² Job (sarcastically to his friends): Surely, surely, my discerning friends, you are the ones!
        And when you pass away, the sum total of all wisdom will perish from the earth.

³     I have a mind as good as yours.
        Don’t think I am so far beneath you!
    After all, who doesn’t know all about these things?
        Who isn’t acquainted with the pedestrian platitudes you’ve trotted out?
⁴     As for me—the one who called upon God and whom God answered—
        now, I am pitiful, laughable, a just and upright joke.
⁵     Those who have it easy may easily scorn the unfortunate;
        they have their contempt already prepared for those whose feet slip.
⁶     Ironically, there is peace inside the tents of the raiders,
        and those who upset God seem to live safe and secure;
    They carry their gods around in their hands.

⁷     However, call on the animals to teach you;
        the birds that sail through the air are not afraid to tell you the truth.
⁸     Engage the earth in conversation; it’s happy to share what it knows.
        Even the fish of the sea are wise enough to explain it to you.
⁹     In fact, which part of creation isn’t aware,
        which doesn’t know the Eternal’s hand has done this?
¹⁰     His hand cradles the life of every creature on the face of the earth;
        His breath fills the nostrils of humans everywhere.

¹¹     Listen! Aren’t we made to be discriminating:
        our ears testing wisdom, our mouths tasting food?

¹²     But you tell me, “With age comes wisdom,
        and a long life grants understanding.”
¹³     With God is the sum total of all wisdom and of all power;
        His is the greatest of plans and the deepest of comprehensions.
¹⁴     So, then, what God tears down cannot be built back up;
        the man He shuts up cannot be released.
¹⁵     If God withholds the rains and stops the streams from flowing, the earth suffers drought;
        if He unleashes too much, the lands are ravaged by flood.
¹⁶     He is strong, and sound wisdom belongs to Him:
        whether one deceives or is deceived, he is under God’s control.
¹⁷     He leads the counselors off as captives, barefoot and stripped;
        He makes a mockery of judges.
¹⁸     He strips off the royal sashes of kings
        and ties them at the waist, making them slaves as well.
¹⁹     He leads the priests away barefoot
        and defeats the long-incumbent men of power.
²⁰     He robs trusted advisors of speech;
        He steals discretion from elders.
²¹     He heaps contempt on rulers,
        and loosens the bind of alliances among world powers.
²²     Aspects of His deep wisdom that were hidden away,
        He shows in plain sight;
        darkness is brought into the light.
²³     He builds the strength of nations, only to crush them—
        increases their population across the earth, only to scatter them again.
²⁴     He divests each nation’s leaders of understanding,
        and causes them to wander aimlessly with nowhere to go,
²⁵     Until finally they grope in the dark, the light having departed,
        and He lets them stumble and stagger like drunks.