Job 28

Evangelical Heritage Version

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.