Will you defend God with lies?

¹ Then Job answered:

² No doubt you are the people’s voice;

when you die, wisdom dies with you!

³ But I have a mind as well as you,

I know all that you have said.

⁴ To my friends I am a laughingstock

when I call on God who does not answer;

the just and blameless man

is made fun of.

⁵ “Contempt for the unfortunate,” so think the prosperous,

“a blow for those who are staggering.”

⁶ Yet the robbers’ tents are undisturbed,

those who provoke God are in peace,

those who make a god of their strength.

⁷ But ask the beasts to teach you,

the birds of the air to tell you,

⁸ the plants of the earth to instruct you,

the fish of the sea to inform you.

⁹ Who among them does not understand

that behind all this is God’s hand?

¹⁰ He holds the life of every creature

and the breath of humans.

¹¹ The ear surely can test the words

as the tongue tastes food;

¹² wisdom is found in the old,

and understanding in great age;

¹³ in God however is wisdom and power;

his are counsel and understanding.

¹⁴ What he tears down, none can rebuild;

the one he imprisons, none can re lease.

¹⁵ If he withholds water, there is drought;

if he lets it loose, there is flood.

¹⁶ In him are strength and perception;

deceived and deceiver are in his power.

¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped

and makes fools of judges.

¹⁸ He loosens the belt of kings

and ties a loincloth about their waist.

¹⁹ He leads priests away, barefoot,

and overthrows those in power.

²⁰ He compels advisers to keep silent,

and strips elders of their discernment.

²¹ He puts princes to shame;

he unties the girdle of the strong.

²² (He uncovers the gloomy recesses

and brings the deep darkness to light.)

²³ He makes a nation rise and fall,

a people to grow and to dwindle.

²⁴ He deprives leaders of their judgment,

leaving them to roam in a trackless waste.

²⁵ Without light, they grope in the dark

and stagger like drunkards.