Job 28

A HYMN TO WISDOM

28Surely there is a mine for silver

and a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the ground,

and copper is smelted from ore.

³A miner puts an end to the darkness;

he probes^A the deepest recesses

for ore in the gloomy darkness.

⁴He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,

in places unknown to those who walk above ground.

Suspended far away from people,

the miners swing back and forth.

⁵Food may come from the earth,

but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.

⁶Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli,^a

containing flecks of gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows that path;

no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸Proud beasts have never walked on it;

no lion has ever prowled over it.

⁹The miner uses a flint tool

and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eyes spot every treasure.

¹¹He dams up the streams from flowing^B

so that he may bring to light what is hidden.

¹²But where can wisdom^b be found,

and where is understanding located?

¹³No one can know its value,^C

since it cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”

while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”^c

¹⁵Gold cannot be exchanged for it,

and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.

¹⁶Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,^d

in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.^e

¹⁷Gold and glass do not compare with it,

and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.^f

¹⁸Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.

The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.

¹⁹Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,

and it cannot be valued in pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from,

and where is understanding located?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing

and concealed from the birds of the sky.

²²Abaddon and Death^g say,

“We have heard news of it with our ears.”

²³But God understands the way to wisdom,

and he knows its location.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When God fixed the weight of the wind

and distributed the water by measure,^h

²⁶when he established a limit^A for the rainⁱ

and a path for the lightning,

²⁷he considered wisdom and evaluated it;

he established it and examined it.

²⁸He said to mankind,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom.

And to turn from evil is understanding.”^j