Job 12

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

¹⁰But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.

⁸Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

⁹For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹²But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

⁵I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?

²What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

³Yet I desire to speak to the Almighty and argue my case before God.

²¹To my shame I concede that we were too weak for that! Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about.

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him.

⁵I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.”

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the white of an egg?

⁷My soul refuses to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.

²“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!

³How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!

¹“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.

³Bear with me while I speak; then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

⁶He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.

⁷All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

⁸“He trusts in the Lord, let the Lord deliver him; let the Lord rescue him, since He delights in him.”

¹⁰They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.

⁵My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.

⁹The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is extinguished.

⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

¹Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.

²Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.

⁴We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

¹¹The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”

¹²Behold, these are the wicked—always carefree as they increase their wealth.

³⁵I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,

¹⁴from such men, O Lord, by Your hand—from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

⁷Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?

⁸Their descendants are established around them, and their offspring before their eyes.

¹Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.”

⁷Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.

⁶Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.

²⁹Have you never asked those who travel the roads? Do you not accept their reports?

³⁰Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

²⁰so that all may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

⁵By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

³⁶For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

³⁵Finally the city clerk quieted the crowd and declared, “Men of Ephesus, doesn’t everyone know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

¹⁷So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.

²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

²⁵Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

²²But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the whole congregation?”

³as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils,

²³Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

³For the ear tests words as the mouth tastes food.

¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

³⁰Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

¹⁰so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

¹⁵I speak to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say.

⁷I thought that age should speak, and many years should teach wisdom.

¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are on our side—men much older than your father.

⁸Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers.

⁵Indeed, God is mighty, but He despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁴God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has resisted Him and prospered?

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk with integrity,

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

²⁰From where, then, does wisdom come, and where does understanding dwell?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the air.

¹⁴Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have insight and strength.

²²I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

⁷To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

⁴Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever.

¹⁰If He comes along to imprison you, or convenes a court, who can stop Him?

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, so that all men may know His work.

⁸Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

⁸He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the Lord is His name—

¹⁷And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.

¹⁷Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

¹⁸Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.

¹³Then God said to Noah, “The end of all living creatures has come before Me, because through them the earth is full of violence. Now behold, I will destroy both them and the earth.

²⁵But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land.

⁹Would it be well when He examined you? Could you deceive Him as you would deceive a man?

¹³Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.

⁹But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the Lord who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

²²And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’

²³So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”

¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

⁷Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf or speak deceitfully for Him?

¹⁴Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”

¹⁹For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

²³When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set out for his house in his hometown. He put his affairs in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.

¹⁴Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had purposed to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He blindfolds its judges. If it is not He, then who is it?

³¹Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”

²¹He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

¹⁶Truly, O Lord, I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have broken my bonds.

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.

³²And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

¹¹So the Lord brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

¹⁶And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND Lord OF LORDS.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

⁹Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.

²⁴When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had accompanied him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So the commanders came forward and put their feet on their necks.

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.

²⁰But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

²⁸They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.

⁹It is not only the old who are wise, or the elderly who understand justice.

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

²⁴He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

¹⁷For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.

¹⁹Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

⁴⁰He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

²³And the Lord also speaks concerning Jezebel: ‘The dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

²⁴Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴So they set it aside until morning as Moses had commanded, and it did not smell or contain any maggots.

³²You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.”

³³At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.

²²He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

¹⁰But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

⁵May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

⁷⁹to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

²⁶So do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.

³You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.

¹⁵You have enlarged the nation, O Lord; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land.

²²The least of you will become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will accomplish it quickly.

³⁸He blesses them, and they multiply greatly; He does not let their herds diminish.

²²As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”

⁶In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁴⁰He pours out contempt on the nobles and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

²⁰He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders.

¹¹So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

¹This is the burden against Egypt: Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

¹⁶Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of a beast till seven times pass him by.

⁴You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.

²⁷They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.

²⁰The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.

¹⁴The Lord has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.

²⁹and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.