Job 28

¹Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place for gold which they refine. ²Iron is taken out of the earth, And copper is molten out of the stone. ³Man setteth an end to darkness, And searcheth out, to the furthest bound, The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness. ⁴He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; They are forgotten of the foot; They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. ⁵As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. ⁶The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, And it hath dust of gold. ⁷That path no bird of prey knoweth, Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it: ⁸The proud beasts have not trodden it, Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby. ⁹He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock; He overturneth the mountains by the roots. ¹⁰He cutteth out channels among the rocks; And his eye seeth every precious thing. ¹¹He bindeth the streams that they trickle not; And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. ¹²But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ¹³Man knoweth not the price thereof; Neither is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep saith, It is not in me; And the sea saith, It is not with me. ¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold, Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. ¹⁶It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, With the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it, Neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal: Yea, 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 cometh wisdom? And where is the place of understanding? ²¹Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the heavens. ²²Destruction and Death say, We have heard a rumor thereof with our ears. ²³God understandeth the way thereof, And he knoweth the place thereof. ²⁴For he looketh to the ends of the earth, And seeth under the whole heaven; ²⁵To make a weight for the wind: Yea, he meteth 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, yea, and searched it out. ²⁸And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.