Job 28
¹ “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine.
² Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore.
³ Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
⁴ He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
⁶ Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.
⁷ That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.
⁸ The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
⁹ He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
¹⁰ He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.
¹¹ He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light.
¹² “But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?
¹³ Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
¹⁵ It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price.
¹⁶ It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.1
¹⁷ Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
¹⁸ No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold.
²⁰ Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding?
²¹ Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky.
²² Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
²³ “God understands its way, and he knows its place.
²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky.
²⁵ He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
²⁶ When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
²⁷ then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.
²⁸ To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord,2 that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”