Chapter 28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver,

And a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth,

And copper is smelted out of the ore.

³Man sets an end to darkness,

And searches out, to the furthest bound,

The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.

They are forgotten by the foot.

They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread;

Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

⁶Sapphires come from its rocks.

It has dust of gold.

⁷That path no bird of prey knows,

Neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it,

Nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

⁹He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock,

And he overturns the mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels among the rocks.

His eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds the streams that they don’t trickle;

The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

¹²“But where shall wisdom be found?

Where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man doesn’t know its price;

Neither is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’

The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’

¹⁵It can’t be gotten for gold,

Neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir,

With the precious onyx, or the sapphire⁴⁷⁴⁷or, lapis lazuli.

¹⁷Gold and glass can’t equal it,

Neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal:

Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,

Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

²⁰Whence then comes wisdom?

Where is the place of understanding?

²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,

And kept close from the birds of the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands its way,

And he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth,

And sees under the whole sky.

²⁵He establishes the force of the wind;

Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

²⁶When he made a decree for the rain,

And a way for the lightning of the thunder;

²⁷Then did he see it, and declare it.

He established it, yes, and searched it out.

²⁸To man he said,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

To depart from evil is understanding.’”