Will you defend God with lies?
1 ① Then Job answered:
2No doubt you are the people’s voice;
when you die, wisdom dies with you!
3But I have a mind as well as you,
I know all that you have said.
4To my friends I am a laughingstock
when I call on God who does not answer;
the just and blameless man
is made fun of.
5“Contempt for the unfortunate,” so think the prosperous,
“a blow for those who are staggering.”
6Yet the robbers’ tents are undisturbed,
those who provoke God are in peace,
those who make a god of their strength.
7But ask the beasts to teach you,
the birds of the air to tell you,
8the plants of the earth to instruct you,
the fish of the sea to inform you.
9Who among them does not understand
that behind all this is God’s hand?
10He holds the life of every creature
and the breath of humans.
11The ear surely can test the words
as the tongue tastes food;
12wisdom is found in the old,
and understanding in great age;
13in God however is wisdom and power;
his are counsel and understanding.
14What he tears down, none can rebuild;
the one he imprisons, none can release.
15If he withholds water, there is drought;
if he lets it loose, there is flood.
16In him are strength and perception;
deceived and deceiver are in his power.
17He leads counselors away stripped
and makes fools of judges.
18He loosens the belt of kings
and ties a loincloth about their waist.
19He leads priests away, barefoot,
and overthrows those in power.
20He compels advisers to keep silent,
and strips elders of their discernment.
21He puts princes to shame;
he unties the girdle of the strong.
22(He uncovers the gloomy recesses
and brings the deep darkness to light.)
23He makes a nation rise and fall,
a people to grow and to dwindle.
24He deprives leaders of their judgment,
leaving them to roam in a trackless waste.
25Without light, they grope in the dark
and stagger like drunkards.
- Job 12,1 Zophar kept on repeating the arguments of the wise men: if you are suffering, you are guilty; mend your ways and you will be healed. Then Job continues to accuse God. He lists some of the injustices which we see daily. Then, in 12:14-25, he emphasizes that God's power manifests itself especially in his destructive action. God upsets the fortune of the powerful, distorts the wisdom of the sages, prevents people from being successful, and does not allow their ventures to last. In the midst of a perfect universe, human history has no meaning.
