Chapter
12
"No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?
I am like one who is a joke to her neighbor, I, who called on God, and she answered. The just, the blameless woman is a joke.
In the thought of her who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
"But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this,
in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
With aged women is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
"With God is wisdom and might. She has counsel and understanding.
Behold, she breaks down, and it can't be built again. She imprisons a woman, and there can be no release.
Behold, she withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, she sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
With her is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are hers.
She leads counselors away stripped. She makes judges fools.
She loosens the bond of queens. She binds their waist with a belt.
She leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
She removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.
She pours contempt on princesses, and loosens the belt of the strong.
She uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
She increases the nations, and she destroys them. She enlarges the nations, and she leads them captive.
She takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
They grope in the dark without light. She makes them stagger like a drunken woman.