A Poem About Wisdom[a]
28 Yes, there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2 Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted out of stone.
3 A miner puts an end to darkness by exploring its farthest limits.
He looks for ore in the gloom and in the deep darkness.[b]
4 He breaks open a mineshaft far from where settlers live,
in places no one has walked before.
Far away from other people, he dangles and sways.
5 The earth’s surface produces food,
but its depths are overturned as if by fire,
6 in places where the stones are sapphires[c]
and the dust is gold.
7 No scavenging bird knows the way there,
and the eyes of vultures[d] have not seen it.
8 The king of beasts has not set foot on it.
The lion has not prowled there.
9 The miner’s hand attacks the hard rock.
He overturns the roots of the mountain.
10 He cuts tunnels into the rocks,
and his eyes see every treasure.
11 He dams up even the trickling water from the rivers,
and he brings light to the earth’s hidden places.
12 But wisdom—where can it be found?
Where is the place for understanding?
13 Mankind does not know where it is kept.
It is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep ocean says, “It is not in me!”
The sea says, “It is not with me!”
15 It cannot be purchased with the best gold,[e]
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
16 It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir[f]
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
17 Gold and crystal cannot be compared to it.
The finest gold jewelry cannot be substituted for it.
18 Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning,
and the value of wisdom is greater than a bag of rubies.
19 The chrysolite of Cush cannot be compared with it.
It cannot be purchased even with pure gold.
20 But what about wisdom—where does it come from?
And where is the place to find understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all the living.
It is concealed from the birds of the sky.
22 Destruction and Death[g] say,
“With our ears we have heard only a rumor about it.”
23 God understands the way to it,
and he alone knows its place,
24 because he watches the ends of the earth,
and he sees everything under the heavens.
25 He determines the weight of the wind,
and he measures out the waters by volume.
26 He made a decree for the rain
and established a path for the roaring thunderstorm.
27 He saw wisdom and appraised its value.
He established it and also explored it.
28 Then he said to mankind:
Listen carefully. The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.
Footnotes
- Job 28:1 It is uncertain whether the speaker of this poem is Job or the author of the book. It seems likely that it is an intermission inserted by the author to mark the end of the three rounds of speeches.
- Job 28:3 The Hebrew scribes regularly spell this word so that it means shadow of death. Here, however, it may be a similar word, deep darkness.
- Job 28:6 Or lapis lazuli
- Job 28:7 The identification of these birds is uncertain. They may be birds of prey like the falcon.
- Job 28:15 Literally closed [gold]. The precise identification of the various types of gold and gemstones in this section is uncertain.
- Job 28:16 Ophir is a source of gold in Arabia or Africa.
- Job 28:22 Hebrew abaddon and maveth