Job 28:1-28
28 “For there is a mine for silverand a place for gold that they wash out.
2 Iron is taken out of earth,and one melts stone to copper.
3 * Man has set an end to darkness,and to every extremity he ransacksstone of blackness and gloom.
4 An intruding people breaks into ravinesthat were forgotten by feet;they suffer privations, they rove from men
5 To a country from which bread has gone outand whose underpart turns to be like fire,
6 A place whose stones are malachiteand which has clods of gold,
7 A path no bird of prey knowsnor has a kite’s eye glimpsed it,
8 Which boldest beasts have not troddennor lion passed along it.
9 He puts his hand to the pyrite rock,turns mountains up by their roots;
10 * He rips out channels among the rocks,and his eye sees everything valuable.
11 ** He explores the sources of riversand brings to light an undiscovered thing.
12 But where is wisdom to be had from,and what is the place for insight?
13 No man knows the road to it,and it is not to be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says ‘it is not in me’and the sea ‘I do not have it here.’
15 Solid gold is not to be given for itnor silver to be weighed out as its price;
16 It is not to be balanced against nuggets from Ophir,against the most precious beryl, or lapis lazuli;
17 Gold and glass will not match it,a thing of red gold be an exchange for it;
18 * Pearls and alabaster are not to be mentioned,and wisdom is more of a prize than coral;
19 The Nubian chrysolite will not match it,nor against pure nugget-gold is it to be balanced;
20 And where does wisdom come from?and what is the place for insight?
21 * It lies out of sight of any living thingand screened from the birds of the air.
22 Death and the land of the gone forever say‘We have heard a hearsay of it.’
23 God understands the road to it,he knows the place for it,
24 Because he looks to the ends of the earth,sees under all the sky,
25 * Determining a weight for the windand proportioning the water by measure.
26 When he made a law of nature for the rainand a course for the lightning of thunder,
27 Then he saw it and described it,made it sure and thoroughly searched it out,
28 And he said to man‘Here, fearing the Lord is wisdomand shunning what is bad is insight.’”
Footnotes
^ 28:3 Codd. One has set
^ 28:10 Lit. rips out bayous
^ 28:11 Or depths of rivers
^ 28:11 Var. He binds up rivers to keep them from weeping, and brings
^ 28:18 (alabaster) Unc.
^ 28:21 Var. And it lies or Seeing it lies
^ 28:25 Lit. Making a weight
