1   Then Job answered:

2   No doubt you are perfect men ^note
and absolute wisdom is yours ^note!
3   But I have sense as well as you;

First cycle of speeches
in nothing do I fall short of you;
what gifts indeed have you that others have not?
4   Yet I am a laughing-stock to my friend—
a laughing-stock, though I am innocent and blameless,
one that called upon God, and he answered. ^note
5   Prosperity and ease look down on misfortune,
on the blow that fells the man who is already reeling,
6   while the marauders' tents are left undisturbed
and those who provoke God live safe and sound. ^note


7   Go and ask the cattle,
ask the birds of the air to inform you,
8   or tell the creatures that crawl to teach you,
and the fishes of the sea to give you instruction.
9   Who cannot learn from all these
that the Lord's own hand has done this?
11    ^note(Does not the ear test what is spoken
as the palate savours food?
12   There is wisdom, remember, in age,
and long life brings understanding.)


10   In God's hand are the souls of all that live,
the spirits of all human kind.
13   Wisdom and might are his,
with him are firmness and understanding.
14   If he pulls down, there is no rebuilding;
if he imprisons, there is no release.
15   If he holds up the waters, there is drought;
if he lets them go, they turn the land upside down.
16   Strength and success belong to him,
deceived and deceiver are his to use.
17   He makes counsellors behave like idiots
and drives judges mad;
18   he looses the bonds imposed by kings
and removes the girdle of office from their waists;
19   he makes priests behave like idiots
and overthrows men long in office;
20   those who are trusted he strikes dumb,
he takes away the judgement of old men;
21   he heaps scorn on princes
and abates the arrogance of nobles.
23    ^note He leads peoples astray and destroys them,

First cycle of speeches
he lays them low, and there they lie.
24   He takes away their wisdom from the rulers of the nations
and leaves them wandering in a pathless wilderness;
25   they grope in the darkness without light
and are left to wander like a drunkard.
22   He uncovers mysteries deep in obscurity
and into thick darkness he brings light.

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