¹ Then Job replied: ² “Doubtless you are the only people who matter, and wisdom will die with you! ³ But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know all these things? ⁴ “I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered— a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless! ⁵ Those who are at ease have contempt for misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping. ⁶ The tents of marauders are undisturbed, and those who provoke God are secure— those God has in his hand. ⁷ “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; ⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.