² No doubt but ye are the people,
And wisdom shall die with you.
³ But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you:
Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
⁴ I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor,
I who called upon God, and he answered:
The just, the perfect man is a laughing-stock.
⁵ In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.
⁶ The tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure;
^[a]Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.

⁷ But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee:
⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
⁹ Who knoweth not ^[b]in all these,
That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this,
¹⁰ In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the ^[c]breath of all mankind?
¹¹ Doth not the ear try words,
Even as the palate tasteth its food?
^12 [d]With aged men is wisdom,
And in length of days understanding.

¹³ With ^[e]God is wisdom and might;
He hath counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again;
He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
¹⁵ Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up;
Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
¹⁶ With him is strength and wisdom;
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
¹⁷ He leadeth counsellors away stripped,
And judges maketh he fools.
¹⁸ He looseth the bond of kings,
And he bindeth their loins with a girdle.
¹⁹ He leadeth priests away stripped,
And overthroweth the mighty.
²⁰ He removeth the speech of the trusty,
And taketh away the understanding of the elders.
²¹ He poureth contempt upon princes,
And looseth the belt of the strong.
²² He uncovereth deep things out of darkness,
And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
²³ He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them:
He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive.
²⁴ He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the ^[f]earth,
And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
²⁵ They grope in the dark without light;
And he maketh them to ^[g]stagger like a drunken man.