Job’s Discourse on Wisdom

• and a place for gold to be refined .[fn]
• 2 Iron is taken from dust, and he pours out copper from ore.
• 3 He puts an end to darkness, and he searches out the farthest limits
• for the ore in gloom and deep shadow.
• 4 He breaks open a mine shaft away from where people dwell ;[fn] those who are forgotten by travelers ,[fn]
• they dangle, they sway far away from human beings.
• 5 As for the earth, from it comes food,[fn] but[fn] underneath it, it is turned up as by fire.
• 6 Its stones are the place of sapphire, and the earthen dirt has[fn] gold.
• 7 “ It is a path a bird of prey does not know and the black kite’s eye has not seen.
• 8 Proud wild animals[fn] have not trodden it; the lion in its prime has not prowled over it.
• 9 He puts his hand on the hard rock; he overturns mountains by the roots.
• 10 He cuts out tunnels in the rocks, and his eye sees every treasure.
• 11 He dams up rivers from their sources, and he brings secret things to the light.
• 12 “But[fn] from where will wisdom be found? And where in the world[fn] is the place of understanding?
• 13 A human being does not know its proper value, and it is not 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 “Refined gold cannot be gotten in its place, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
• 16 It cannot be bought for the gold of Ophir, for precious onyx or[fn] sapphire.
• 17 Gold and glass cannot be compared with it, and its substitution cannot be an ornament of refined gold.
• 18 Black corals and crystal will not be mentioned, and wisdom’s price is more than red corals.
• 19 The topaz of Cush cannot be compared with it; it cannot be bought for pure gold.
• 20 Indeed,[fn] from where does wisdom come? And where in the world[fn] is the place of understanding?
• 21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and it is concealed from the birds of the heaven.
• 22 Abaddon and Death say, ‘We heard its rumor with our ears.’
• 23 “God understands its way, and he knows its place,
• 24 for he himself[fn] looks to the end of the earth; he sees under all the heaven.
• 25 When he gave[fn] weight to the wind and he apportioned the waters by measure,
• 26 when he made[fn] a rule for the rain and a way for the thunder’s lightning bolt,
• 27 then he saw it and talked about it; he established it, and moreover, he explored it.
• 28 And to the human beings he said, ‘Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom,
• and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”