28
📚“There is certainly a mine for silver, and a place where they refine gold. 2 📚Iron is taken out of the ground, and copper is smelted from ore. 3 📚Man puts an end to darkness 📖 and searches for ore in the deepest recesses, dark as the shadow of death. 4 He digs a shaft away from human habitation. In places forgotten by man’s foot, away from men, he dangles, swinging 📖 back and forth. 5 📚Bread comes out of the earth, but underneath it is changed as by fire. 28:5 In his search for valuable things man creates destruction inside the earth much as a fire would do.⚜
6 📚Its stones are the source of sapphires, and its dust contains gold. 7 📚No bird knows the path there, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. 8 The lion’s cubs have not trodden on it, nor has the fierce lion passed along it.
28:7-8 Man searches for treasure in desolate places where even birds of prey and wild beasts do not go.⚜
9 📚He puts out his hand to the flinty rock, he overturns the mountains at their roots.
10 📚He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees everything of value.
11 📚He dams up the streams from flowing, and brings what is hidden out to the light. 12 📚“But where is wisdom found? And where is the place of understanding?
13 📚Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.
28:12-13 If man understood the great worth of wisdom he would search for it with the same determination shown in searching for gems and gold.⚜
14 📚The deep says, ‘It is not in me.’ And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 📚It cannot be obtained for gold, nor can silver be weighed out as its price.
16 📚It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire.
17 📚Gold and crystal cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18 📚Coral or pearls are not to be mentioned, and the value of wisdom is above rubies.
19 📚The topaz of Ethiopia does not equal it, nor can it be valued with pure gold.
20 📚“From where does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?
21 📚It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air.
22 📚Destruction and death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’
23 📚God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
28:20-23 No living being, including man, no one in the realm of death knows where wisdom is found. Neither life nor death can teach us wisdom. Only God knows what it is, where it is, and how man can obtain it.⚜
24 📚For he views the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heavens.
25 📚When he established a weight for the wind, and measured out the waters,
26 📚When he made a law for the rain, and a path for the thunderbolt,
27 📚Then he saw wisdom and declared it; he prepared it, yes, he searched out its depths.
28:24-27 God is the only one who sees everything, and can do everything. So He alone really knows wisdom.⚜
The way to wisdom
28 📚And to man he said, ‘See, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
28:1-28 Man makes great efforts to find precious metals and gems. He searches in barren and difficult places. But Job’s subject is wisdom – something far more valuable than gold, silver, and jewels. Where can it be found? If a man actually finds it how can he identify it? Such is Job’s theme in this chapter.⚜
28:28 God has revealed to man the truth about wisdom which man could never discover by searching. Wisdom is not piling up information, or storing up facts. Wisdom is not education. There are many educated fools in this world. Wisdom is not knowing the truth about the nature of things. Wisdom is not even having true doctrines about God and man. True wisdom is a proper attitude toward God. It is related to morality and ethics. It is devotion to God and fear of offending Him. It is turning away from evil (Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7; 9:10; Eccl 12:13). We know from the first chapter of this book that Job had this wisdom (Job 1:1, 8). We are not told his friends had it. Of course, they thought they themselves were the wise ones and that Job did not have wisdom (Job 11:6; 15:2-4; 18:2-3; 20:3).⚜