1. THEN JOB answered,
2. No doubt you are the [only wise] people [in the world], and wisdom will die with you!
3. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these [of God's wisdom and might]?
4. I am become one who is a laughingstock to his friend; I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him–a just, upright (blameless) man–laughed to scorn!
5. In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune–but it is ready for those whose feet slip.
6. The dwellings of robbers prosper; those who provoke God are [apparently] secure; God supplies them abundantly [who have no god but their own hands and power].
7. For ask now the animals, and they will teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
8. Or speak to the earth [with its other forms of life], and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare [this truth] to you.
9. Who [is so blind as] not to recognize in all these [that good and evil are promiscuously scattered throughout nature and human life] that it is God's hand which does it [and God's way]?
10. In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
11. Is it not the task of the ear to discriminate between [wise and unwise] words, just as the mouth distinguishes [between desirable and undesirable] food?
12. With the aged [you say] is wisdom, and with length of days comes understanding.