28 “There are mines for silver
and places where gold is refined;
² iron is extracted from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
³ Miners conquer the darkness
and dig as far in as they can,
to the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
⁴ There where no one lives, they break open a shaft;
the feet passing over are oblivious to them;
far from people, suspended in space,
they swing to and fro.

⁵ “While the earth is [peacefully] yielding bread,
underneath, it is being convulsed as if by fire;
⁶ its rocks have veins of sapphire,
and there are flecks of gold.
⁷ Birds of prey don’t know that path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it,
⁸ the proud beasts have never set foot on it,
no lion has ever passed over it.

⁹ “[The miner] attacks the flint,
overturns mountains at their roots,
¹⁰ and cuts out galleries in the rock,
all the while watching for something of value.
¹¹ He dams up streams to keep them from flooding,
and brings what was hidden out into the light.

¹² “But where can wisdom be found?
Where is the source of understanding?
¹³ No one knows its value,
and it can’t be found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
¹⁵ It can’t be obtained with gold,
nor can silver be weighed out to buy it.
¹⁶ It can’t be purchased with choice gold from Ofir,
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
¹⁷ Neither gold nor glass can be compared with it;
nor can it be exchanged for a bowl of fine gold,
¹⁸ let alone coral or crystal;
for indeed, the price of wisdom is above that of pearls.
¹⁹ It can’t be compared with Ethiopian topaz,
and it can’t be valued with pure gold.

²⁰ “So where does wisdom come from?
where is the source of understanding,
²¹ inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living
and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky?
²² Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor about it with our ears.’

²³ “God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
²⁴ For he can see to the ends of the earth
and view everything under heaven.
²⁵ When he determined the force of the wind
and parceled out water by measure,
²⁶ when he made a law for the rain
and cleared a path for the thunderbolts;
²⁷ then he saw [wisdom] and declared it,
yes, he set it up and searched it out.
²⁸ And to human beings he said,
‘Look, fear of Adonai is wisdom!
Shunning evil is understanding!’”