Job 28:1-28 - Job's Discourse On Wisdom

¹ Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
² Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted from ore.
³ A miner puts an end to the darkness;
he probes the deepest recesses
for ore in the gloomy darkness.
⁴ He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,
in places unknown to those who walk above ground.
Suspended far away from people,
the miners swing back and forth.
⁵ Food may come from the earth,
but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.
⁶ Its rocks are a source of sapphire,
containing flecks of gold.
⁷ No bird of prey knows that path;
no falcon’s eye has seen it.
⁸ Proud beasts have never walked on it;
no lion has ever prowled over it.
⁹ The miner strikes the flint
and transforms the mountains at their foundations.
¹⁰ He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eyes spot every treasure.
¹¹ He dams up the streams from flowing
so that he may bring to light what is hidden.

¹² But where can wisdom be found,
and where is understanding located?
¹³ No man can know its value,
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”
¹⁵ Gold cannot be exchanged for it,
and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
¹⁶ Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
¹⁷ Gold and glass do not compare with it,
and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
¹⁸ Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.
The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
¹⁹ Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,
and it cannot be valued in pure gold.

²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
²² Abaddon and Death say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
²³ But God understands the way to wisdom,
and He knows its location.
²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ When God fixed the weight of the wind
and limited the water by measure,
²⁶ when He established a limit for the rain
and a path for the lightning,
²⁷ He considered wisdom and evaluated it;
He established it and examined it.
²⁸ He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”