Job 28:1-28
28 “Indeed, for silver there exists a place to find itAnd a place for gold that they refine;+
2 Iron itself is taken from the very dust+And [from] stone copper is being poured out.
3 An end to the darkness he has set;And to every limit he is searching out+Stone in the gloom and deep shadow.
4 He has sunk a shaft far from where [people] reside as aliens,+Places forgotten far from the foot;Some of mortal men* have swung down, they have dangled.
5 As for the earth, out of it food goes forth;+But underneath it, it has been upturned as if by fire.
6 Its stones are the place of the sapphire,+And it has gold dust.
7 A pathway—no bird of prey+ has known it,Nor has the eye of a black kite caught sight of it.+
8 The majestic wild beasts* have not trodden it down solid;The young lion has not paced over it.
9 Upon the flint he has thrust out his hand;He has overthrown mountains from [their] root;
10 Into the rocks he has channeled water-filled galleries,+And all precious things his eye has seen.
11 The places from which rivers trickled he has dammed up,+And the concealed thing he brings forth to the light.
12 But wisdom—where can it be found,+And where, now, is the place of understanding?
13 Mortal man has not come to know its valuation,*+And it is not found in the land of those living.
14 The watery deep* itself has said,‘It is not in me!’The sea too has said, ‘It is not with me!’+
15 Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it,+And silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
16 It cannot be paid for with gold* of Oʹphir,+With the rare onyx stone and the sapphire.
17 Gold* and glass cannot be compared to it,Nor is any vessel of refined gold an exchange for it.
18 Coral+ and rock crystal themselves will not be mentioned,But a bagful of wisdom is worth more than [one full of] pearls.+
19 The topaz+ of Cush* cannot be compared to it;It cannot be paid for even with gold in its purity.
20 But wisdom itself—from where does it come,+And where, now, is the place of understanding?
21 It has been hidden even from the eyes of everyone alive,+And from the flying creatures of the heavens it has been concealed.
22 Destruction* and death themselves have said,‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’
23 God* is the One who has understood its way,+And he himself has known its place,
24 For he himself looks to the very ends of the earth;+Under the whole heavens* he sees,
25 To make a weight for the wind,*+While he has proportioned the waters themselves by a measure;+
26 When he made for the rain a regulation,+And a way for the thunderous storm cloud,
27 Then it was that he saw [wisdom]* and proceeded to tell about it;He prepared it and also searched it through.
28 And he went on to say to man,*‘Look! The fear of Jehovah*—that is wisdom,+And to turn away from bad is understanding.’”+
Footnotes
^ “Some of mortal men.” Heb., me·ʼenohshʹ.
^ Lit., “The sons of pride (dignity).”
^ “Valuation,” MSyVg; LXX, “way.”
^ “With gold.” Heb., bekheʹthem, an Egyptian loanword.
^ “Gold.” Heb., za·havʹ.
^ “Cush,” M(Heb., Kush)Sy; LXXVg, “Ethiopia.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ.
^ “Under the whole heavens,” MSy; LXXVg, “everything under the heavens.”
^ “For the wind.” Heb., la·ruʹach; Gr., a·neʹmon; Lat., venʹtis.
^ Lit., “it,” fem., referring to wisdom.
^ Or, “to earthling man.” Heb., la·ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
