Job 12:13

GOD'S WISDOM AND POWER CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF MEN

"With 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 counselors away stripped,

And judges maketh he fools.

He looseth the bond of kings,

And 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 the deep things 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 earth,

And causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

They grope in the darkness without light;

And he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man."

We understand every word of this paragraph as a refutation of the favorite error of his `comforters,' namely, that "wisdom is with aged men and that length of days and understanding are synonymous" (Job 12:12). Notice how many times God's wisdom is mentioned here, along with the corollary in each instance that, "Counselors and judges (Job 12:17), kings (Job 12:18), priests and the mighty (Job 12:19), the trusty and the elders (Job 12:20), the princes and the strong (Job 12:21), and the chiefs of the people of the earth (Job 12:24)" - indeed ALL of the men of the whole earth who might have been accounted wise, without exception, when their wisdom was considered along with God's true wisdom, their true status is described here by Job as, "Stripped (naked), deceived, deceivers, fools, helpless (having their bonds or belts loosed), overthrown, held in contempt, with their speech removed, and their understanding taken away." Such words as these should certainly have exploded the myth that old men were wise!