12 ⁷ "But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
12 ⁸ or the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
12 ⁹ Who among all these does not know that the hand of Yahweh has done this?
12 ¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.
12 ¹¹ Does not the ear search words
as the palate tastes food?
12 ¹² Wisdom is with the aged,
and understanding in length of days.

12 ¹³ "With God are wisdom and might;
he has counsel and understanding.
12 ¹⁴ If he tears down, none can rebuild;
if he shuts a man in, none can open.
12 ¹⁵ If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
12 ¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom;
the deceived and the deceiver are his.
12 ¹⁷ He leads counselors away stripped,
and judges he makes fools.
12 ¹⁸ He looses the bonds of kings,
and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
12 ¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped,
and overthrows the mighty.
12 ²⁰ He deprives of speech those who are trusted,
and takes away the discernment of the elders.
12 ²¹ He pours contempt on princes,
and looses the belt of the strong.
12 ²² He uncovers the deeps out of darkness,
and brings deep darkness to light.
12 ²³ He makes nations great, and he destroys them:
he enlarges nations, and leads them away.
12 ²⁴ He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,
and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
12 ²⁵ They grope in the dark without light;
and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

13 ¹³ "Let me have silence, and I will speak,
and let come on me what may.
13 ¹⁴ I will take my flesh in my teeth,
and put my life in my hand.
13 ¹⁵ Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope;
yet I will defend my ways to his face.
13 ¹⁶ This will be my salvation,
that a godless man shall not come before him.
13 ¹⁷ Listen carefully to my words,
and let my declaration be in your ears.
13 ¹⁸ Behold, I have prepared my case;
I know that I shall be vindicated.
13 ¹⁹ Who is there that will contend with me?
For then I would be silent and die.
13 ²⁰ Only grant two things to me,
then I will not hide myself from your face:
13 ²¹ withdraw your hand far from me,
and let not dread of you terrify me.
13 ²² Then call, and I will answer;
or let me speak, and you reply to me.
13 ²³ How many are my iniquities and my sins?
Make me know my transgression and my sin.
13 ²⁴ Why do you hide your face,
and count me as your enemy?
13 ²⁵ Will you frighten a driven leaf
and pursue dry chaff?
13 ²⁶ For you write bitter things against me,
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
13 ²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks,
and watch all my paths;
you set a bound to the soles of my feet.
13 ²⁸ Man wastes away like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14 ⁷ "For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
14 ⁸ Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the ground,
14 ⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.
14 ¹⁰ But man dies, and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
14 ¹¹ As waters fail from a lake,
and a river wastes away and dries up,
14 ¹² so man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake,
or be roused out of his sleep.
14 ¹³ Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 ¹⁴ If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait, till my release should come.
14 ¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
14 ¹⁶ For then you would number my steps,
you would not keep watch over my sin;
14 ¹⁷ my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.

14 ¹⁸ "But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the rock is removed from its place;
14 ¹⁹ the waters wear away the stones;
the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of man.
14 ²⁰ You prevail for ever against him, and he passes;
you change his countenance, and sendest him away.
14 ²¹ His sons come to honour, and he does not know it;
they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
14 ²² He feels only the pain of his own body,
and he mourns only for himself."