Then Job answered and said,
No doubt but ye are the people,
And wisdom shall die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you:
Yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
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.
In the thought of him that is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
It is ready for them whose foot slippeth.
The tents of robbers prosper,
And they that provoke God are secure;
{Or, That bring their god to their hand}Into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the birds of the heavens, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not {Or, by}in all these,
That the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this,
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the {Or, spirit}breath of all mankind?
Doth not the ear try words,
Even as the palate tasteth its food?
{Or, With aged men, ye say, is wisdom}With aged men is wisdom,
And in length of days understanding.
With {Hebrew: him.}God is wisdom and might;
He hath counsel and understanding.
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again;
He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up;
Again, he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
With him is strength and wisdom;
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
He leadeth counsellors away stripped,
And judges maketh he fools.
He looseth the bond of kings,
And he bindeth their loins with a girdle.
He leadeth priests away stripped,
And overthroweth the mighty.
He removeth the speech of the trusty,
And taketh away the understanding of the elders.
He poureth contempt upon princes,
And looseth the belt of the strong.
He uncovereth deep things out of darkness,
And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
He increaseth the nations, and he destroyeth them:
He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive.
He taketh away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the {Or, land}earth,
And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
They grope in the dark without light;
And he maketh them to {Hebrew: wander.}stagger like a drunken man.
Querverweise zu Hiob 12,10 Hiob 12,10
And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?
{Or, All the while my breath is in me…nostrils; surely}(For my life is yet whole in me,And the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine from them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.
{According to another reading, If he cause his heart to return unto himself.}If he set his heart upon {Or, man Hebrew: him.}himself,If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;
neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
All flesh shall perish together,And man shall turn again unto dust.
for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said,For we are also his offspring.
And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is in the earth shall die.
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled;Thou {Or, gatherest in}takest away their breath, they die,And return to their dust.
Put not your trust in princes,Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;In that very day his {Or, purposes}thoughts perish.