1. Then Job answered them:
2. “I’m sure you think you are the only wise people left. You think that when you die, wisdom will be gone with you.
3. But my mind is as good as yours. You aren’t any smarter than I am. You haven’t said anything that people don’t already know.
4. “My friends laugh at me now. They say, ‘He prayed to God and got his answer.’ I am a good, innocent man, but still they laugh at me.
5. Those who have no troubles make fun of those who do. They hit a man when he is down.
6. But robbers’ tents are not bothered. Those who make God angry live in peace, even though God has them in his power.
7. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you. Or ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.
8. Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. Or let the fish in the sea tell you their wisdom.
9. Everyone knows that the Lord made these things.