Logos Bible Study

Job 28:20–28

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God Alone Has Wisdom

28:20“But wisdom—where does it come from?33

Where is the place of understanding?

28:21For34 it has been hidden

from the eyes of every living creature,

and from the birds of the sky it has been concealed.

28:22Destruction35 and Death say,

‘With our ears we have heard a rumor about where it can be found.’36

28:23God understands the way to it,

and he alone knows its place.

28:24For he looks to the ends of the earth

and observes everything under the heavens.

28:25When he made37 the force of the wind

and measured38 the waters with a gauge.

28:26When he imposed a limit39 for the rain,

and a path for the thunderstorm,40

28:27then he looked at wisdom41 and assessed its value;42

he established43 it and examined it closely.44

28:28And he said to mankind,

‘The fear of the Lord45—that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”46

IV. Job’s Concluding Soliloquy (29:1–31:40)

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Footnotes

  1. 33 The refrain is repeated, except now the verb is תָּבוֹא (tavo’, “come”).
  2. 34 The vav on the verb is unexpressed in the . It should not be overlooked, for it introduces a subordinate clause of condition (R. Gordis, Job, 310).
  3. 35 Heb “Abaddon.”
  4. 36 Heb “heard a report of it,” which means a report of its location, thus “where it can be found.”
  5. 37 Heb “he gave weight to the wind.” The form is the infinitive construct with the ל (lamed) preposition. Some have emended it to change the preposition to the temporal בּ (bet) on the basis of some of the versions (e.g., Latin and ) that have “who made.” This is workable, for the infinitive would then take on the finite tense of the previous verbs. An infinitive of purpose does not work well, for that would be saying God looked everywhere in order to give wind its proper weight (see R. Gordis, Job, 310).
  6. 38 The verb is the Piel perfect, meaning “to estimate the measure” of something. In the verse, the perfect verb continues the function of the infinitive preceding it, as if it had a ו (vav) prefixed to it. Whatever usage that infinitive had, this verb is to continue it (see §114.r).
  7. 39 Or “decree.”
  8. 40 Or “thunderbolt,” i.e., lightning. Heb “the roaring of voices/sounds,” which describes the nature of the storm.
  9. 41 Heb “it”; the referent (wisdom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  10. 42 The verb סָפַר (safar) in the Piel basically means “to tell; to declare; to show” or “to count; to number.” Many commentators offer different suggestions for the translation. “Declared” (as in the , , and ) would be the simplest—but to whom did God declare it? Besides “appraised” which is the view of Pope, Dhorme and others (cf. , ), J. Reider has suggested “probed” (“Etymological studies in biblical Hebrew,” 2 [1952]: 127), Strahan has “studied,” and Kissane has “reckoned.” The difficulty is that the line has a series of verbs, which seem to build to a climax; but without more details it is hard to know how to translate them when they have such a range of meaning.
  11. 43 The verb כּוּן (kun) means “to establish; to prepare” in this stem. There are several that have the form from בִּין (bin, “discern”), giving “he discerned it,” making more of a parallel with the first colon. But the weight of the evidence supports the traditional reading.
  12. 44 The verb חָקַר (khaqar) means “to examine; to search out.” Some of the language used here is anthropomorphic, for the sovereign Lord did not have to research or investigate wisdom. The point is that it is as if he did this human activity, meaning that as in the results of such a search God knows everything about wisdom.
  13. 45 A number of medieval Hebrew manuscripts have YHWH (“Lord”); has אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”). As J. E. Hartley (Job [], ) points out, this is the only occurrence of אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Lord”) in the book of Job, creating doubt for retaining it. Normally, YHWH is avoided in the book. “Fear of” (יִרְאַת, yir’at) is followed by שַׁדַּי (shadday, “Almighty”) in 6:14—the only other occurrence of this term for “fear” in construct with a divine title.
  14. 46 Many commentators delete this verse because (1) many read the divine name Yahweh (translated “Lord”) here, and (2) it is not consistent with the argument that precedes it. But as H. H. Rowley (Job [], 185) points out, there is inconsistency in this reasoning, for many of the critics have already said that this chapter is an interpolation. Following that line of thought, then, one would not expect it to conform to the rest of the book in this matter of the divine name. And concerning the second difficulty, the point of this chapter is that wisdom is beyond human comprehension and control. It belongs to God alone. So the conclusion that the fear of the Lord is wisdom is the necessary conclusion. Rowley concludes: “It is a pity to rob the poem of its climax and turn it into the expression of unrelieved agnosticism.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

“From where, then, does wisdom come?

And where is the place of understanding?

It is hidden from the eyes of all living

and concealed from the birds of the air.

Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

“God understands the way to it,

and he knows its place.

For he looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When he gave to the wind its weight

and apportioned the waters by measure,

when he made a decree for the rain

and a way for the lightning of the thunder,

then he saw it and declared it;

he established it, and searched it out.

And he said to man,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

Copyright 2001 Crossway Bibles

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Where then does wisdom come from?

Where does understanding dwell?

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,

concealed even from the birds in the sky.

Destruction and Death say,

“Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

God understands the way to it

and he alone knows where it dwells,

for he views the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When he established the force of the wind

and measured out the waters,

when he made a decree for the rain

and a path for the thunderstorm,

then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;

he confirmed it and tested it.

And he said to the human race,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,

and to shun evil is understanding.”

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, Inc.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Where then does wisdom come from,

and where is understanding located?

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing

and concealed from the birds of the sky.

Abaddon and Death say,

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

But God understands the way to wisdom,

and he knows its location.

For he looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When God fixed the weight of the wind

and distributed the water by measure,

when he established a limit for the rain

and a path for the lightning,

he considered wisdom and evaluated it;

he established it and examined it.

He said to mankind,

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom.

And to turn from evil is understanding.”

Copyright 2017 Holman Bible Publishers

NLTNew Living Translation

“But do people know where to find wisdom?

Where can they find understanding?

It is hidden from the eyes of all humanity.

Even the sharp-eyed birds in the sky cannot discover it.

Destruction and Death say,

‘We’ve heard only rumors of where wisdom can be found.’

“God alone understands the way to wisdom;

he knows where it can be found,

for he looks throughout the whole earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

He decided how hard the winds should blow

and how much rain should fall.

He made the laws for the rain

and laid out a path for the lightning.

Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.

He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.

And this is what he says to all humanity:

‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;

to forsake evil is real understanding.’ ”

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

Indeed, from where does wisdom come?

And where in the world is the place of understanding?

It is hidden from the eyes of all living,

and it is concealed from the birds of the heaven.

Abaddon and Death say,

‘We heard its rumor with our ears.’

“God understands its way,

and he knows its place,

for he himself looks to the end of the earth;

he sees under all the heaven.

When he gave weight to the wind

and he apportioned the waters by measure,

when he made a rule for the rain

and a way for the thunder’s lightning bolt,

then he saw it and talked about it;

he established it, and moreover, he explored it.

And to the human beings he said,

‘Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,

and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

Copyright 2012 Lexham Press

KJV 1900King James Version

Whence then cometh wisdom?

And where is the place of understanding?

Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,

And kept close from the fowls of the air.

Destruction and death say,

We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

God understandeth the way thereof,

And he knoweth the place thereof.

For he looketh to the ends of the earth,

And seeth under the whole heaven;

To make the weight for the winds;

And he weigheth the waters by measure.

When he made a decree for the rain,

And a way for the lightning of the thunder:

Then did he see it, and declare it;

He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

And to depart from evil is understanding.

Public Domain