Job 28

Job’s Discourse on Wisdom

28“Surely there is a mine for silver,

And a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the ¹earth,

And copper is smelted from ore.

³Man puts an end to darkness,

And searches every recess

For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from people;

In places forgotten by feet

They hang far away from men;

They swing to and fro.

⁵As for the earth, from it comes bread,

But underneath it is turned up as by fire;

⁶Its stones are the source of sapphires,

And it contains gold dust.

⁷That path no bird knows,

Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it.

⁸The ²proud lions have not trodden it,

Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

⁹He puts his hand on the flint;

He overturns the mountains ³at the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks,

And his eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He dams up the streams from trickling;

What is hidden he brings forth to light.

¹²“But ^awhere can wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man does not know its ^bvalue,

Nor is it found in the land of the living.

^14cThe deep says, ‘It is not in me’;

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

¹⁵It ^dcannot be purchased for gold,

Nor can silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

In precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷Neither ^egold nor crystal can equal it,

Nor can it be exchanged for ⁴jewelry of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of ⁵coral or quartz,

For the price of wisdom is above ^frubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,

Nor can it be valued in pure ^ggold.

²⁰“From ^hwhere then does wisdom come?

And where is the place of understanding?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living,

And concealed from the birds of the ⁶air.

²²ⁱDestruction ⁷and Death say,

‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’

²³God understands its way,

And He knows its place.

²⁴For He looks to the ends of the earth,

And ^jsees under the whole heavens,

^25kTo establish a weight for the wind,

And apportion the waters by measure.

²⁶When He ^lmade a law for the rain,

And a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁷Then He saw ⁸wisdom and declared it;

He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.

²⁸And to man He said,

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

And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”