Job 12
Job: You’re not as smart as you think
Job’s friends, the wisdom slayers
1Job said:2Well, it’s obvious now.
You came here to kill wisdom.
3Listen, I'm as smart as you.
So don’t try looking down on me. I’m not there.
Everything you said is common knowledge.
It didn’t take a genius to say it.
4But look at me. I’m a joke—even to my friends.
I'm a man who prays to a God who answers. [1]
I've done nothing wrong,
Yet I'm a punchline now.
5As you see here,
People with nothing to worry about
Will kick a man when he's down.
6Yet you’ll let robbers live in peace
Alongside people who provoke God
By saying God is on their side. [2]
Wisdom isn’t reserved for the gray-haired or bald
7You haven’t cornered the market on wisdom.Ask the animals. They’ll teach you a thing or two.
Ask the birds. They'll tweet it to you.
8Ask the plants, they can teach you.
Ask the fish. They can, too.
9Who or what in God's creation
Doesn't know what the Lord has done?
10He sustains the life of every living thing.
He holds the next breath
Of every creature that breathes.
11Can't an ear hear words?
Can't a mouth taste food?
12Why should wisdom be any different?
What makes you think it's reserved for the elderly?
13We get our wisdom and strength from God himself.
He teaches us and helps us understand what he teaches.
14If God destroys something,
No one else can rebuild it.
If he imprisons someone,
No one else can set that soul free.
15If God stops the rain,
The ground dries and cracks.
If he sends a gully washer,
It washes out the gullies in a flood.
How wise and strong is God?
16God owns strength and wisdom.He owns everything,
From the cheaters to the cheated.
17He can send royal counselors into captivity. [3]
He can turn judges into fools.
18He can replace the king's royal sash
with the rope belt of a slave.
19He can send priests into captivity,
And overthrow mighty leaders.
20He can take speech from advisors,
And wisdom from the elderly.
21He can shame a prince,
And weaken the powerful.
22He can uncover deep, dark secrets,
And drag them into the light of day.
23He can make a country great,
Then kill it and walk away.
24He can take back wisdom he gave the leaders,
And leave them lost in a wasteland.
25There they’ll grope in the darkness to find their way,
Staggering like drunks on a binge.
Footnotes
This sounds a little different than what Job had been saying in earlier chapters, when he was tearing into God with complaints. This speech extends through three chapters, until the end of Job 14. It marks a turning point in this story. Job moves from complaining about God to engaging in a conversation with him and asking him the question that God very seldom answers in the Bible: “Why?” Job wants to know what he did wrong and why God wass treating him in such a vicious and horrifying way (Job 13:23).
Bible scholars debate how to interpret this line. Ideas include: “They carry their god [idol] in their hands.” “Their hands [self-confidence?] have become their gods.” “They are in the protective hands of God,” as in God protects them—which would sound like another complaint against God.
The original Hebrew text more literally says God will lead the advisors away naked as a jaybird, without referencing the jaybird, which is native to North America. Some scholars guess that the phrase means the royal advisors are taken captive by invaders and led away naked into captivity. That’s what invaders often did when they captured people of nobility. They humiliated them and led them away as slaves into a foreign land.
Discussion Questions
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