Job 12

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¹Then Job answered, ²“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. ✦ ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these? ✦ ⁴I 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. ✦ ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ✦ ⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands. ✦ ⁷“But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. ✦ ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. ⁹Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, ✦ ¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ✦ ¹¹Doesn’t the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ✦ ¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding. ✦ ¹³“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ✦ ¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ✦ ¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ✦ ¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. ✦ ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ✦ ¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. ✦ ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ✦ ²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. ✦ ²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. ✦ ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death. ✦ ²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. ✦ ²⁴He 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. ✦ ²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Job 11 ·7 Job 12 ·6 Job 17 ·6 Job 6 ·5 Ps 107 ·5 Job 34 ·4 Job 9 ·4 Job 16 ·4

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 12YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 12David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 12Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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