Job 12:13-25

Modern English Version

¹³ “With Him are wisdom and strength;
    He has counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ Surely, He tears down, and it cannot be built again;
    He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
¹⁵ Surely, He withholds the waters, and they dry up;
    also He sends them out, and they overthrow the earth.
¹⁶ With Him are strength and wisdom.
    The deceived and the deceiver are His.
¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped
    and makes fools of judges.
¹⁸ He has loosened the bonds imposed by kings
    and bound their waist with a belt.
¹⁹ He leads away priests stripped
    and overthrows the mighty.
²⁰ He removes speech from the trusted ones
    and takes away the understanding of the aged.
²¹ He pours contempt upon princes
    and loosens the belt of the mighty.
²² He uncovers deep things out of darkness
    and brings the shadow of death to light.
²³ He increases the nations and destroys them;
    He enlarges the nations and guides them.
²⁴ He takes away the understanding of the chiefs 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 to stagger like a drunk man.