² “No doubt, but you are the people,
    and wisdom will die with you.
³ But I have understanding as well as you;
    I am not inferior to you.
    Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
⁴ I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor,
    I, who called on God, and he answered.
    The just, the blameless man is a joke.
⁵ In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune.
    It is ready for them whose foot slips.
⁶ The tents of robbers prosper.
    Those who provoke God are secure,
    who carry their god in their hands.

⁷ “But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you.
    The fish of the sea will declare to you.
⁹ Who doesn’t know that in all these,
    Yahweh’s hand has done this,
¹⁰ in whose hand is the life of every living thing,
    and the breath of all mankind?
¹¹ Doesn’t the ear try words,
    even as the palate tastes its food?
¹² With aged men is wisdom,
    in length of days understanding.

¹³ “With God is wisdom and might.
    He has counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again.
    He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
¹⁵ Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up.
    Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
¹⁶ With him is strength and wisdom.
    The deceived and the deceiver are his.
¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped.
    He makes judges fools.
¹⁸ He loosens the bond of kings.
    He binds their waist with a belt.
¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped,
    and overthrows the mighty.
²⁰ He removes the speech of those who are trusted,
    and takes away the understanding of the elders.
²¹ He pours contempt on princes,
    and loosens the belt of the strong.
²² He uncovers deep things out of darkness,
    and brings out to light the shadow of death.
²³ He increases the nations, and he destroys them.
    He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
²⁴ He takes away understanding from 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.
    He makes them stagger like a drunken man.