Job
28 “There is a place to mine silver
And a place for gold that they refine;+
2 Iron is taken from the ground,
4 He sinks a shaft far from where people reside,
In forgotten places, far from where people walk;
Some men descend and swing suspended.
5 Food grows on top of the earth;
But below, there is an upheaval as if by fire.*
6 There in the stones is sapphire,
And the dust contains gold.
7 No bird of prey knows the path to it;
The eye of a black kite has not seen it.
8 No majestic beasts have trodden on it;
The young lion has not prowled there.
9 Man strikes the flinty rock with his hand;
He overturns the mountains at their foundation.
10 He cuts water channels+ in the rock;
His eyes spot every precious thing.
11 He dams up the sources of rivers
And brings what was hidden to the light.
13 No man recognizes its value,+
And it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep waters say, ‘It is not in me!’
And the sea says, ‘It is not with me!’+
15 It cannot be bought with pure gold;
Nor can silver be weighed out in exchange for it.+
16 It cannot be bought with gold of Oʹphir+
Nor with rare onyx and sapphire.
18 Coral and crystal are not worthy of mention,+
For a bagful of wisdom is worth more than one full of pearls.
19 The topaz+ of Cush cannot be compared to it;
It cannot be purchased even with pure gold.
20 But from where does wisdom come,
And where is the source of understanding?+
21 It has been hidden from the eyes of every living thing+
And concealed from the birds of the heavens.
22 Destruction and death say,
‘Our ears have heard only a report of it.’
23 God understands the way to find it;
He alone knows where it resides,+
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth,
And he sees everything under the heavens.+
25 When he set the force* of the wind+
And measured out the waters,+
26 When he made a regulation for the rain+
And a path for the thunderous storm cloud,+
27 Then he saw wisdom and explained it;
He established and tested it.
28 And he said to man: