Job 28
28
Job Tells of Earth’s Treasures
1“Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place where they refine gold.
2“Iron is taken out of the earth,
And copper is smelted from the stone ore.
3“Man puts an end to darkness [by bringing in a light],
And to the farthest bounds he searches out
The rock buried in gloom and deep shadow.
4“He breaks open (mine) shafts far away from where people live,
[In places] forgotten by the [human] foot;
They dangle [in the mines] and hang away from men.
5“[As for] the earth, out of it comes food,
But underneath [its surface, down deep] it is turned over as fire.
6“Its stones are the bed of sapphires;
It holds dust of gold.
7“The path [deep within] no bird of prey knows,
And the falcon’s eye has not caught sight of it.
8“The proud beasts [and their young] have not walked on it,
Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.
9“Man puts his hand on [and tears apart] the flinty rock;
He overturns the mountains at the base [looking for treasure].
10“He cuts out channels and passages among the rocks;
And his eye sees every precious thing.
11“Man dams up the streams from flowing [so that they do not trickle into the mine],
And what is hidden he brings out to the light.
The Search for Wisdom Is Harder
12¶“But where can wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
13“Man does not know the value of it;
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 obtained for pure gold,
Nor can silver be weighed as its price.
16“It cannot be valued in [terms of] the gold of Ophir,
In the precious onyx or beryl, or the sapphire.
17“Gold and glass cannot equal wisdom,
Nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold.
18“No mention of coral and crystal can be made;
For the possession of wisdom is even above [that of] rubies or pearls.
19“The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with 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 the living
And concealed from the birds of the heavens.
22“Abaddon (the place of destruction) and Death say,
‘We have [only] heard a report of it with our ears.’
23¶“God understands the way [to wisdom]
And He knows its place [for wisdom is with God alone].
24“For He looks to the ends of the earth
And sees everything under the heavens.
25“When He gave weight and pressure to the wind
And allotted the waters by measure,
26When He made a limit for the rain
And a way for the thunderbolt,
27Then He saw wisdom and declared it;
He established it and searched it out.
28“But to man He said, ‘Behold, the reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord—that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
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Job 28: AMP
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Job 28
28
Job continues
Gold and silver are mined
1Gold and silver are mined,
then purified;
2the same is done
with iron and copper.
3Miners carry lanterns
deep into the darkness
to search for these metals.
4They dig tunnels
in distant, unknown places,
where they dangle by ropes.
5Far beneath the grain fields,
fires are built
to break loose those rocks
6that have jewels or gold.#28.6 gold: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verses 5,6.
7Miners go to places unseen
by the eyes of hawks;
8they walk on soil unknown
to the proudest lions.
9With their own hands
they remove sharp rocks
and uproot mountains.
10They dig through the rocks
in search of jewels
and precious metals.
11They also uncover
the sources of#28.11 uncover the sources of: Two ancient translations; Hebrew “dam up”. rivers
and discover secret places.
Where is wisdom found?
12But where is wisdom found?
13No human knows the way.#28.13 the way: Or “its worth”.
14Nor can it be discovered
in the deepest sea.
15-16It is worth much more
than silver or pure gold
or precious stones.
17Nothing is its equal—
not gold or costly glass.#28.17 costly glass: In the ancient world, objects made of glass were costly.
18Wisdom is worth much more than
coral, jasper,#28.18 jasper: A valuable stone, usually green or clear. or rubies.
19All the topaz#28.19 topaz: A valuable, yellow stone. of Ethiopia#28.19 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush”, which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
and the finest gold
cannot compare with it.
20Where then is wisdom?
21It is hidden from human eyes
and even from birds.
22Death and destruction
have merely heard rumours
about where it is found.
23God is the only one who knows
the way to wisdom,
24because he sees everything
beneath the heavens.
25When God divided out
the wind and the water,
26and when he decided the path
for rain and lightning,
27he also determined the truth
and defined wisdom.
28God told us, “Wisdom means#Ps 111.10; Pr 1.7; 9.10.
that you respect me, the Lord,
and turn from sin.”
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012