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New International Version |   | |
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| | Job 12:1 | Then Job replied:
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| | Job 12:2 | "Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!
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| | Job 12:3 | But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things?
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| | Job 12:4 | "I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called upon God and he answered-- a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!
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| | Job 12:5 | Men at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
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| | Job 12:6 | The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure-- those who carry their god in their hands.
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| | Job 12:7 | "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
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| | Job 12:8 | or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you.
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| | Job 12:9 | Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
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| | Job 12:10 | In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
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| | Job 12:11 | Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?
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| | Job 12:12 | Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?
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| | Job 12:13 | "To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.
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| | Job 12:14 | What he tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man he imprisons cannot be released.
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| | Job 12:15 | If he holds back the waters, there is drought; if he lets them loose, they devastate the land.
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| | Job 12:16 | To him belong strength and victory; both deceived and deceiver are his.
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| | Job 12:17 | He leads counselors away stripped and makes fools of judges.
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| | Job 12:18 | He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist.
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| | Job 12:19 | He leads priests away stripped and overthrows men long established.
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| | Job 12:20 | He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the discernment of elders.
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| | Job 12:21 | He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
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| | Job 12:22 | He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.
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| | Job 12:23 | He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.
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| | Job 12:24 | He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he sends them wandering through a trackless waste.
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| | Job 12:25 | They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.
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