Job 12

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¹Then Job answered and said: ²“No doubt you are the people, And wisdom will die with you! ✦ ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? ✦ ⁴“Iam one mocked by his friends, Who called on God, and He answered him, The just and blameless who is ridiculed. ✦ ⁵A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is made ready for those whose feet slip. ✦ ⁶The tents of robbers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure— In what God provides by His hand. ✦ ⁷“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ✦ ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. ⁹Who among all these does not know That the hand of the Lord has done this, ✦ ¹⁰In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? ✦ ¹¹Does not the ear test words And the mouth taste its food? ✦ ¹²Wisdom is with aged men, And with length of days, understanding. ✦ ¹³“With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. ✦ ¹⁴If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release. ✦ ¹⁵If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. ✦ ¹⁶With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His. ✦ ¹⁷He leads counselors away plundered, And makes fools of the judges. ✦ ¹⁸He loosens the bonds of kings, And binds their waist with a belt. ✦ ¹⁹He leads princes away plundered, And overthrows the mighty. ✦ ²⁰He deprives the trusted ones of speech, And takes away the discernment of the elders. ✦ ²¹He pours contempt on princes, And disarms the mighty. ✦ ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, And brings the shadow of death to light. ✦ ²³He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them. ✦ ²⁴He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, And makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. ✦ ²⁵They grope in the dark without light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man. ✦

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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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