Job 28

¹ "Indeed, for silver there is a mine, And for gold a place where men may cupel it. ² Iron may be taken from the soil, And from stone ore copper may be smelted. ³ Man puts an end to darkness, And to every limit is he fathoming For the stone ore in gloom and blackest shadow. ⁴ A people of sojourners has breached mine-shafts In places forgotten by the foot of man; Far from mortal men, they swing down on ropes and sway. ⁵ The earth, from her is coming forth bread, Yet beneath her, all is overturned as though by fire, ⁶ A place where her stones are sapphire, And it has the soil of gold; ⁷ That track, the bird of prey does not know it, And the eye of the falcon has never glanced at it; ⁸ The strutting beasts have never tread along it; The black lion has never passed over it. ⁹ Man has put forth his hand on the flint rock; He has overturned the root of the mountains. ¹⁰ He has rent open mine-tunnels through the rock, And his eye has seen every precious treasure. ¹¹ He has bound up streams from their seeping, And the obscured secret he brings forth to light. ¹² But wisdom, where can it be found? And just where is the place of understanding? ¹³ Mortal man does not know its appraisal, And it is not being found in the land of the living. ¹⁴ The abyss says, 'It is not in me!' And the sea says, 'There is no such thing with me!' ¹⁵ Solid gold cannot be given instead of it, And silver cannot be weighed as its price. ¹⁶ It cannot be classed with certified gold of Ophir, Or with precious onyx and sapphire. ¹⁷ Neither gold or glass can be its appraisal, Or articles of glittering gold its exchange. ¹⁸ Coral and crystal, such is not even mentioned; Wisdom is more attractive than rubies. ¹⁹ Peridot of Ethiopia is not its appraisal; With pure certified gold it cannot be classed. ²⁰ From where then can wisdom come? And just where is the place of understanding? ²¹ It has been obscured from the eyes of every living thing, And from the flier of the heavens it has been concealed. ²² Abaddon and death say: 'With our ears we have heard report of it.' ²³ Elohim, He understands its way, And He, yea He Himself knows its place. ²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth; He sees everything under the heavens. ²⁵ When He granted weight to the wind And when He regulated the waters by measure, ²⁶ When He imposed a statutory limit on the rain And a pathway for the perceptible portents of thunderclaps, ²⁷ Then He saw it and rehearsed it; He prepared it and also fathomed it. ²⁸ And He said to mankind, Behold, the fear of Yahweh, it is wisdom, And to withdraw from evil is understanding."