Where Can Wisdom be Found?

Job 28

ca. 1200–332 BCE

¹There is a mine for silver,

And a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken out of the earth,

And copper smelted from rock.

³He sets bounds for darkness;

To every limit man probes,

To rocks in deepest darkness.

⁴They open up a shaft far from where men live,

[In places] forgotten by wayfarers,

Destitute of men, far removed.

⁵Earth, out of which food grows,

Is changed below as if into fire.

⁶Its rocks are a source of sapphires;

It contains gold dust too.

⁷No bird of prey knows the path to it;

The falcon’s eye has not gazed upon it.

⁸The proud beasts have not reached it;

The lion has not crossed it.

⁹Man sets his hand against the flinty rock

And overturns mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He carves out channels through rock;

His eyes behold every precious thing.

¹¹He dams up the sources of the streams

So that hidden things may be brought to light.

¹²But where can wisdom be found;

Where is the source of understanding?

¹³No man can set a value on it;

It cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, “It is not in me”;

The sea says, “I do not have it.”

¹⁵It cannot be bartered for gold;

Silver cannot be paid out as its price.

¹⁶The finest gold of Ophir cannot be weighed against it,

Nor precious onyx, nor sapphire.

¹⁷Gold or glass cannot match its value,

Nor vessels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

¹⁸Coral and crystal cannot be mentioned with it;

A pouch of wisdom is better than rubies.

¹⁹Topaz from Nubia cannot match its value;

Pure gold cannot be weighed against it.

²⁰But whence does wisdom come?

Where is the source of understanding?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living,

Concealed from the fowl of heaven.

²²Abaddon and Death say,

“We have only a report of it.”

²³God understands the way to it;

He knows its source;

²⁴For He sees to the ends of the earth,

Observes all that is beneath the heavens.

²⁵When He fixed the weight of the winds,

Set the measure of the waters;

²⁶When He made a rule for the rain

And a course for the thunderstorms,

²⁷Then He saw it and gauged it;

He measured it and probed it.

²⁸He said to man,

“See! Fear of the Lord is wisdom;

To shun evil is understanding.”

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Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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