Job28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the earth, And copper is smelted from ore.

³Man puts an end to darkness, And searches every recess For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from people; In places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; They swing to and fro.

⁵As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire;

⁶Its stones are the source of sapphires, And it contains gold dust.

⁷That path no bird knows, Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it.

⁸The proud lions have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.

⁹He puts his hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks, And his eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He 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?

¹³Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵It cannot be purchased for gold, Nor can silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies.

¹⁹The 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?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air.

²²Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’

²³God understands its way, And He knows its place.

²⁴For He looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole heavens,

²⁵To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure.

²⁶When He made a law for the rain, And a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁷Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.

²⁸And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”