The miners praise the wisdom of God
1 ① There is a silver mine
and a place where gold is refined.
2Iron is taken from earth
and copper is smelted from ore.
3Trying to conquer darkness,
piercing to the uttermost depths
in darkness for the gloomy stone,
4strange people cut a shaft
in places remote and long forgotten,
and there they labor, dangling and swaying.
5The earth which produces food
is plowed up as if by fire.
6Sapphires come from its rocks,
gold nuggets from its dust.
7No bird of prey knows the hidden path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it yet.
8No proud beast has trodden it,
no prowling lion has passed over it.
9Man attacks the flinty rocks,
upturns mountains by their roots.
10Tunneling through earth’s layers,
he sees all its treasures.
11He searches the source of rivers,
and brings hidden things to light.
12But where does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
13Man has known no way to wisdom;
it is not found in the land of the living.
14The deep says, “It is not in me”;
the sea says, “It is not with me.”
15It cannot be purchased with the finest gold,
nor can its price be weighed in silver.
16It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
nor with precious onyx or sapphire.
17It is beyond comparison with gold or crystal;
its worth is unmatched by any golden vessel.
18Not worth mentioning are coral and jasper;
the price of wisdom is above the biggest pearl.
19The topaz of Cush cannot equal it;
it cannot be valued in pure gold.
20Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
21It is hidden from the eyes of all the living,
concealed from the birds in the sky.
22Destruction and Death can only say,
“We have heard of it.”
23God alone knows the way to wisdom,
his eye enters its dwelling place.
24When he looked to the ends of the earth,
and watched everything under the heavens,
25when he gave the wind its force
and measured out the waters,
26when he set a bound for the rain
and a way for the thunder and lightning,
27then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he established it, knowing it in depth.
28And to humans he said:
The fear of the Lord is wisdom;
avoiding evil is understanding.
- Job 28,1 This poem marks an interval and a break after Job's discussion with his friends. Miners know how to look for hidden treasures inside hills: gold, silver and precious stones. But who will look for God's wisdom? We find something similar in Baruch 3:15-30.
