Job Chapter 12

12:1 Then Job answered,

12:2 "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

(a) Because you do not feel what you speak, you think the whole stands in words, and so flatter yourselves as though no one else knew anything, or could know except you.

12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

12:4 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.

(b) He reproves his friends for two faults: one, that they thought they had better knowledge than they did: and the other, that instead of true consolation, they derided and despised their friend in his adversity.
(c) Who being a mocker and a wicked man, thinks that no man is in God’s favour but he, because he has all things that he desires.

12:5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

(d) As the rich do not esteem a light or torch that goes out, so he despised he that falls from prosperity to adversity.

12:6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.

12:7 "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

(e) He declares to them that disputed against him, that their wisdom is common to all, and such as the very brute beasts teach daily.

12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.

12:9 Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this,

12:10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

12:11 Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

(f) He exhorts them to be wise in judging, and as well to know the right use of their God-given ears, as well as their mouths.

12:12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

(g) Though men by age and continuance of time attain wisdom, yet it is not comparable to God’s wisdom, nor able to comprehend his judgments, in which he answers to that which was alleged, (Job 8:8).

12:13 "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

12:14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

12:15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

12:16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

(h) He shows that there is nothing done in this world without God’s will and ordinance, else he would not be Almighty.

12:17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

12:18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

(i) He takes wisdom from them.
(k) He abates the humour of princes, and brings them into the subjection of others.

12:19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

12:20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

12:21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.

12:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

12:23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

(m) In this discourse of God’s wonderful works, Job shows that whatever is done in this world both in the order and change of things, is by God’s will and appointment, in which he declares that he thinks well of God, and is able to set forth his power in words as they that reasoned against him were.

12:24 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.

12:25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.