Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 Job responded:
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Job answered:
2 Surely you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.
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"I'm sure you speak for all the experts, and when you die there'll be no one left to tell us how to live.
3 I am also intelligent; I'm not inferior to you. Who isn't like these people?
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But don't forget that I also have a brain - I don't intend to play second fiddle to you. It doesn't take an expert to know these things.
4 I'm a joke to friends who called to God and he answered; the innocent and blameless one is a joke,
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"I'm ridiculed by my friends: 'So that's the man who had conversations with God!' Ridiculed without mercy: 'Look at the man who never did wrong!'
5 a torch of contempt to one who is idle, a fixed point for slipping feet.
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It's easy for the well-to-do to point their fingers in blame, for the well-fixed to pour scorn on the strugglers.
6 Raiders' tents are prosperous and God's provokers secure, who carry God in their hands.
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Crooks reside safely in high-security houses, insolent blasphemers live in luxury; they've bought and paid for a god who'll protect them.
7 But ask Behemoth, and he will teach you, the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
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"But ask the animals what they think - let them teach you; let the birds tell you what's going on.
8 or talk to earth, and it will teach you; the fish of the sea will recount it for you.
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Put your ear to the earth - learn the basics. Listen - the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.
9 Among all these, who hasn't known that the LORD's hand did this?
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Isn't it clear that they all know and agree that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand -
10 In whose grasp is the life of every thing, the breath of every person?
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Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature?
11 Doesn't the ear test words and the palate taste food?
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Isn't this all just common sense, as common as the sense of taste?
12 "In old age is wisdom; understanding in a long life."
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Do you think the elderly have a corner on wisdom, that you have to grow old before you understand life?
13 With him are wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.
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"True wisdom and real power belong to God; from him we learn how to live, and also what to live for.
14 If he tears down, it can't be rebuilt; if he ties a person up, he can't be set free.
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If he tears something down, it's down for good; if he locks people up, they're locked up for good.
15 If he restricts water, they have drought; if he lets it loose, it overturns the land.
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If he holds back the rain, there's a drought; if he lets it loose, there's a flood.
16 With him are might and success; the deceiver and the deceived are his.
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Strength and success belong to God; both deceived and deceiver must answer to him.
17 He leads advisors away barefoot; makes madmen of judges;
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He strips experts of their vaunted credentials, exposes judges as witless fools.
18 unties the belt of kings, binds a garment around their loins;
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He divests kings of their royal garments, then ties a rag around their waists.
19 leads priests away barefoot; overthrows the well-established;
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He strips priests of their robes, and fires high officials from their jobs.
20 silences the talk of trusted people; takes away elders' discernment;
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He forces trusted sages to keep silence, deprives elders of their good sense and wisdom.
21 pours contempt on royalty; loosens the belt of the strong;
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He dumps contempt on famous people, disarms the strong and mighty.
22 discloses deep secrets of darkness, makes utter darkness enter the light;
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He shines a spotlight into caves of darkness, hauls deepest darkness into the noonday sun.
23 makes nations prominent and destroys them, expands nations and leads them astray;
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He makes nations rise and then fall, builds up some and abandons others.
24 takes away the power to think from earth's leaders, making them wander in untraveled wastelands.
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He robs world leaders of their reason, and sends them off into no man's land.
25 They feel their way in the dark without light; he makes them stumble like drunks.
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They grope in the dark without a clue, lurching and staggering like drunks.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.