Shared Word Translation
Job 28
There Is a Mine for Silver
“Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
Iron is taken from the dust,
and copper is smelted from stone.
A human puts an end to darkness
and searches to the farthest limit
for stone in gloom and death-shadow.
He opens a shaft far from where people dwell,
forgotten by the foot;
they hang and swing far from humanity.
As for the earth, from it comes bread,
but underneath it is overturned as by fire.
Its stones are the place of sapphire,
and its dust contains gold.
Humanity Searches Hidden Things
A path no bird of prey knows,
and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
Proud beasts have not trodden it;
the lion has not passed over it.
A human puts his hand to the flint;
he overturns mountains by the roots.
He cuts channels through the rocks,
and his eye sees every precious thing.
He binds the streams from weeping,
and brings hidden things to light.
But Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
But wisdom—where can it be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
A human does not know its value,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
Fine gold cannot be given for it,
and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
It cannot be weighed against gold of Ophir,
against precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for a vessel of refined gold.
Coral and crystal need not be mentioned;
the acquisition of wisdom is above pearls.
The topaz of Cush cannot equal it;
it cannot be weighed against pure gold.
God Understands the Way to Wisdom
From where then does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the heavens.
Abaddon and Death say,
‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’
God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave weight to the wind
and measured the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderbolt,
then he saw wisdom and declared it;
he established it and also searched it out.
And he said to humanity:
‘Look, the fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and turning away from evil is understanding.’”