Job 12:13-25

New International Reader's Version

¹³ “Wisdom and power belong to God.
    Advice and understanding also belong to him.
¹⁴ What he tears down can’t be rebuilt.
    The people he puts in prison can’t be set free.
¹⁵ If he holds back the water, everything dries up.
    If he lets the water loose, it floods the land.
¹⁶ Strength and understanding belong to him.
    Those who tell lies and those who believe them also belong to him.
¹⁷ He removes the wisdom of rulers and leads them away.
    He makes judges look foolish.
¹⁸ He sets people free from the chains that kings put on them.
    Then he dresses the kings in the clothes of slaves.
¹⁹ He removes the authority of priests and leads them away.
    He removes from their positions
    officials who have been in control for a long time.
²⁰ He shuts the mouths of trusted advisers.
    He takes away the understanding of elders.
²¹ He looks down on proud leaders.
    He takes away the strength of those who are mighty.
²² He tells people the secrets of darkness.
    He brings total darkness out into the light.
²³ He makes nations great, and then he destroys them.
    He makes nations grow, and then he scatters them.
²⁴ He takes away the understanding of the leaders of the earth.
    He makes them wander in a desert where no one lives.
²⁵ Without any light, they feel their way along in darkness.
    God makes them unsteady like those who get drunk.