Job 28

The Voice

28 Job: There is a place where silver is mined,
        a place where gold is refined.
²     There iron is dug from the earth,
        and copper is smelted from ore.
³     Humans put an end to darkness,
        and search in every last corner
    For the ore that is in gloom and darkness.
⁴     In the earth they cut a shaft
        in a place forgotten, far from the beaten path;
    They descend on ropes,
        swinging dangerously back and forth.
⁵     The ground above yields food;
        the earth below is turned as if fire has destroyed it
⁶     Where earth gives up sapphires from her rocks
        and bits of gold from her dirt.
⁷     No bird of prey knows this way, this secret path down below;
        no falcon’s eye has ever peered into it.
⁸     No proud beast has ever reached this place;
        no lordly lion has marched over it.

⁹     The miner breaks apart flinty stone,
        uprooting the ancient mountains.
¹⁰     He carves tunnels through the rock,
        revealing precious treasures.
¹¹     He dams up^[a] the underground streams until they cease seeping,
        and he brings out into the light what was hidden there in the darkness.

¹²     But where is wisdom found,
        and where does understanding dwell?

¹³ Job: No human perceives wisdom’s true value,
        nor has she been found in the land of the living.
¹⁴     The deep says, “She is not to be seen within me.”
        “Nor within me,” says the voice of the raging sea.
¹⁵     No gold can be given in trade for wisdom,
        nor a sum of silver weighed out as her price.
¹⁶     She cannot be bought with all the gold of Ophir,
        neither with onyx nor sapphire.
¹⁷     The shimmer of gold and brightness of glass cannot compare,
        and no refined gold jewelry is worth her in trade.
¹⁸     Perish the mention of coral and crystal;
        even more than pearls is the value of wisdom.
¹⁹     Ethiopian topaz—unequal as well;
        even gold, unalloyed, is too paltry indeed.
²⁰     Then from where does wisdom come?
        Where does understanding dwell?
²¹     She is hidden away from every eye,
        even from birds looking down from the sky.
²²     Destruction and Death have both confessed,
        “Rumors are all we know about her.”

²³     God understands wisdom’s path and way;
        her place is known to Him alone.
²⁴     For He gazes out to the edge of the earth,
        sees all that falls beneath the sky overhead.
²⁵     He lent the wind its weight and force
        and measured out the waters’ spread.
²⁶     When He set a limit on the rain that falls
        and made the thunderbolt a road to race,
²⁷     Then He saw wisdom and made her known,
        He settled her and searched out for her a place.
²⁸     And to humankind, He said, “Now, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
        and to depart from evil is understanding.”