his suffering and the success of the wicked are already visible to all.
Then Job replied:
"No doubt you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you!"
"But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?"
"I have become a laughing-stock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered, a righteous and blameless man a mere laughing-stock!"
"Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping."
"The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure, those who carry their god in their hands."
"But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;"
"or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you."
"Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?"
"In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind."
"Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?"
"Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?"
"To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his."
"What he shackles cannot be released; whom he imprisons cannot be freed."
"If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they inundate the land."
"To him belong strength and victory; both deceived and deceiver are his."
"He leads counsellors away stripped and makes fools of judges."
"He looses the shackles of kings and ties a loincloth around their waists."
"He leads priests away stripped and overthrows men long established."
"He silences the lips of trusted advisors and takes away the discernment of elders."
"He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty."
"He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light."
"He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then disperses them."
"He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them wander in a trackless waste."
"They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards."