Job 12:13-25

Revised Standard Version

¹³ “With God^[a] are wisdom and might;
    he has counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ If he tears down, none can rebuild;
    if he shuts a man in, none can open.
¹⁵ If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
    if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom;
    the deceived and the deceiver are his.
¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped,
    and judges he makes fools.
¹⁸ He looses the bonds of kings,
    and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped,
    and overthrows the mighty.
²⁰ He deprives of speech those who are trusted,
    and takes away the discernment of the elders.
²¹ He pours contempt on princes,
    and looses the belt of the strong.
²² He uncovers the deeps out of darkness,
    and brings deep darkness to light.
²³ He makes nations great, and he destroys them:
    he enlarges nations, and leads them away.
²⁴ He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,
    and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
²⁵ They grope in the dark without light;
    and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.