Job’s Discourse on Wisdom

28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,And a place where gold is refined.² Iron is taken from the earth,And copper is smelted from ore.³ Man puts an end to darkness,And searches every recessFor ore in the darkness and the shadow of death.⁴ He breaks open a shaft away from people;In places forgotten by feetThey hang far away from men;They swing to and fro.⁵ As for the earth, from it comes bread,But underneath it is turned up as by fire;⁶ Its stones are the source of sapphires,And it contains gold dust.⁷ That path no bird knows,Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it.⁸ The proud lions^[a] have not trodden it,Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.⁹ He puts his hand on the flint;He overturns the mountains at the roots.¹⁰ He cuts out channels in the rocks,And his eye sees every precious thing.¹¹ He dams up the streams from trickling;What is hidden he brings forth to light.

¹² “But where can wisdom be found?And where is the place of understanding?¹³ Man does not know its value,Nor is it found in the land of the living.¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’¹⁵ It cannot be purchased for gold,Nor can silver be weighed for its price.¹⁶ It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,In precious onyx or sapphire.¹⁷ Neither gold nor crystal can equal it,Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold.¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral or quartz,For the price of wisdom is above rubies.¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,Nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰ “From where then does wisdom come?And where is the place of understanding?²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all living,And concealed from the birds of the air.²² Destruction and Death say,‘We have heard a report about 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 heavens,²⁵ To establish a weight for the wind,And apportion the waters by measure.²⁶ When He made a law for the rain,And a path for the thunderbolt,²⁷ Then He saw wisdom^[b] and declared it;He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.²⁸ And to man He said,‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,And to depart from evil is understanding.’”