Job 28–30

CHAPTER 28

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

¹“¹Surely there is a ²mine for silver,

And a place ³where they refine for gold.

²“Iron is taken from the dust,

And copper is smelted from rock.

³“Man puts an end to darkness,

And ^ato the farthest limit he searches out

The rock in thick darkness and shadow of death.

⁴“He ¹sinks a shaft far from ²habitation,

Forgotten by the foot;

They hang and swing to and fro far from men.

⁵“The earth, from it comes food,

And underneath it is overturned as fire.

⁶“Its rocks are the ¹source of sapphires,

And its dust contains gold.

⁷“The path no bird of prey knows,

Nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it.

⁸“The ¹proud beasts have not trodden it,

Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

⁹“He sends his hand forth to the flint;

He overturns the mountains at the ¹base.

¹⁰“He breaks out channels through the rocks,

And his eye sees anything precious.

¹¹“He dams up the streams from ¹flowing,

And what is hidden he brings out to the light.

¹²“But ^awhere can wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

¹³“^aMan does not know its worth,

And it is not found in the land of the living.

¹⁴“The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;

And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵“^aPure gold cannot be given in place of it,

Nor can silver be weighed as its price.

¹⁶“It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

In precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷“^aGold or glass cannot meet its worth,

Nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold.

¹⁸“Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned;

And the acquisition of ^awisdom is above that of pearls.

¹⁹“The topaz of ¹Ethiopia cannot meet its worth,

Nor can it be valued in ^apure gold.

²⁰“^aWhere then does wisdom come from?

And where is the place of understanding?

²¹“Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living

And concealed from the birds of the sky.

²²“^1aAbaddon and Death say,

‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’

²³“^aGod understands its way,

And He knows its place.

²⁴“For He ^alooks to the ends of the earth

And sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵“When He set ^aweight to the wind

And ^bmeted out the waters by measure,

²⁶When He set a ^alimit for the rain

And a course for the ^bthunderbolt,

²⁷Then He saw it and recounted it;

He established it and also searched it out.

²⁸“So He said to man, ‘Behold, the ^afear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

And to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

CHAPTER 29

Job Continues His Discourse

¹And Job continued to lift up his ^1adiscourse and said,

²“Oh that I were as in months gone by,

As in the days when God ^akept me,

³When ^aHis lamp shone over my head,

And ^bby His light I walked through darkness,

⁴As I was in ¹the prime of my days,

When the ^aintimate counsel with God was over my tent,

⁵When ¹the Almighty was yet with me,

And my children were around me,

⁶When my steps were bathed in ^abutter,

And the ^brock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷“When I went out to ^athe gate of the city,

When I ¹took my seat in the square,

⁸The young men saw me and hid,

And the old men arose and stood.

⁹“The princes ^astopped talking

And ^bput their hands on their mouths;

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was ^ahidden away,

And their ^btongue clung to their palate.

¹¹“For ^athe ear heard, and it called me blessed,

And the eye saw, and it gave witness of me,

¹²Because I provided escape for ^athe afflicted who cried for help,

And the ^borphan who had no helper.

¹³“The blessing of the one ^aready to perish came upon me,

And I made the ^bwidow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴“I ^aclothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me;

My justice was like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵“I was ^aeyes to the blind

And feet to the lame.

¹⁶“I was a father to ^athe needy,

And I searched out the case which I did not know.

¹⁷“I ^abroke the fangs of the unjust

And snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸“Then I ¹said, ‘I will breathe my last ²in my nest,

And I shall multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹‘My ^aroot is spread out to the waters,

And ^bdew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰‘My glory is ever new with me,

And my ^abow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“To me ^athey listened and waited,

And kept silent for my counsel.

²²“After my words they did not ^aspeak again,

And ^bmy speech dropped on them.

²³“They waited for me as for the rain,

And opened their mouth as for the ¹late rain.

²⁴“I laughed with them as they could not believe it,

And the light of my face they did not cast down.

²⁵“I chose a way for them and sat as ^achief,

And dwelt as their head among the troops,

As one who ^bcomforted the mourners.

CHAPTER 30

¹“But now those younger than I ^alaugh at me,

Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.

²“Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?

Vigor had perished from them.

³“From want and famine they are gaunt,

Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,

⁴Who pluck ¹mallow by the bushes,

And whose food is the root of the broom tree.

⁵“They are driven from the community;

They shout against them as against a thief,

⁶So that they dwell in the slopes of the ¹valleys,

In holes of the dust and of the rocks.

⁷“Among the bushes they ¹cry out;

Under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸“¹Wicked fools, even ²those without a name,

They were scourged from the land.

⁹“And now I have become their mocking ^asong;

I have even become a ^btaunting word to them.

¹⁰“They abhor me and keep a distance from me,

And they do not ¹hold back from ^aspitting at my face.

¹¹“Because ¹He has loosed ²His ³bowstring and ^aafflicted me,

They have thrust aside ^btheir bridle before me.

¹²“On the right hand their ¹brood arises;

They ^athrust aside my feet ^band build up against me their ways to disaster.

¹³“They ^abreak up my path;

They profit ¹from my destruction;

They have no helper.

¹⁴“As through a wide breach they come,

¹Amid the storm they roll on.

¹⁵“^aTerrors are turned against me;

They pursue my nobility as the wind,

And my hope for salvation has passed away ^blike a cloud.

¹⁶“And now ^amy soul is poured out ¹within me;

Days of affliction have seized me.

¹⁷“At night it pierces ^amy bones ¹within me,

And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸“By a great force my garment is ^adistorted;

It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹“He has cast me into the ^amire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I ^acry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;

I stand up, and You carefully consider how to be against me.

²¹“You have ¹become cruel to me;

With the might of Your hand You ^ahunted me down.

²²“You ^alift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;

And You melt me away in a storm.

²³“For I know that You ^awill bring me to death

And to the ^bhouse of meeting for all living.

²⁴“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

Or, in his upheaval, is there a ^acry for help because of them?

²⁵“Have I not ^awept for the ¹one whose life is hard?

Was not my soul grieved for ^bthe needy?

²⁶“When I ^ahoped for good, then evil came;

When I waited for light, ^bthen thick darkness came.

²⁷“¹I am boiling ^awithin and cannot be silent;

Days of affliction confront me.

²⁸“I go about ^adarkened but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and ^bcry out for help.

²⁹“I have become a brother to ^ajackals

And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰“My ^askin turns black ¹on me,

And my ^bbones burn with ²fever.

³¹“Therefore my ^aharp ¹is turned to mourning,

And my flute to the sound of those who weep.